Like my wreath sugar cookies, these Christmas tree sugar cookies are another fun baking activity - solo or with family - during Christmastime. This is such an easy cookie dough to make, too! Break out your tree-shaped cookie cutters and get ready to make the cutest homemade cookies, dressed up in buttercream. This is also the perfect type of cookie to bring to a holiday party cookie exchange.
For more holiday baking projects and Christmas recipes, try some of the desserts below:
- 🍏 Mini apple Bundt cakes - Bring in cozy vibes with these mini apple cakes. Glazed or unglazed, they are such a fun yet simple treat.
- 🍊 Cranberry sour cream Bundt cake - Like my mini apple cakes, this cake recipe comes together in a mixing bowl, with no electric or stand mixer required. Topped off with an orange glaze, this Bundt cake is a winner for the holiday season or any special gathering.
- ☕️ Dirty chai cake - This spiced layer cake is a stunning crowdpleaser, with marbled layers as well as a marbled chai buttercream frosting.
Jump to:
- Ingredients for Easy Christmas Cookies
- 💚 Why You'll Love these Holiday Treats
- Best Results: Baking in Grams
- 📖 Sugar Cookie Prep and Baking Instructions
- 🧁 Buttercream Instructions
- 🎄 Step-by-Step Decorating Instructions
- Two More Ways to Decorate these Christmas Sugar Cookies
- FAQ for Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies Recipe
- Cookie Storage and Freezing Instructions
- General Tips for Chewy Sugar Cookies
- More Cookie Ideas
- Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies with Buttercream
Ingredients for Easy Christmas Cookies
The recipe card contains all the steps for making these simple decorated cookies this holiday season. Below are highlights on this sugar cookie dough recipe:
- Pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste – Vanilla adds a sweet taste and aroma here. Know that you don’t need expensive vanilla extract for good flavor. I never taste much difference between pricier extracts and more basic ones.
- Almond extract – This extract brings a warm and nutty flavor of almond to these basic sugar cookies.
- Buttercream frosting - Instead of using a royal icing recipe, we decorate these holiday cookies with a delicious almond buttercream. Piping that on top of these cookies adds texture.
- Food gel coloring - You'll need this ingredient to color the frosting for your Christmas tree sugar cookies! Wilton is normally available in grocery stores. Americolor and Chef Master also make high-quality food gels.
💚 Why You'll Love these Holiday Treats
- No expert skills needed - Whether you've been a baker for a long time or are new to homemade cookies and decorating them, these easy Christmas tree cookies use basic piping tools and techniques. And the step-by-step photos below will walk you through prepping the dough and frosting the cookies so you can easily make these at home.
- No chill dough - A lot of cookie recipes don't work well unless you chill the cookie dough first. I never have the patience for that! I try to make all my cookie recipes no chill, and that's true here, too.
- Easy to prepare in advance - During the holidays, I like to host cookie parties, and this recipe is my go-to. It's great because I can start baking these sugar cookies weeks (or even a month or two!) in advance, freeze them, and have them ready long before the party. They freeze well and maintain their freshness.
Best Results: Baking in Grams
If you’re not already, use a kitchen scale for accuracy in baking.
While I include cups and grams in my recipe cards, weighing your ingredients and writing or following a recipe using a standard metric like grams ensures consistency.
I highly recommend investing $30 or less in a kitchen scale.
📖 Sugar Cookie Prep and Baking Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F and dive into the steps here.
Cream butter and sugars: Cream unsalted butter, vanilla and almond extract, and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
Mix in dry ingredients and eggs: Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl. Add salt, baking powder, eggs, and flour. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed until the dough comes together. It will initially look crumbly - keep going!
Prepare your work surface: Flour a silicone mat or your counter for rolling out the dough. Work in smaller portions, dividing the dough into halves or thirds.
Roll cookie dough: Use a rolling pin to roll dough to ¼ inch thickness.
Cut cookies: Press the Christmas tree cookie cutter into the sugar cookie dough, and peel away the excess dough scraps to add them back to your mixing bowl.
Transfer cookies to sheet pan: Use a spatula to lift cookies onto an ungreased or silicone-lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart.
Bake cookies and cool: Bake for 11–15 minutes (shorter time for smaller cookies, longer for larger ones). Let them cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Repeat for remaining dough: Repeat the rolling, cutting, and baking process until all the dough is used.
🧁 Buttercream Instructions
Mix the buttercream base: In a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, combine unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, heavy cream, and salt. Start mixing on low to prevent a sugar cloud, then beat on high for about 3 minutes. Taste test here; add a splash of lemon juice to reduce sweetness until flavor is to your liking.
Smooth the buttercream: Use a spatula to drag from the center to the sides of the bowl, smoothing out any air bubbles or tears. Repeat for 3–4 minutes to achieve the right consistency. It should be creamy and fairly easy to spread.
Divide and color the frosting: Separate the buttercream into bowls. Mix two shades of green and one red food coloring, leaving some white frosting in the bowl for backup.
Prepare for decorating: Transfer each color to separate piping bags, ready for decorating your Christmas sugar cookies.
🎄 Step-by-Step Decorating Instructions
Prepare to Pipe: Once cookies have cooled on a wire rack, fit a piping bag with an open star tip (like Wilton 14 or 21) for textured frosting.
Pipe the Frosting: Press the piping tip against the cookie and pipe rows of frosting to mimic a tree shape.
Switch Up the Colors: Alternate shades of green frosting, or experiment with non-traditional colors for a unique look.
