Take a break from the Christmas madness to make Christmas Cookies! These sugar cookies are classic vanilla biscuits that are made for cutting out shapes because they hold their shape perfectly when baked.
NO CHILL time, make them soft OR crispy. Ice them my EASY way, dip in chocolate, dust with icing sugar or serve them plain!
Christmas Cookies
What I call “Christmas Cookies” are simply vanilla biscuits cut out in Christmas shapes and iced with colourful festive frosting. They taste like shortbread cookies, but not quite as buttery or crumbly. They are as classic as vanilla biscuits can be.
This particular biscuit recipe is made for cutting out shapes – in this case, Christmas shapes. Most cookies spread snd puff up so they bear little resemblance to the shape you expected!
But these hold their shape perfectly – as you can see by the sharp ridges and corners in the photo below.
What you need for Christmas Cookies
The nice thing about these Christmas Cookies is that they’re made with pantry staples – so there’s no need to add to your ever growing Christmas grocery shopping list!!!
How to make Christmas Cookies
Unlike most cookie doughs suitable for cutting out shape, there’s no chill time required for this recipe. Ain’t nobody got time for chilling during Christmas madness – right??!
Bonus: the dough is easy to handle and can be scrunched up and rolled up again over and over until you’ve used up every scrap.
Because these are sweet vanilla biscuits, they are flavoured enough and sweet enough to serve plain. But if you are inclined to ice them, pop over to my Icing for Christmas Cookies (PS I also share my quick ‘n easy way to ice them!)
So. Many. Cookies.
A sight that will catapult anyone into serious Christmas spirit!!
Make these for Santa, your family, or (if you’re really feeling the holiday spirit) maybe even to gift to someone.
And don’t worry. This is a big batch recipe. Nibble away, no one will miss one or two or five!! 😉 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Christmas Cookies (Vanilla Biscuits / Sugar Cookies)
Ingredients
- 225g / 1 cup unsalted butter , softened (or use salted, skip salt)
- 1 cup caster/superfine sugar (granulated/ordinary white sugar ok too)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg (55-60g / 1.9-2oz)
- 3 cups flour , plain / all purpose
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
Icing for Sugar Cookies
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy (1 minute on speed 5)
- Add egg and vanilla, beat until completely combined.
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Start mixing slowly, then beat until the flour is incorporated – it will be clumpy.
- Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Pat together then cut in half, then shape into 2 discs.
- Roll out to 0.3cm / 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 0.6cm / 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies), sprinkling with flour under and over the dough so it doesn't stick.
- Use cookie cutters to press out shapes and use a knife or spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheets. (Keep dough that doesn’t fit in the oven in the fridge).
- Bake for 10 minutes, swapping trays halfway (Note 2), until the surface is pale golden and the edges are just beginning to turn light golden.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on trays (they will finish cooking on the trays).
Decorating options:
- Icing – see Icing for Christmas Cookies recipe.
- Melt chocolate then dip the surface into chocolate.
- Dot with icing sugar and decorated with silver balls
- Dust with icing sugar
- Serve plain! They are sweet vanilla biscuits so they are wonderful eaten just as they are!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published 2019. Reviewed and refreshed as needed every year or so. No change to recipe, it’s a classic!
Life of Dozer
When Dozer got his very own personalised Christmas cookie!!
Super tasty and easy to make. But next time I’ll add less sugar, because it was too sweet for me
This recipe saved me this Christmas! I made a recipe last night that had to be chilled and the dough would not work in the morning. I needed something to whip up for for my son to be able to decorate and this recipe was perfect! I also like how the cookies are not too sweet and after adding icing the sweetness was nicely balanced out.
it’s the best way to make Christmas cookies. ( it’s easy!)
These are absolutely delicious and such a crowd pleaser!
In terms of the q’s about freezability – I froze my iced cookies (once they’d set) in layers (with baking paper in-between them) in an airtight container. I put a layer of foil over the very top to ‘tuck them in’ before putting the lid on. They froze beautifully and when needed, defrosted quickly on the kitchen bench within a few hours. Quality was great 👍🍪🩷
First time making these cookies, making them into Christmas trees. Easy to make and delicious. Can’t wait to make them again. Thank you Nagi
Thank you, these cookies were easy to make with a toddler …the dough was quite easy to manage while trying to get the cookie shapes done! Used self raising flour as that was the only flour I had in the pantry…so didn’t add baking powder and slightly reduced the quantity…we had lots fun ☺️
this recipe really worked out for me
I use your website for all of my recipes! These turned out absolutely amazing!! Two days ago i made your gingerbread, this is the best channel/website ever! Thanks Nagi!
I loved making these cookies! So easy to make. I don’t know where I went wrong but my cookies expanded in the oven. I suspect because it was a really hot day when I was making them, making it hard to roll the dough thin enough but they went down a treat! Thanks Nagi!
This is probably one of the easiest Xmas cookies recipes I have ever used. Easy to handle and delicious. I didn’t decorate them but used an embossed rolling pin and round cookie cutter which worked perfectly. Thanks Nagi
This is my go to recipe, thanks Nagi!
Just wondering if anyone has had any luck adding cocoa powder and making them look darker – I’m trying a decorating thing 😅
Can I freeze the left over dough? Or if refrigerating, how long would you suggest? I only used half the dough for now. Thanks.
Perfection! My go to recipe for the last years we always get so many compliments on how great they taste! My kids and I have used for Christmas, Easter and even Valentine’s Day always a big hit!
I hate making sugar cookies and this was the easiest recipe to follow! I love that you don’t have to refrigerate the dough and when using cookies cutters the cookies came out sharp!
These turned out amazing and tasty!
Perfect texture and best dough to get the perfect thickness! Will be using this recipe often!
Hi can this dough be frozen for later use? as I plan on baking a large batch. and if so how would i go about baking them? Thank you
I have frozen the dough and was great when frozen and cooked
Is there a way to substitute the egg? Has anyone tried it?
I guess swapping butter with a dairy free option will work too?
Thanks
By far the best Christmas cookie recipe I’ve ever tried!
I am not a baker. Sugar cookies are not my go to. I wanted to make decorated cookies to impress my family for Thanksgiving. I did a practice run this weekend. Making the dough was easy and straightforward. The cookies were a big hit. I knew your recipe would blow it out of the park. I love Dozer and I am a big fan! I have both of your cookbooks. 🦃
can you make one for kids to independently make? maybe without the beater
My mixer broke, and I was able to make these cookies with just a wooden spoon. You want the butter to be quite soft (otherwise the kids will struggle to squish it with the spoon) but not melted (or cookies will spread)