Easy Christmas cookies for kids
These easy christmas cookies for kids are the perfect festive bake. The Simple kid-friendly recipe is easy to make and fun to decorate so great for all the family.
This recipe for easy christmas cookies is perfect for kids. Whether you love to bake or are new to it but want to make something festive together you can’t go wrong with these.
What can be more festive than these Christmas sugar cookies? There’s something about Christmas that makes me think of baking and biscuits/cookies in particular. I’m not sure where the tradition comes from, perhaps it’s the long dark afternoons here in the UK, but it’s one I’m fully on board with. This recipe is just a simple biscuit recipe which is easy to make and makes great shapes for kids to decorate.
Kids are often more interested in cutting the shapes out and decorating them so you can make the dough in advance to save a bit of time. The recipe makes loads so why not get the family together to make a batch of these easy Christmas sugar cookues and gift them to your friends/family?
How can kids help make these easy Christmas cookies?
This cookie recipe is really simple to kids can help to measure out the ingredients and mix it all together. If you’re kids are more interested in rolling or cutting out the cookies, or decorating them, you can make the dough in advance to save a bit of time.
My kids have always loved rolling and cutting out cookies, and if yours love playing with playdough they should enjoy this too! If you have lots of different Christmas cookie cutters your kids will have a lot of fun choosing which shapes to use.
Finally, even if you have very little kids, they’ll enjoy getting to decorate the Christmas cookies. Young children might not manage to use a piping bag for very ornate decoration, but toddlers and preschoolers will enjoy adding icing and spinkles to the cookies (just expect a little mess!)
How do you decorate Christmas sugar cookies?
Decorating the sugar cookies can be as simple as you like. If you have very young children, you can get them to spoon on some icing (made from a simple mix of icing sugar and water), and then add some festive sprinkles.
To make the more detailed decoration, use a slightly thicker icing, We used some homemade piping bags out of freezer/zip lock bags. They are really simple to make and use, and the perfect size for small hands to decorate their cookies. It’s less messy than spooning the icing on to the biscuits and you can make snowflakes or any other more detailed decoration you like.
While we made these sugar cookies at Christmas and used our Christmas cutters and sprinkles, they are the perfect, easy biscuit for kids to make at any time of year. They lend themeselves to any shape cutter and are a great way of getting kids busy in the kitchen.
How do you store christmas cookies?
Once the icing has set, you can keep the cookies in an air tight container for a few days. You can also bag them up and give them as gifts at Chritmas time.
The icing wont set as hard as with a traditional royal icing so you need to be careful how you stack them. If it’s important the icing doesn’t get smudged follow the royal icing recipe we used in this recipe for our gingerbread house.
Other easy Christmas bakes for kids
Find all of our easy Christmas baking recipes or check out some of our favourite Christmas bakes for kids below.
Christmas tree brownies
Easy mince pie recipe for kids
Easy gingerbread recipe for kids
Lebkuchen
Easy snickerdoodle recipe
Chocolate crinkle cookies
Easy Christmas sugar cookies
Gingerbread house
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these Christmas sugar cookies:
Digital scales
Freestanding mixer
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Christmas cookie cutters
Baking tray
Wire rack
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Difficulty: Easy
Time: 30 minutes + 10 minutes baking
Serves: 2 dozen+ cookies
Ingredients
200g (7/8 cup) unsalted butter, softened
280g (1 ¼ cups) caster sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
400g (3 1/5 cups) plain/all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
½ tsp cream of tartar
To decorate
250g (1 1/2 cups) Icing/confectioners sugar
Food colouring
Sprinkles
how to make easy christmas cookies
Preheat the oven to 170C/160C Fan /325F and line several baking trays with baking paper.
Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract
Get your kids to help measure out the butter (200g), sugar (280g) and vanilla extract (1/4 tsp) and pop them in a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer. Cream them together until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the egg
Crack the egg in a small bowl and add to your mixture. Mix everything together. If you need to, use a spatula to scrape unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.
Add the dry ingredients
Measure the flour (400g), salt, cream of tartar (1/2 tsp) and add to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix everything together so it comes together into a ball of soft dough. You might need to use your hands to bring it together, kneading it a little so it’s not crumbling apart.
Make the Christmas sugar cookies
Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out your dough until it is about ½ a cm thick. Turn it 90 degrees after every roll so that you end up with a nice even doudgh and so that it doesn’t stick on your worksurface.
Use festive cutters to cut shapes out and place them on your baking trays.
Bake the Christmas sugar cookies
Pop the cookies in the oven for around 10 minutes. They’re ready when the edges are starting to turn a little golden. They should still be pale in the centre.
Leave them to cool on the baking trays for a minute or two before removing them and placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Decorate the Christmas sugar cookies
Get your kids to measure out the icing/confectioners sugar into a bowl. Add a teaspoon or two of water and mix it in. If you need to, add a little more water or icing sugar until it’s a nice consistency – runny enough to spread on the cookies but not so liquid that it’ll run straight off them.
Divide the icing into a few separate bowls, add your chosen colours and mix well.
Put the icing in a small freezer/zip lock bag. We found the easiest way to do this was to prop it up in cup and pour/scrape the icing in. Cut a tiny hole in one corner and pipe your designs.
If your kids find piping too difficult, you alternatively just spoon the icing on to the cookies. The end result will end up a little bit messier, but it’s much easier for young children.
Leave them aside for the icing to set and dry.
Serve and enjoy!
Christmas sugar cookies
Ingredients
- 200 g (7/8 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 280 g (1 ¼ cups) caster sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 400 g (3 1/5 cups) plain/all-purpose flour
- A pinch of salt
- ½ tsp cream of tartar
To decorate
- Icing sugar
- Food colouring
- Sprinkles
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 170C/160C Fan /325F and line several baking trays with baking paper.
Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract
- Measure out the butter, sugar and vanilla extract and pop them in a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer. Cream them together until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Add the egg
- Crack the egg in a small bowl and add to your mixture. Mix everything together. If you need to, use a spatula to scrape unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.
Add the dry ingredients
- Measure the flour, salt, cream of tartar and add to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix everything together so it comes together into a ball of soft dough.
Make the Christmas cookies
- Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out your dough until it is about ½ a cm thick.
- Use festive cutters to cut shapes out and place them on your baking trays.
Bake the Christmas cookies
- Pop the cookies in the oven for around 10 minutes. They’re ready when the edges are starting to turn a little golden. They should still be pale in the centre.
- Leave them to cool on the baking trays for a minute or two before removing them and placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Decorate the Christmas cookies
- In a few separate bowls, mix some icing sugar with a few tsp of water. Add your chosen colours and mix well. Put the icing in a small freezer/zip lock bag. Cut a tiny hole in one corner and pipe your designs. You could alternatively just spoon the icing on to the cookies, but it can be a bit messier. Leave to set.
Similar recipes
If you liked these Christmas sugar cookies, you’ll love our gingerbread house, our Christmas reindeer brownies as well as our othe fun festive bakes for kids.
I’ve linked this recipe up to #CookBlogShare hosted by Lost in Food.
These patterned biscuits are adorable, you all have the patience of saints to do such a marvellous job.
Thanks. I have to be in the right mood before attempting something like this, but the kids love it!