Christmas Sprinkle Cookies combine the BEST sprinkle cookie recipe ever with some holiday decorations. Fun and EASY to decorate but even more fun to eat!

I normally try to mix in dinner or vegetable posts with the dessert posts on the blog. However, I’ve been baking a lot and desserts are just so much better than broccoli, so here’s a great recipe for Christmas sprinkle cookies.
Taylor wanted to bake cookies for friends, so of course we started with her favorite sugar cookie recipe.
Even if you’re not artistic, like me, you can make a Christmas tree. Natalie gets all the credit for discovering our sugar cookie recipe that we make over and over again in our house. They taste fantastic and sprinkles are just so much fun.
If you need to find some cute holiday sprinkles for your holiday cookies here are two sites that have beautiful sprinkles that I can’t wait to try: Sweetapolita, and Fancy Sprinkles.
How do you make these easy Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Step 1: Cream butter and sugar. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt and mix until combined. Then add sprinkles and mix just until combined.
Step 2: Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight. Remove and form into balls and bake. Let cool before frosting.
Step 3: For the easy butter frosting, combine butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla and salt and spread a thin layer on the cookies. Add food coloring to the remaining frosting and pipe a Christmas tree on top. Add additional sprinkles and refrigerate so the frosting can set.
How do you DECORATE frosted Christmas cookies
Our original plan was to frost the sugar cookies with a solid green Christmas tree. We tried this on a couple of cookies and just didn’t like the look. So we put a thin layer of white icing on first and then piped in the outline of a Christmas tree.
If you haven’t tried piping frosting, you can cut the tip off a plastic baggie or for more options I use a Wilton kit that has several decorating tips that make it easy to pipe designs. (affiliate link) Of course a few more sprinkles were added to the top.
These homemade sugar cookies turned out beautiful and were very easy to decorate. Much easier than decorating cut out cookies and I love how they turned out. Taylor’s so creative. These would be great to take to a cookie exchange or give to friends.
You can store the frosted Christmas cookies in plastic containers with parchment between the layers once the icing has set.
FAQ’s and tips
You can use a decorating tip or simple use a baggie and cut the corner out of it.
Try using an ice cream scoop to get uniform sized cookies.
With cookies that have a butter frosting, they will need to be refrigerated or frozen. Otherwise the frosting will be soft.
More HOLIDAY cookies
- Cherry crinkle cookies look so festive
- Peppery peanut butter cookies are a classic with a little extra
- My favorite crispy Special K cookies
- Eggnog Cookies will get you in the holiday spirit
- White chocolate peppermint cookies are Santas’ favorite.
- Nutty flavored brown butter coconut cookies
If you like FROSTING then you might like these cookies
- Pumpkin cookies with a cream cheese frosting
- Peanut butter sandwich cookies have a peanut butter frosting inside
- Cream cheese frosting between two carrot cake cookies
Watch a fun Web Story
Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction
Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter room temp
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sprinkles
FROSTING
- ¾ cup butter room temp
- 2 ¼ cups confectioner’s sugar
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Scrape bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch and salt. Slowly add to the butter mixture on low speed and mix until combined. Gently mix in the sprinkles, just enough to disburse but not so much that they bleed into the dough. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.
- Remove from refrigerator and preheat oven to 325º. Let cookies sit at room temperature for 15 minutes unless you have chilled overnight, if so, then let them sit for about 30-40 minutes.
- Form dough into balls using a 1.5 tablespoon ice cream scoop. Bake for 11-12 minutes until the edges are slightly browned, the centers will appear soft. Allow to cool on pan for 3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Frosting: With a hand mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add confectioners’ sugar, cream, vanilla and salt and mix on low speed until combined then increase speed and mix for 3 minutes. Add more sugar or cream if too thick or thin. Remove a small portion and add green food coloring.
- Once cookies are cooled, frost and decorate with with a design and more sprinkles.
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- If making large cookies with a regular sized ice cream scoop it will make 24 cookies.
- Use a baggie with the corner cut out to pipe the frosting.
- If the frosting is too soft, put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes.
- Add red and green sprinkles after piping the Christmas tree.
- For something different, crush some candy canes and add to top of the cookies.
Nutrition
If you make Christmas Sprinkle Cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram! I would love to see your creation.
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