40 Christmas Cookies That Are Delicious And Easy To Make

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Christmas is not far away, and as a passionate baker, it’s time to gear that Christmas-themed chef’s hat because I have got more than 30 Christmas cookie ideas in my sleeves for you to try.

These Christmas Cookies are undoubtedly delicious, but they are also creatively inspired by the festive season.

Let’s be honest, Christmas is all about gifts, sweet family get-togethers, and… guess what? DESSERTS!

People say, “A way to man’s heart is through his stomach.” I’d like to upgrade that quote, “A way to anyone’s heart is through desserts— warm, delectable, heavenly DESSERT”

So, whether you are expecting a party, a cozy Christmas Family dinner, an exchange of gifts, baking for kids, or for yourself; these Christmas Cookies are your delightful answer for the joyous festival.

Each recipe will give you ‘creativity with taste.’ A better version of beauty with brains. And you don’t have to be an adept baker either; we have some very easy but still beautiful Christmas-inspired cookie recipes for you. Let’s get started, shall we?

Before we start, don’t forget to send these cute Merry Christmas Wishes To Your Loved Ones!

To Christmas and To 30+ Delicious and Easy Christmas Cookies! Cheers!

1. Christmas Sugar Cookies

My first recipe is, of course, the easiest one of all! When entertaining a huge party, you will need easy Christmas cookie recipes to ensure nobody goes home without a stomach full of happy cookies.

This is why we’ll start with Christmas sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are easy because they need much fewer ingredients or techniques. Plus, they provide a flat surface to decorate as your heart desires.

They are also great for cut-out Christmas cookies, and we all know, our Christmas cookie batch is incomplete without stocking-shaped, christmas-tree shaped, candy cane-shaped, gingerbread-shaped, etc., cookies!

We’ll be making royal icing for our Christmas decorations ahead!

Tools Required:

• Christmas Cookie Cutters: Get as many Christmas-inspired cutters as you can get! You want variety, trust me!
• Electric mixer
• Baking paper and parchment paper
• Rolling pin
• Squeeze bottles/piping bags.

Ingredients required for the Sugar Cookie Dough:

• 281 grams of all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 170 gms unsalted butter
• 150 gms of granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.

Sugar and butter become the base of your dough. All-purpose flour and egg provide structure. Baking powder/soda softens and alleviates the cookies, vanilla extract provides flavors.

Ingredients For Royal Icing

• Three egg whites.
• 450 grams of confectioner’s sugar.
• Vanilla extract
• Food colors.

If you have a bigger batch to make, double the quantity.

Instructions For Baking The Cookies

You first need to prepare the dough!

1.  Take a bowl and mix all dry ingredients together: all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.

2.  In another bowl, beat sugar and butter together until smooth and creamy (2 minutes). Remember, the unsalted butter should be at room temperature (18℃). It should dip when pressed with a finger, but it shouldn’t be greasy or melting.

3.  Once soft and smooth, add one large egg and vanilla extract to the cream. Beat again for one minute at high speed.

4.  Everything should be mixed properly.

5.  Now, add the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients together. You can use a hand if you’d.

6.  The dough should be soft but not sticky. If it’s sticky, add one more tablespoon of all-purpose flour.

7.  Split your dough into two halves. Place them on lightly floured parchment paper.

8.  Please remember: Always flatten the dough on a floured parchment before to avoid sticky bases.

9.  Now, before you freeze the dough, use a floured rolling pin to flatten it into ¼-inch thick sheets. It’s very difficult to roll a dough once it’s frozen. So, always flatten it before you freeze.

10.  Now, freeze them for 2 hours or up to 2 days. If your freezer doesn’t have enough space, simply flour the rolled-up dough a little on top, add a baking sheet in between, and stack them. Cover them with an aluminum foil or plastic wrap.

11.  Here comes the best part: Baking! Preheat your oven to 370℉. Now, take your rolled-out dough outside and separate them on different baking sheets and parchment paper.

12.  Bring out your cookie cutters, and start cutting.

13.  Now, you don’t want to throw the scraps away. Re-roll them and cut them again. Scraps actually offer you quite a lot of cookies.

14.  Once cut, place the cookies 3 inches apart on a baking sheet in a baking tray. If your oven gets hot easily, place ⅔ baking sheets.

15.  Bake until the edges are slightly brown, in fact, just beige. This will take about 11-12 minutes, more or less depending on your oven. So, continue checking on your cookies. You don’t want to burn the base.

