Christmas Cutout Cookies

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What happens when you take sweet sugar cookies, cut the dough using Christmas cookie cutters, and add red and green icing? You get Christmas cutout cookies, a must-make cookie recipe these holidays.

Christmas cut out cookies

Throughout my childhood, this was our one must-have sugar cookie recipe for cookie decorating. Mama would make a huge batch so we all had plenty to decorate. She cut them into shapes of trees, stars, and reindeer and each of us got our own platter full. She mixed up red, green, and yellow icing and always had plenty of sprinkles to go on top. They will be “wet” right after icing and decorating but if you wait an hour or so they will dry enough to be stacked in a cookie jar.

Our Christmas cutout cookies start with a simple sugar cookie recipe. I bet you already have most of the ingredients at home right now: milk, shortening, baking powder, vanilla extract, salt, sugar, flour, and eggs. We just need to combine the wet ingredients, combine the dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl, and then mix them both together. Once the dough has chilled for at least an hour, it’s time to roll it out and put our Christmas cookie cutters to the test!

The sugar cookies bake for less than 10 minutes. Then we have to wait just a little bit longer before we get to the fun part: Christmas decorations! Make as many different icing flavors as you like, go wild on the Christmas sprinkles, and most importantly, have fun decorating your Christmas cutout cookies.

My best holiday memories as a child were decorating these cookies and all of the other little arts and crafts that Mama did with us to help make the house festive. It seemed we were always busy, up to something and having a wonderful time together. So I hope you make a new holiday tradition in your house with these Christmas cutout cookies. Santa will love them.

If you want to make some other delicious Christmas desserts check out some of my other recipes like Bon Bons With CoconutHomemade Fudge With VariationsSnowman Oreo BallsCream Cheese Mints, and Spritz Cookies.

What You’ll Need to Make Christmas Cut Out Cookies:

ingredients for Christmas cut out cookies

  • Milk
  • Vegetable shortening
  • Baking powder
  • Vanilla extract
  • Salt
  • Granulated sugar
  • All-purpose flour
  • Eggs

Helpful Kitchen Tools

How to Make Christmas Cutout Cookies

add together dough ingredients in a bowl

Prep the cookie dough

Combine sugar, shortening, milk, and vanilla in a mixing bowl.

cream and then add egg

Cream together. Add eggs and mix well.

cookie dough post egg-add

The cookie dough will look like this.

mix dry ingredients

In a separate bowl, add flour, baking powder and salt.

Whisk those dry ingredients together until combined.

add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients

Add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients, and mix until well-combined.

divide

Divide…

refrigerate dough

and refrigerate the dough for at least one hour. I just put mine in sandwich bags.

**If you are in a hurry, pop it in the freezer for about 15 minutes and it will be just fine.

flour your surface

Making the Cutout Cookies

Whenever I make cutout cookies, I like to line my countertop with waxed paper or parchment paper for less mess.

Dust the waxed paper-lined countertop with flour.

place a portion of the Christmas cut out cookie dough on the surface

Place a portion of your chilled dough on the floured surface.

Dust the top with flour again.

With a little bit of flour in your hand, run it over your rolling pin to keep it from sticking to the dough.

roll out the dough

Roll the dough out to about 1/8 of an inch (I prefer mine to be about 1/4 of an inch – I’m such a rebel). Prepare a baking sheet by spraying with cooking spray.

cut out shapes out of dough for Christmas cut out cookies

Now it’s time to cut out the Christmas cookies.

Be careful not to tear them when you pick them up.

I use this really thin cookie spatula I have.

place cookies on the greased cookie sheet

Place on the greased cookie sheet.

The dough scraps can be balled up together and rolled out again. I usually only do this once and after the second cutting I throw that dough away. If you keep balling it up and rolling it out, it will get “piece-y” and you’ll start having layered cookies. Just try it a few times and you’ll see what I mean!

bake the Christmas cut out cookies

Bake for 6-8 minutes.

They will still look a lot like they did when they were uncooked, but puffed up slightly and if you look you’ll see just a hint of browning around the bottom.

make the icing

Decorating the Christmas cut out cookies

This is only a teeny tiny portion of my sprinkles and sugars collection. I have an entire storage bin of them! Gather together some Christmas sprinkles and colored sugar for decorating.

Place margarine or butter (well-softened) in a bowls (if you want three different colors of icing). Add powdered sugar, milk, and flavoring. Cut that together with a fork. You are really just mooshing it.

smooth and creamy icing

Keep mixing until it’s smooth and creamy.

Feel free to add another tablespoon of milk if you need to.

mix dye into icing

Separate into bowls and dye each bowl with the gel food coloring of your choice and stir until the colors are even.

mixed icings

It should look like these!

From there, I lay out a sheet of waxed paper for each person and put cookies on top of it. Then I give everyone spoons so they have one for each icing color.

spoon icing on

Just drizzle your icing on the cookie with a spoon, spread it around, and add sprinkles!

I let my kids pretty much do whatever they want with their cookies. This isn’t a time to produce a “perfectly” decorated cookie, it’s a time to let kids do it their way and be proud of their creations. They LOVE this part!

sprinkled cookies

Kinda like this. Allow cookies to sit out for an hour or two until they are completely dried.

stacked Christmas cut out cookies

Then you can store them in a cookie jar or other airtight bin, stacked on top of each other.

Christmas cut out cookies

Arrange on a plate and enjoy your Christmas sugar cookies!