Add the Finishing Touches: Decorate with sprinkles, seasonal M&Ms, or pipe details like berries or ribbons using red frosting and a small tip. For extra sparkle, dust on edible glitter.
Two More Ways to Decorate these Christmas Sugar Cookies
Playing with colors and shapes: For a fun twist, try decorating with pink or white! Also, having a variety of tree shapes and sizes makes the finished cookies unique to you and more interesting!
Alternative decorating style:
Start with the Right Angle: Use an open star tip (like Wilton 14 or 21) and hold the piping bag at an angle, with the back facing you and the tip at the base of the tree.
Pipe the Branches: Squeeze the bag with more pressure at first to create a thicker base, then gradually release pressure as you pull back to taper the frosting into a point.
Work in Rows: Repeat this motion in even rows, building up from the bottom to the top of the tree to create the branches.
FAQ for Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies Recipe
Cookies can spread if the dough is too moist. It can also spread due to an excessive amount of baking soda.
If you follow the steps in this recipe, though, you won't have that issue.
Generally, adding a bit of baking powder or flour to a cookie's dough can help prevent them from spreading as much. Chilling dough before baking it is another method to prevent spreading.
Cookie Storage and Freezing Instructions
Room temperature - These Christmas sugar cookies will stay fresh at room temperature (around 70°F) for 3-4 days.
Freezing and Make-ahead Instructions - The cookies also freeze well, frosted or unfrosted.
If you've already frosted them, give the buttercream time to form a crust before freezing. This hardened texture will form if the room is not too hot or humid (room temperature or slightly cooler is great) and keeps the design from getting smudged.
After buttercream has formed a crust on your Christmas tree sugar cookies, place them in a single layer in an airtight container. Gently add wax or parchment paper on top of the first cookie layer so any frosting doesn't get caught on other cookies or frosting but paper instead.
Continue filling container with cookies, separating each layer with paper.
Cookies will retain their flavor for about three months in the freezer. Let them come to room temperature before serving.
General Tips for Chewy Sugar Cookies
- If you aren't already, use a scale for accuracy in your baking. This ensures you're following the exact measurements and your cookies will turn out how the recipe intended them.
- Periodically check the freshness of your leavening agents. Mix a pinch of baking powder with hot water. For baking soda, combine it with a few drops of something acidic, like vinegar or lemon juice. If your leavening agents have no reaction (i.e. no fizzing or bubbling), it means they also won't help your ingredients rise during the baking process.
- Before starting a recipe, clear your workspace and set out all your ingredients in front of you. This will make it less likely that you'll forget to leave something important out of your mixing bowl!
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More Cookie Ideas
Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies with Buttercream
Bring these Christmas tree sugar cookies to your next holiday party this season! Use a piping bag and buttercream to decorate these cookies.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Decorating Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 30 sugar cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients
- 12 T butter (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups + 2 T (380 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ⅔ cup (150 grams) white sugar
- ½ cup (90 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 ¼ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 cold, large eggs, straight from the fridge
Buttercream Ingredients
- 6 cups (750 grams) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ sticks (170 grams) of unsalted butter, room temperature
- ½ cup (150 grams) heavy cream (see notes)*
- 4 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp almond extract
- Pinch of salt
- Lemon juice to cut sweetness
- Food gels to dye your frosting
Instructions
Sugar Cookie Dough
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream butter, vanilla and almond extracts, and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and add salt, baking powder, as well as your eggs and flour. Mix for about 2 minutes on medium speed. Dough will initially look crumbly but pull together.
- Roll the dough into a ball on a clean, flat, floured surface. I like dividing half at a time and rolling it out to about ¼ inch before pressing the cookie cutters into the dough.
- Use a spatula to lift and transfer dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Bake for 11-14 minutes (longer time for larger cookies, shorter for small ones).
- Transfer them to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the baking sheets 5 or so minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Buttercream Frosting
- Combine unsalted butter, powdered sugar, almond and vanilla extracts, heavy cream, and salt in mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer in very short bursts to avoid confectioners’ sugar flying everywhere before you increase the mixer speed to high for about 3 minutes.
- Taste test. Add splash of lemon juice if too sweet.
- Spend 3-4 minutes dragging the spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges to achieve nice, smooth frosting.
- Divide buttercream. To keep it simple, I used two shades of green food coloring, along with red. After mixing each color, put them into separate piping bags, leaving some white in your mixing bowl for backup.
Cookie Assembly
- Load buttercream into piping bags, fitted with a small open round or open star tip. For my green, I used tips 14 and 21 for variety.
- With the narrow end of the tip pointing outward, squeeze frosting from your piping bag onto the surface of your cookie. As you continue to apply pressure, lift the piping bag slightly, and then release the pressure to create design. Do this at a 45-degree angle.
- Continue piping trees in a consistent pattern, repeating steps for every cookie. Feel free to switch between piping tips for different colors and texture.
- As a last step, use your red frosting in a piping bag (fitted with a small round open or star tip) to add berries or ribbons. Alternatively, you can use your favorite blend of holiday sprinkles or M&Ms for wreath decor.
Notes
Regarding the buttercream: When my kitchen is colder, I add more liquid to my bowl. The moisture helps colder, stiffer ingredients mix together more easily. If your kitchen is humid and/or warm, start with about ⅓ cup (80 grams) of heavy cream and add more from there.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 313 kcal
- Sugar: 29.3 grams
- Sodium: 118 mg
- Fat: 14.7 grams
- Saturated Fat: 9.3 grams
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.2 grams
- Carbohydrates: 43.2 grams
- Fiber: 0.5 grams
- Protein: 2.9 grams
- Cholesterol: 51 mg
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