16.  Allow the cookies to cool down for five minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack.

Royal Icing Recipe & Steps

1.  You will need to separate egg yolks from egg whites. Transfer every egg white to the mixer.

2.  Beat it for a minute.

3.  Sift confectioner’s sugar to avoid lumps.

4.  Now, add one cup of confectioner’s sugar at a time and allow them to mix properly.

5.  Don’t dump all the sugar at once. Take breaks between transferring it to the electric mixer.

6.  Once all the sugar is transferred, scrape it off the walls of the ball and allow it to mix.

7.  Don’t forget to add vanilla extract.

8.  You want a stiff and shiny peak as the final result. So, whisk until you get to that consistency. If it drips, whisk again.

9.  Once you attain the stiff peak, cover it with an air-tight lid. If it stays in the air, it will dry out fast!

10.  Now, you want two different consistencies: One for lining the cookies and the other for filling. The stiff peak consistency is perfect for outlining. However, you will need a little less thick batter to fill the cookie.

Separate your royal icing in different piping bags and cups. You need batches to create different colored royal icing.

Most Christmas colors include white, green, red, a little black, and orange. Remember, you need two different consistencies (stiff peak and a little less thick) for all colors you will be using. Without an outline, your spread will be a mess.

Use a 2, 3, or 4-size round nozzle in a piping bag instead of using just any random poly bag if you are a novice in decoration. Nozzle and piping bag will offer you that much-needed stability.

To fill the cookies, you can use a squeeze bottle!

Related Article: How To Enjoy Christmas With Your Family!?

2. Christmas Snowman & Winter Cookies Recipe!

If you are bored of red, green, and white icing, here’s a pretty substitute: White and sky-blue icing on winter cookies.

Winter cookies include snowflakes, skates, winter gloves, snowmen, cute beanies, and winter boots!

How to make sky-blue icing? You want to start with very little color, like ¼ of the drop. Food colors are usually very dark and highly pigmented.

3. Winter Beanie-Wearing Penguin Christmas Cookies

Who said Christmas’s only about Christmas trees and snowmen cut-out cookies, here’s to experimenting with something new and cute!

Beanie-wearing Penguins!

If you have kids at home, they would love this edition in your Cookie basket!

You will need black, cream-white, and orange royal icing to bring these penguin cookies to life. A fun twist would be to add real beanies to these cuties!

Why are penguins perfect for Christmas? Well, penguins are the winter birds!

4. Winter Sheep Christmas Cookie

Another cute addition to your cute and funny Christmas cookies would be these glazed sheep cookies.

Everyone who’s into baking and decoration will know just how difficult and time-consuming royal icing truly is! A better substitute is sugar cookie glaze. Cookie glaze is a lot easier than royal icing. You don’t have to create two separate consistencies for cookie glaze. It can be used to outline your cookies and fill them up.

Sugar Cookie Glaze recipe

You don’t need many ingredients for this recipe. Hear me out, it tastes better than royal icing!

Ingredients

• Confectioner’s sugar (120 gms/1 cup)
• A tablespoon of milk or any milk alternative
• 2 teaspoons of corn syrup: This is how you get that glaze translucent effect.
• Almond extract/lemon extract: Instead of choosing clear vanilla extract, almond or lemon extract would be a better choice. Vanilla extract tends to make extremely white frosting and it doesn’t work if you want that shiny/milky glaze.
• Food color (Optional)

Instructions

• Sift confectioner’s sugar in a bowl to avoid lumps.
• Add milk, corn syrup, and almond extract.
• Mix everything. You need a drippy consistency that takes a few minutes to settle.
• It’s done!

Sheep Christmas Cookie Decoration

• Use the same sugar Christmas cookie recipe to prepare the dough.
• Use a Sheep Christmas cookie cutter to create the shape.
• Add small and round sprinkles to create the 3D wool effect.
• Bake using the same steps mentioned above.
• Fill the glaze in piping bags.
• Leave oval space for the sheep’s face. That should be filled using white royal icing.
• First, outline and then fill it up.
• Use light gray royal icing for sheep’s ears and black food color to dot out their eyes and nose.

5. 3D buttercream Christmas Tree Cookies

Want to try something more unique and creative? How about 3D Christmas trees? For this one, you will need small and different sized round cookie cutters so you can create a tier of cookies staked large to small.

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe

For the base, you will need a brown cookie (resembling the trunk of the tree) You can either make chocolate sugar cookies for this base or simply dip Christmas sugar cookies in melted chocolate and let dry.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup granulated sugar for rolling

Instructions:

1.  Prep your dry ingredients: In a bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

2.  Cream the butter and sugar: In a large bowl, beat together the softened butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.

