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    Home » Recipes » Holiday Baking » Christmas Sugar Cookies

    Published: Nov 18, 2018 · Modified: Mar 1, 2021 by Jessica Robinson · This post may contain affiliate links

    Christmas Sugar Cookies

    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe
    homemade Christmas decorated sugar cookies Santa face
    vintage red trucks with Christmas trees in truck bed sugar cookies

    I love making Christmas cookies and giving them to our neighbors and friends as gifts!

    These adorable Christmas Decorated Sugar Cookies are made using simple ingredients and a cookie cutter. Use a simple roll out sugar cookie and royal icing.

    Santa face decorated sugar cookie with holly in his hat

    Don’t be intimidated about making royal icing and these festive sugar cookies! With each cookie you make you’ll get better and better!

    Sugar Cookie Dough

    The sugar cookie dough needs time to chill in the fridge to solidify the butter and make sure the cookies don’t spread too much while baking. But this sugar cookie dough is super simple to make with only a few ingredients!

    My favorite Santa cookie cutter is available on Amazon! Anne Clark makes all these adorable cookie cutters in Rutland, Vermont. Many of my cookie cutters come from The Sweet Designs.

    Bake rolled sugar cookies and let them cool completely. Below you can see the step images of the process of decorating each cookie.

    Royal Icing

    • Royal icing is made with only 3- ingredients. Powdered sugar, meringue powder and water.
    • This icing hardens, so you want to be sure and have a clean, damp kitchen towel over your bowl preventing it from drying out as you make sugar cookies.
    • Also be sure that nothing has any grease on it. Or your royal icing will not harden properly.

    Make royal icing and thin it out with egg whites in a separate bowl to get the consistency you want. Add drops of food coloring to the separate bowls.

    Santa faces sugar cookies with royal icing drying on sheet pan.

    Pipe royal icing around the outer edge of the cookie. Then flood each section with thinned out royal icing. Working in steps, pipe on one section at a time.

    The royal icing needs to dry thoroughly, about 12 hours before packaging your cookies up into baggies.

    Santa faces sugar cookies decorated with royal icing drying on sheet pan.

    Finally added details to each cookie. Once you get the royal icing down, you can let your creativity take over! Be sure and check out Sweetopia’s amazing video on how to decorate festive Christmas cookies! Be inspired this holiday season!

    Red truck with Christmas trees sugar cookies drying on baking tray.

    Aren’t these Vintage red trucks adorable? This is my favorite (and most popular design) that I make for the holidays! Get the cookie cutter HERE!

    One of my favorite cookies is the Truck with Christmas Tree cookie cutter. There are several great options! Truck with Tree and this one Truck with Christmas Tree. You really can’t go wrong with either one of these!

    Decorated Sugar cookies vintage red trucks with Christmas tree in the back of the truck bed

    Did you make one of my recipes? Please take a moment to leave a star rating. Also, if you are on Pinterest, please feel free to leave a comment there and a photo if you have one! Follow A Farmgirl’s Kitchen on FACEBOOK and PINTEREST and subscribe my mailing list for ALL the latest recipes!

    5 from 11 votes
    Decorated Santa Sugar Cookies with royal icing
    Print

    Christmas Decorated Sugar Cookies

    Prep Time15 mins
    Cook Time8 mins
    Total Time23 mins
    Make these adorable Heart Decorated Sugar Cookies using simple ingredients and a cookie cutter. The best rolled sugar cookies recipe.
    Course: Crafts, Dessert
    Cuisine: American, Holiday Baking
    Servings: 24 cookies
    Calories: 355kcal
    Author: Jessica Robinson

    Equipment

    • Meringue Powder
    • Rubber Spatula
    • KitchenAid Pro Line Series (7-Quart bowl)

    Ingredients

    Decorated Sugar Cookies

    • 1 ½ cups butter softened
    • 2 cups granulated sugar
    • 4 large eggs room temperature
    • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
    • ½ teaspoon almond extract
    • 5 cups all-purpose flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 1 teaspoon salt

    Royal Icing

    • 4 cups powdered sugar
    • 3 tablespoons meringue powder
    • 5 tablespoons water

    Instructions

    Decorated Sugar Cookies

    • In a large mixing bowl, using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.
    • Beat in the eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined thoroughly. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally.
    • Place the cookie dough into a large Ziploc bag and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight.
    • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to about ½-inch thick. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Place the cookies carefully onto parchment lined half sheet pans, leaving a little space for them to expand.
    • Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Cool completely before decorating.

    Royal Icing

    • In a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer, beat all ingredients at medium speed until icing forms peaks and loses its sheen, 7-10 minutes.
    • If peaks are not forming, increase the mixer speed and continue to beat. To prevent drying, cover the bowl with a damp cloth while working with icing.

    Video

    Recipe Notes

    Making Royal Icing:
    For royal icing you need to make certain your mixing bowl and spatula are clean and free of any grease. If not, the icing will not set correctly.
    To thin out royal icing, beat egg whites with a few teaspoons of water. Gradually add to your individual bowls of icing to get different consistencies of icing. Be sure and cover icing bowls with damp cloths or it will harden!
    This is the meringue powder I prefer.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 355kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Cholesterol: 66mg | Sodium: 220mg | Potassium: 84mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 36g | Vitamin A: 406IU | Calcium: 27mg | Iron: 1mg
    Tried this Recipe? Pin it for Later!Mention @AFarmgirlsKitchen or tag #afarmgirlskitchen!

    Disclosure: As an Affiliate Marketer, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click a product affiliate link on A Farmgirl’s Kitchen and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you!  I own every cooking product I recommend and love how they perform.

    Previous Post: « Twice Baked Potatoes
    Next Post: Cream Puffs with Pastry Cream »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Silvia says

      December 04, 2018 at 10:08 pm

      5 stars
      These Santa cookies are absolutely adorable! Thanks so much for including the step by step visual and the video!! so helpful

      Reply
      • Jessica Robinson says

        December 06, 2018 at 4:55 pm

        They are such a great cookie and make a wonderful holiday gift! Thanks for visiting Silvia!

        Reply
    2. Stephanie | Adventures in Aussieland says

      September 21, 2018 at 8:34 am

      These are absolutely adorable. Making Christmas cookies have always been a big tradition in my family. I’ve been slacking since I moved to Australia though.

      Reply
    3. Brittany says

      September 21, 2018 at 3:24 am

      How cute are these! These look so fun to make. Kids would love to make them. Saving this for later!!

      Reply
    4. Kiwi says

      September 20, 2018 at 3:22 pm

      We already talking about Christmas lol! wEll these are some really cute Santa cookies!

      Reply
    5. London Mumma says

      September 20, 2018 at 12:52 pm

      These are the cutest Christmas cookies, great to make with the kids and eat too.

      Reply
    6. blair villanueva says

      September 20, 2018 at 6:47 am

      5 stars
      OMG these are so extra Santa’s cookies! OMG Christmas is fast approaching, we need to plan ahead.

      Reply
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    Meals are meant to be shared around the dinner table. My recipes are farm-inspired with a modern twist for active families. All of my recipes use simple and readily available ingredients. Read more →

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