Storage

  • Store decorated cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature or up to 10 days in the refrigerator.
  • These Christmas cutout sugar cookies also freeze so well (with or without decorations). Once they’re set, freeze them for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature or in the fridge before serving.

Recipe Notes

  • Please note that this is a double batch. One recipe will yield about two dozen average-sized cookies. I tend to make mine a bit larger though.
  • Now, you need to chill the cookie dough for at least an hour. However, feel free to make it in advance and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 days.
  • I also strongly recommend doing as I do and dividing the dough before refrigerating. It will make it so much easier to roll out.
  • Instead of a spoon, another great way to distribute the cookie icing is to use a piping bag, a zipper seal bag with the corner snipped off, or a squeeze bottle.
  • For a little extra sugar cookie flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract.
  • Yes, you can use softened unsalted butter instead of shortening in the sugar cookie recipe.
  • Instead of sugar cookie icing, you can use royal icing instead.
  • If you don’t have Christmas cookie cutters, you can just use the top of a glass to make circular sugar cookies.

Check out these other Christmas cookie recipes:

14 Favorite Christmas Cookie Recipes

Southern Plate’s Must-Make Christmas Cookies

Pecan Thumbprint Cookies

Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Pecan Snowball Cookies

Candy Cane Cookies (Elf Favorite)

Christmas cut out cookies

Christmas Cutout Cookies

What happens when you take sweet sugar cookies, cut the dough using Christmas cookie cutters, and add red and green icing? You get Christmas cutout cookies.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Chilling Dough: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 38 minutes
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: christmas, cookies, sugar
Servings: 24 cookies
Calories: 436kcal

Ingredients

  • 2/3 cup shortening
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 4 teaspoons milk
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Icing

  • 1 cup confectioner's sugar
  • 1 tablespoon softened butter or margarine
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla or butter flavoring

Instructions

  • Thoroughly cream together shortening, sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and beat until fluffy then stir in the milk.
    2/3 cup shortening, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 egg, 4 teaspoons milk
  • Sift the remaining dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, stir, then add to the wet ingredients, and mix well.
    2 cups plain flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Divide dough in half and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  • On a floured surface, roll half of the dough to 1/8-inch thick. Keep the remaining dough chilled until ready to roll. Cut into shapes using Christmas cookie cutters.
  • Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 375 for 6-8 minutes.
  • Let cookies cool slightly before removing them from the baking sheet. Once cool, go ahead and decorate them with the cookie icing.

Icing

  • In a bowl, mix all ingredients together with a fork (if using three different colors, repeat the process with three different bowls). If too dry, add a little more milk. Once mixed, add a few drops of food coloring.
    1 cup confectioner's sugar, 1 tablespoon softened butter or margarine, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla or butter flavoring
  • Ice the cooled cookies and then let them set for at least an hour before storing.

Nutrition

Calories: 436kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

 

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71 Comments

  1. If you roll out your dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper or parchment paper, and place them in the freezer for 15 minutes, the cookies will cut out very easy. if you put the cut cookies on a cookie sheet and stick them back in the freezer for 15 minutes before they are baked, they will keep their shape better, especially if you have a detailed cookie cutter. you can re-roll the scraps of dough between the wax paper, and repeat the process until all the dough is used, and you wont get any tough cookies because you wont be rolling in any extra flour, and it never sticks to the rolling pin. I have been doing it this way for 6 years, and my cookies always look so pretty and are easy to decorate.

  2. Our holiday season started with an old recording on vinyl of the Littlest Angel. It was very special. My mom use to store it way up high on a book shelf and only get it down for the holidays. Can you imagine 5 little kids sitting around the record player listening intently in the livingroom of our house?
    I make my cutouts using the Spritz recipe in the red and white check cookbook. It is a nice size dough and the almond flavoring adds a richness to the recipe. As did my grandmother I only use butter in it. My grandmother use to brag about how many pounds of butter she would use during the holidays–12 to 14 pounds. Anyone who visited her during the holidays left with her latest assortment of baked creations.

  3. Waste not, want not. Who said the leftover dough has to be thrown out or has to be in some special shape? Instead of throwing it out after the second cutout, just take the leftover dough and bake them also. I’m sure they will taste just as good as the ones that have been cut with a cookie cutter. Beside it gives us something to nibble on while the kids are decorating theirs.

    1. My mother would roll the extra pie crust or cookie dough out and brush it with melted butter, sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar. She would roll it up jelly roll fashion and slice it. She baked those and we got to eat our “cinnamon rolls” warm, straight out of the oven. The cookies could wait, but the “cinnamon rolls” were devoured immediately.

  4. Your mom wasn’t the only one who did the rebates and got little gifts for the kids. I did that and my children enjoyed the things that they got. Some of them were really nice and they were great stocking stuffers. We also did arts and crafts before Christmas to make things for the house. Guess back then you didn’t run to the store and buy everything. I know we didn’t because we didn’t have the money, but we made memories this way.

  5. Grandma Jenkins was the cookie maker when I was a child. We got to decorate Christmas cookies & I always wanted to work on the Leaping Reindeer cookies, you know, the reindeer whose legs are outstretched like he’s flying? I still buy reindeer ornaments if they are “leaping,” Grandma also decorated little round cookies with cherry halves or walnut halves. Yummy memories. =^..^=

  6. ohhhh my,, does this bring back memories! I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and we made these cookies also. When I was a teenager, it was the VietNam era and I had several cousins and penpals that I sent ‘care packages’ to and these cookies were always a part of those. I always got back such sweet letters from ‘the boys’ for that special touch of home.

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