3.  Add the wet ingredients: Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

4.  Combine wet and dry: Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined.

5.  Shape the cookies: Roll the dough into small balls about an inch in diameter and coat them in granulated sugar.

6.  Bake the cookies: Place the sugar-coated balls on a baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between each. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 8-10 minutes, or until set.

7.  Cool completely: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bake different sized (big to small) sugar cookies so you can stake them on one another to create a tree-like 3D shape.

The base should be big compared to the following layers. You will need creamy-white and green buttercream to bring these 3D cookies to life.

There are two ways to makes these 3D Christmas tree Cookies:

• You stake round sugar cookies (bigger to smaller) using your favorite buttercream in between all layers.
• Or, you create a beautiful tree using a big piping nozzle on a big sugar cookie base. This one is definitely faster if you know how to use and conduct a nozzle/cake frosting design.

Because it’s Christmas, you should try the Swiss Meringue buttercream, especially if your tree is going to be built only using buttercream (The second style)

If you are short on time, and don’t mind the extra sweetness, American buttercream works just fine!

Recipe For Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Why Swiss Meringue buttercream?

• For starters, it has a taste that’s not overly sweet or too much!
• This frosting provides enough stability for the trees to stay stable.
• The texture is to die for!
• Your guests and family members would be stunned after their usual take of American buttercream. This is too soft, too rich, too intense compared to your usual buttercream.

You can also substitute this Swiss Meringue buttercream with french frosting, Italian frosting, german frosting.

(Remember, german and Swiss frosting can be unstable in a warmer room temperature.

Ingredients

• 5 large egg whites
• 300 gm of granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 450 grams of unsalted butter.
• 1-2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or other flavorings)

Reduce the quantity to half if you don’t want this big of a buttercream batch. But, trust me, you will love it, and would love to use it in many Christmas cookie recipes.

Important note: The right temperature is very crucial when it comes to baking or creating any kind of frosting. It’s best if you keep a thermometer with you if you are new to baking and buttercreams.

Instructions:

• In a bowl, add 5 egg whites and sugar. It’s best to transfer one egg white at a time to avoid transferring or breaking egg yolk. You don’t want one percentage of egg yolk when making meringue.
• Stir all ingredients together.
• Make a double boiler: Remember, the bowl should not touch the boiling water otherwise your egg white will turn into scrambled eggs. You only need to let the steam do its work!
• Place a saucepan with about an inch of water over medium heat. Once simmering, place the bowl with egg whites over the saucepan, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
• Cook the egg whites: Constantly whisk the egg white mixture until it reaches 160°F (71°C) on a candy thermometer or until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth.
• Whip the meringue: Transfer the bowl to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until the meringue is cool, glossy, and stiff peaks form. This can take 10-15 minutes.
• You need to bring the temperature down to 70-80. Otherwise, the room-temperature butter will ruin the consistency of your meringue.
• The butter sticks should dent at touch but they shouldn’t be too greasy or gooey.
• Cut butter into small pieces and put them in one by one. You don’t want to dump them all together, that will ruin the recipe. Have patience.
• Add butter gradually: Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and gradually add the softened butter, one cube at a time, allowing each addition to incorporate before adding the next.
• Trust the process: Here you will need a lot of faith because your meringue will go gooey and melty before it thickens again. Have faith!
• Incorporate flavoring: Once all the butter is incorporated, add vanilla extract (or other desired flavorings) and beat until smooth.
• Add green color, or whichever color you’d like for the trees!

Your Swiss meringue buttercream is ready to use! It’s best to use it immediately, but it can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Bring it to room temperature before using.

Tips:

• Make sure your bowl and beaters are clean and grease-free for the egg whites to whip properly.
• Don’t overbeat the meringue, as it can become too dry.
• If the buttercream becomes too thin, refrigerate it for a short time to firm up.

3D Christmas Tree Decoration

3D Christmas Tree using Christmas sugar cookies stacked one upon another (Biggers to smaller circles)

• Place a big chocolate coated cookie at the base.
• Squeeze a good amount of Swiss meringue buttercream.
• Layer with a shorter sugar cookie
• Another squeeze of Swiss Meringue buttercream.
• Another shorter sugar cookie.
• Repeat the layers until you get a peak.
• You place a star on top or a big chocolate ball.
• If you like, you can also cover the whole tree with green swiss meringue buttercream and smoothen it out.
• Decorate the tree with your favorite sprinklers.

