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Our soft baked Christmas sugar cookies are thick and chewy bakery-style cookies that are rolled in red and green sprinkles for a little color and crunch. Super easy, no rolling, and a fan favorite!
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Keep it simple, silly! Especially when it comes to Christmas cookies!
Red & Green Christmas Sugar Cookies Without A Rolling Pin!
My teenaged daughter and I do a big cookie baking day every December.
Last year, we pumped out 7 different types of cookies and then we ate them until we were sick, packaged up the rest, and delivered them to friends, family, and neighbors.
We always make a batch of our cut out butter cookies and decorate them, but on our big bake day of the year, we like to keep it simple with these Christmas sugar cookies.
They’re drop cookies, so no rolling pin is needed. This means less mess, less work, and a soft, thick, bakery-style cookie! We make them festive by rolling the dough in red and green sprinkles.
♥ Why You’ll Love About This Recipe:
- Simple: This is a quick and easy homemade cookie recipe that requires no chill time for the cookie dough and no rolling pin or cookie cutters!
- Festive: These are so easy, but they look really special in your cookie tins with all those other Christmas cookies! The colors stand out and the cookies are irresistible so they’re perfect for Christmas parties or gatherings.
Ingredient Notes:
Dry Ingredients – To prepare the cookie dough you will need sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
Wet Ingredients – You’ll need room temperature butter, eggs and vanilla extract.
Red & Green Sanding Sugar – We roll the balls of cookie dough in the colored sugar to give them a festive Christmas cookie look. Plus, this adds a little crunch to each bite.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
My Favorite Vanilla!
A good quality vanilla really does make a difference and this is my favorite brand.
Step by Step Photos:
Beat together the butter and sugar and then stir in the egg and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture until just combined and you have a soft dough.
Use a medium cookie scoop to portion out balls of dough and roll them in the sanding sugar.
Lightly flatten the tops of the cookies and bake for 11 minutes or until edges are just turning golden.
My Favorite Cookie Scoop!
We use cookie scoops for everything from baking cookies to scooping meatballs to easily filling muffin tins.
Helpful Tip!
Freezing & Storage Instructions:
These Christmas sugar cookies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a week.
If storing longer than a week you can freeze them! Let them cool completely then freeze the cookies on a baking sheet for about an hour before transferring to a freezer safe container or bag.
Recipe FAQs:
You’ll want to start with room temperature butter, not cold butter from the fridge. Also try to avoid overmixing the dough. Finally, don’t overbake them! Just bake until the edges are golden and the center is still slightly underdone.
Yes, you can prepare the sugar cookie dough in advance. I’d wait to roll the balls of dough in the red and green sanding sugar until just before baking. You can refrigerate the dough for 1 to 2 days.
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons red sanding sugar
- 3 tablespoons green sanding sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with a stand mixer. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until very well combined.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined and the dough comes together.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to drop balls of dough on the prepared baking sheet, about 1-inch apart. Roll each piece of dough into a smooth ball.
- Place the red sanding sugar in a small bowl and the green sanding sugar in a second small bowl. Divide the cookies into 3 sections and roll one section through the red sugar and one through the green sugar. Combine the red and green sugar and roll the remaining cookies in the sugar.
- Lightly flatten the tops of the cookies and bake for 11 minutes or until edges are turning golden and tops are just slightly underdone looking.
- Cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Debbie P says
This is my Grandson’s favorite cookie- I make it for all different holidays I just change the sugar colors. Thank you!
Karly says
That’s a great idea!
Alexis says
I want to make these cookies for Christmas should i use salted or unsalted butter
Karly says
We always use salted butter.
Brittany says
I loved this recipe so much! Only thing is I couldn’t get them to roll into a ball so we just dropped them and mixed sugars into the mixture!
Casey says
Followed this slowly and to the T and checked multiple times and u can taste the salt and aftertaste baking powder.
Karly says
Oh, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this one. We haven’t had that issue ourselves. 🙁
Karyn says
The videos from your site never show up. All I get are pictures. ?????
Karly says
Hi Karyn! That’s strange as they seem to be working fine on my end. When you scroll past the video, it should pop out over onto the right side of your screen. An ad will usually play before the video, but once that’s through you’d get the video. Are you sure you’re not just clicking out of it when you see the ad?
Karyn says
The videos from your site never show up. All I get are pictures. ?????
Lynn H says
What size cookie scoop? Small (#40)? Medium (#24)? Large (#12)?
Thank you.
Karly says
Oh, that would be helpful info for me to include. Haha! I just updated the post – I use a medium scoop.
Rita says
Can I roll the dough out and use cookie cutters?
Karly says
Hi Rita! This dough won’t roll out well. I’d recommend my butter cookies for cut out cookies. They’re the best cut out cookies!! 🙂
judith judge says
IN THE DIRECTIONS IT SAYS TO ADD SPRINKLES TO THE FLOUR BUT I DONT SEE SPRINKLES IN THE INGREDIENTS
Karly says
Sorry about that! No sprinkles get added to the dough. 🙂
Kathy Kelman says
Could there be another sweetener that is not sugar? I would not want to make these, and I hope you will return to your wonderful low carb recipes again soon. (Thanks)
Karly says
Hi Kathy! I’m still sharing low carb recipes over on thatlowcarblife.com. I no longer create new low carb recipes for Buns In My Oven. You could use any 1:1 sweetener you like for these cookies.