Easy Christmas Sugar Cookies decorating! Put the butter knife away! Here are 6 cookies that kids and adults can make using 3 basic frosting tips. Use these techniques to decorate ANY sugar cookie! We'll show how to make a gnome, stocking, tree, llama, Christmas light and sweater. This post contains affiliate links.
Recommended for ages 8+.
Check our our Valentine and Easter sugar cookie decorating tutorials! Looking to decorate gingerbread cookies? Try these tips!
Watch our step by step Cookie Decorating video!
My girls have graduated from decorating sugar cookies with butter knives and wanted to learn how to make "fancy" ones. I'm not a professional decorator or baker and have no idea how to flood sugar cookies with royal icing, but I do know a thing or two about buttercream so we went that route.
A friend shared with me that this is what she and her kids did too—-used frosting tips instead of a butter knife. She outlined the edges with a round tip and filled them in with lines. My girls and I grabbed some frosting tips and started decorating. We were hooked! This is the third year that they've used buttercream in frosting bags to decorate their Christmas sugar cookies and the results are always adorable! These would make great gifts, individually wrapped or on a cute plate!
ChristmaS Sugar Cookies Decorating For Kids: Tips and Tricks
This technique is simple and works for decorating ANY sugar cookie, no matter the shape! All you need is a round tip and a star tip! If you'd like to make Christmas light cookies REALLY fast you can also pick up a large 1A tip (which is a REALLY LARGE round tip).
Christmas Sugar Cookie and Frosting Recipe
The first thing you need to do is make up a batch of our no chill bakery-style sugar cookies and our favorite vanilla frosting. This sugar cookie recipe is simply the best for holiday cookies. The sugar cookie dough is flavored with vanilla extract and almond extract and tastes amazing!
I don't use royal icing for my sugar cookies. Buttercream works just fine and I prefer the flavor. Scroll to the bottom of the post for our recipes. You might notice that the frosting measurements have been doubled. When decorating with frosting tips I always make the extra frosting. It uses more frosting than just spreading the cookies with a butter knife. If you have leftover frosting you can store it in the fridge or freeze it.
This is my favorite food coloring right now. It makes such bright and pretty colors!
Favorite Christmas Cookie Cutters
I have a weakness for cookie cutters and have way too many. These are our FAVORITE Christmas shapes. You can find them on Amazon and at Target. We purchased some individually and others came in a multi-pack. I'll add links.
Best Frosting Tips for Kids
For these cookies we are using 3 different tips: 5 (or 7), 21, and 1A. These are standard tips that are easy to work with and are very forgiving.
For purchasing frosting tips I highly recommend going to Michael’s. Most tips can be purchased for $.99 and they always have coupons to make them even cheaper. I generally link to Amazon because everyone has access to Amazon, but if you’re close to a Michael’s Craft store, check their supply first.
Tip: Buy 2 of each kind of piping tip. This makes it easier to work with a variety of frosting bags filled with different colors!
- 5 and 7 are small round tips. They are very similar in size, so just use what you can find!
- 21 is a star tip.
- 1A is a large round tip.
Tips for using round tips: apply firm pressure for a smooth application.
Tips for using star tips: use short "bursts" instead of applying firm, steady pressure. You aren't making lines or covering large sections, you are making small stars bursts all over the cookie.
Other Useful Items for Cookie Decorating
- Disposable Frosting Bags: a disposable piping bag is convenient to have and you can just toss it after using.
- Couplers: couplers attach to the frosting bag and make it easy to switch out the frosting tip that you are using. With a coupler you can switch from a round tip to a star without filling a new bag with frosting!
How To Fill a Frosting Bag And Use Couplers
Let's get started!
Here is how to decorate 6 Sugar Cookies with Kids
Llama, ugly sweater, gnome, tree, bulb and stocking!
Watch our video for the BEST step by step tutorial and use the instructions below as a guide.
Llama Sugar Cookies
- Cover the entire cookie with "stars" of frosting.
- Use the small round tip to cover the feet, ears, and to make a small "face".
- Use the small round tip to add a scarf.
- Decorate with sprinkles for eyes and other details!
Ugly Sweater Sugar Cookies
- Cover the entire cookie with "stars" of frosting.
- Use a round tip to add any other details you'd like like a Grinch or a Christmas tree in the center.
- Decorate with sprinkles!
Gnome Sugar Cookies
- Outline the hat with a small round tip.
- Fill in hat area with small round tip.
- Cover beard area with star tip.
- Add a candy nose.
Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies
- Use a round tip to cover the trunk.
- Use a round tip to make zig zags of frosting starting at the bottom and layering each row on top of that.
- Add sprinkle "ornaments".
Here are 3 more ways to decorate Christmas tree sugar cookies using a star frosting tip!
Christmas Light Sugar Cookies
- Use a small round tip to cover the base of the bulb.
- Use the large 1A round tip to cover the bulb. To use a 1A tip, hold the tip CLOSE to the cookie (¼" away). Squeeze the frosting and drag it across the cookie for a smooth application.
Stocking Sugar Cookies
- Outline the stocking area with a round tip.
- Fill in the stocking area with a round tip.
- Cover the heal, toe and cuff with stars using a star tip.
Now that you've made these adorable cookies, use the same technique to decorate snowflakes, candy canes, gingerbread men, and more!
For best results store decorated sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or chilled in the refrigerator.
You can also bake cookies ahead of time and freeze undecorated cookies in a freezer bag until ready to decorate!
Best Christmas Sugar Cookies DECORATING Frosting Recipe
Christmas Sugar Cookie Decorating For Kids
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- ½ cup shortening
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoon almond extract
- 4 cup flour
- ½ cup corn starch
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
Frosting
- 1 cup butter softened
- 6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 6-8 Tablespoons milk
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, shortening, and sugar. Beat until fluffy. Turn the mixer down and add egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Add baking powder. Add flour and cornstarch and mix thoroughly. If the dough seems crumbly, keep mixing with a paddle attachment. It'll come together!*Start with 3 ½ cups of flour, and if the dough seems too soft, add the last ½ cup of flour.
- Lightly flour your working surface and shape dough into a large ball.
- No refrigeration necessary.
- Roll dough out to desired thickness (I usually do ¼-1/2") and cut into shapes. Add flour to dough if it feels too sticky but a nice soft dough is what you want. Carefully transfer cut out cookie shapes with a spatula to a baking sheet.
- Bake on baking sheets at 325 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will be soft. Let sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before carefully moving to a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
- Beat frosting ingredients together. Add more/less milk until desired consistency is achieved.
Decorating Cookies
- Fill decorator (we like disposible) bags with frosting and frosting tip.
- Follow the step by step guide above and WATCH our video to see how we used the tips #5 (or #7), #21, and #1A to decorated the cookies!
Stephanie Burns says
Can you freeze these? 🙂
Brandy says
They freeze beautifully! I prefer freezing before decorating then pulling them out when ready to frost, but you can freeze frosted cookies too.