3D Christmas Tree Only Using Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Because Swiss Meringue buttercream is so delicious, you can eat it alone!

• Fill Piping bags with colored buttercream.
• You can make different shades of green for these cookies as well!
• Place a chocolate/sugar cookie as your base.
• Remember, you will need cake decorating nozzles for this 3D Christmas tree.
• Bring your cake decoration skills to life, and squeeze out the tree.
• Add Sprinklers of your choice.

6. Lemon Christmas Cookies

Not the best at decorating? Here’s a simple idea: Lemon Christmas cookies!

You simply bake some good old fashioned sugar cookies using a fluted cookie cutter. Glaze the wrath-shaped cookie completely. Add red and pearl white sprinkles, and small leaves to finish the look.

Find the Lemon Christmas Cookie Recipe here!

7. Reindeer Macarons.

Why just cookies when we can make meringue-based sandwich cookies.

Related Article: Best Christmas Gift ideas For Those You Care About along with these cookies!

Remember the Meringue we prepared for swiss buttercream? You will need the same meringue for these sandwich cookies. These cookies will be a soft and airy addition to your Christmas Cookie batch!

Find the Reindeer Meringue recipe here.

8. Christmas Pinwheel Cookie Recipe

These cookies are made using the same sugar cookie dough we prepared earlier. Luckily, Christmas pinwheel cookies save us the hassle of using cutters. Instead, you split the batch in three parts. Color them red, green, and white (You can skip adding white color to the third batch if you’d like).

• Flatten the dough into ¼ inch thick sheets on three different parchment papers using a rolling pin.
• Let green be your base dough, layered with the plain (white) dough, and red to the top-most layer.
• You want to roll all three layers together horizontally. Keep the spiral tight!
• Remove the access and irregular dough from front and back.
• To decorate the dough, add red, green, white sprinkles in a flat baking tray.
• Smear the rolled dough with watered-down corn starch, and roll it on the baking tray to allow the sprinkles to coat the roll wholly.
• Cut them vertically to get ½ inch thick cookies.
• Reheat the oven at 359℉.
• Place them in the baking tray, and bake for 13-15 minutes.

The result would be crispy pinwheel cookies on the outside and tender soft inside.

9. Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

Want cookies that are rich and chewy, but also offer the goodness of melted chocolate ganache? Here’s something chocolatey to make your Christmas party an instant hit!

As the name suggests, you add a dip to all the cookies and fill it with thick chocolate ganache! Every bite becomes a delectable delight!

Add red, green and white sprinkles to give that Christmas spark.

Find the Chocolate Thumbnail Recipe here

10. Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

Here’s to the Winter snow and Christmas chill: Chocolate Crinkle cookies!

Chocolate Crinkle cookies truly like they are bestowed with heavenly snow. They are crispy on the outside and almost fudgy and chewable on the inside like a brownie.

If you are not a fan of extremely sweet cookies, these will bring the bittersweet goodness of chocolate, balancing the chocolate.

Find the Chocolate Crinkle Cookie Recipe Here!

11. Simple Cut-out Christmas Cookies

Don’t have the time to decorate your cookies? Simply outline them!

Find the Gingerbread Recipe here!

Related Article: How To Save Money This Christmas!?

12. Gluten-free Christmas Cookies— Peanut Butter Cookies

Who says you cannot enjoy Christmas Dessert gluten-free? You absolutely can!

Psst! The key ingredient is oat flour! They are also vegan Christmas Cookies thanks to flax eggs.

Find this Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Christmas Cookie Recipe Here.

13. Oreo Christmas Cookies

Short on time? Cannot invest time in baking? Well, here’s an easy escape. Dipping Oreo biscuits in white chocolate/white glaze, and finishing the look with Christmas trees made using royal icing.

Find the recipe for Oreo Christmas Cookies here!

14. Ugly Christmas Sweater cookies

Ugly Christmas Sweater Cookies are a festive and fun twist on the classic sugar cookie.

15. Christmas Butter Cookies

Christmas butter biscuits are so easy to make yet so rich and fluffy at bite! Every bite feels so full and delicious. Plus, you don’t need any out of the box ingredients.

Bake the butter cookies, drip them in chocolate and garnish them with red, white, and green sprinkles.

Find The Christmas Butter Cookies Recipe Here

16. Christmas Monster Cookies

Christmas Monster Cookies are a festive twist on the classic, indulgent treat. These cookies are packed with chewy oats, crunchy peanut butter, and a medley of sweet and salty delights.

The addition of vibrant red and green M&Ms adds a playful Christmas holiday touch.
Find the Christmas Monster Cookies Recipe Here.

17. Santa Claus Macarons

If you are already making Reindeer macarons, here’s another fun Christmas sandwich cookie idea: Santa Claus Macarons.

The recipe is quite similar, but our base color would be red. Black royal icing would help you create Santa Claus’s belt and buttons.

18. Grinch Cookies But With Hearts

Christmas is incomplete without our MOODY Grinch! SO, here’s to crumbly (ice cream green) cookies with a heart!

19. Italian Almond Christmas Cookies— Pasticcini Alle Mandorle

Want to try an Italian delicacy? Here’s your chance to bake rich almond Christmas cookies. Given the name, almond is the dominant flavor in these cookies. But what wins the cake for me is their soft, delicate, and melt-in-mouth texture.

You can also garnish them with sugar dust to enhance the subtle sweet flavors.

Find the Almond Christmas Cookies Recipe Here.

20. Candy Cane Cookies— Christmas Ornament Cookies

These cookies may seem complicated but are pretty easy to bake. You need the same sugar cookie dough base. Split the dough into two halves. Add red color to one of the dough. Roll them together and bake!

Find the complete recipe for Candy Cane Cookies Recipe here.

21. Christmas Ornament Cookies

Christmas can never be complete without Christmas ornaments. You have probably hung them on your tree. Now, it’s time to bake them! Get those Christmas tree cookie cutters, Santa cookie cutters, gift cookie cutters, etc.

This includes candy canes, fairy lights on snow walls, gingerbread, bells, glittery Christmas balls, snowflakes, etc. Christmas Ornament cookies are perfect Christmas Cookie gifts as well.

22. Cuccidati— Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe

Cuccidati are special Italian cookies that come from Sicily. They’re like fancy fig cookies, much better than the ones you can buy in the store. Think of them as a delicious treat filled with figs, nuts, and sometimes other yummy things. They’re usually shaped like little curved cookies.

If anybody asks, tell them it’s an upgraded version of Fig Newton!

Find the Cuccidati (Italian Christmas Cookies Recipe) Here.

23. Six Pretty Christmas Biscuit Decorating Ideas

Are you an artist at heart? Skip baking, get yourself different-shaped Christmas biscuits, and spend the day decorating to your heart’s content.

24. Old-fashioned Christmas Cookies— Jim Jam Twist.

We all loved jim-jams as kids. It’s time to relive those days of childhood, especially if you have kids at home.

Find the Old-fashioned Jim-Jam Cookie Recipe Here!

25. Peppermint Meltaway Cookies

We cannot skip peppermint flavor this Christmas season either! Here’s an easy Christmas Cookies with Few Ingredients.

Find these peppermint meltaway cookies recipe here!

26. Gluten-free Orange Shortbread Cookie Sticks

Not everything needs to be red or green this Christmas season, here’s my current favorite Christmas cookie recipe: Shortbread cookie sticks. They are so simple to bake, yet so delicious and so beautiful.

Image Credit: TheLoopyWhisk

If you want to have more Christmas vibes, switch to pink or white meltables instead of chocolate.

Find this Shortbread Cookie Stick Here.

27. Funfetti Shortbread Bites

Here’s an easy Christmas recipe with few ingredients: Funfetti Shortbread bites that can entertain quite a crowd. You will need a big batch of these shortbread bites because they do go out of stock early.

Find these Easy Funfetti Shortbread Bites here.

28. Christmas Cookies Platter

Skip the basic plates and switch these regal silver Christmas cookies platters.

29. Christmas Cookies Platters

If you have a party to entertain, one small platter wouldn’t help you. Here’s a substitute: Stair Platter!

30. Tiered Christmas Cookies Platter

A Christmas Cookies table arrangement is incomplete without fruits. Don’t forget to coordinate your Christmas Cookie Platters with fruits.

31. Bonus: Copycat Pirouette Cookies

These caramel brown cylinders filled with melted chocolate will bring a sweet nostalgia home. I have been a fan of these crispy pirouette cookies since I was a kid. The crispy exterior and melty insides would forever be an iconic combination.

Find these Copycat Pirouette Cookie Recipe here.

32. Christmas Choco Chip Cookies

Are your kids a fan of choco chips? Then, you shouldn’t miss this recipe! It offers you crispy exterior, mouthful center, and melted choco chips!

 

Find this delicious Christmas Choco Chip Cookies Recipe Here!

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