Create These 4 Charming Christmas Cookies With Our Step-by-Step Photos and Templates

If you want to make a charming, sweet statement this holiday season, try one—or all—of these intricately decorated cookies. They are showstoppers. Every surface is covered in colored royal icing and embellished with sanding sugar, candies, and nonpareils. They're Martha-level treats. All four start with the same sugar cookie dough, which you cut out using our printable template for each cookie. Bake them just until pale and set. Then let them cool completely before decorating.

What You Need

For all the cookies, you need our Sugar Cookie dough, the specific template to cut out the shape for your cookie (links below), and our Royal Icing in white and also tinted in the colors for your cookie (see below). Each cookie also requires candy, sanding sugar, and other decorating details outlined in the how-to section for that cookie.

Santa Claus Cookies

Our printable template gives you the cutest Santa shape ever. We pipe his red suit in royal icing and give him white nonpareil buttons. The trim on his hat and suit is white royal icing covered in coarse sanding sugar. A candy snowflake is the finishing touch; it's the pom pom on his hat.

Ingredients

• Sugar Cookies
• Royal Icing, some white and also tinted pale pink, red, and brown with food coloring
  

Equipment

• Printable Santa Cookie-Cutter Template
• Plastic squeeze bottles, with wide and fine tips
• Toothpicks

For Decorating

• White nonpareils
• Candy snowflakes
• Coarse sanding sugar
• Cinnamon candies
• White sprinkles
  

Santa Cookie Directions

1. Using pale-pink icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, outline and "flood" Santa's face and make a dot on each hand; use a toothpick to spread icing to fill his face and to spread the dots into hand shapes.
2. Using red icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, outline and flood Santa's hat, jacket, and pants. While icing is wet, add nonpareil buttons.
3. Using brown icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, add dots for boots, and use a toothpick to spread the dots into boot shapes. Let dry for 3 hours or more.
4. Using white icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, outline and flood the trim on the hat, sleeves, jacket, and pants. Add a dot at the tip of the hat, and add a candy snowflake. Sprinkle coarse sanding sugar over the white; let it set for 10 minutes, and gently shake off excess.
5. Using white icing, pipe beard. Add a cinnamon candy nose. Sprinkle thin white sprinkles over beard. Let set for 10 minutes, then shake off excess. Pipe aqua eyes.
6. Let dry completely, 8 hours or overnight.
   

Partridge in a Pear Tree Cookies

It might not be as well-known a Christmas sugar cookie as Santa and snowmen, but we're on a campaign to make the partridge in a pear tree part of every holiday cookie plate! Our printable templates give you the shape for the two cookies. From there, you need to tint the icing and pipe the decorations. This cookie doesn't have any candy add-ons; it's all down to the royal icing techniques, like dragging to create tail feathers for the partridge.

Ingredients

• Sugar Cookies
• Royal Icing, tinted brown, green, tan, and aqua with food coloring
  

Equipment

• Printable Peartree and Partridge Cookie-Cutter Template
• Plastic squeeze bottles, with wide and thin tips
• Toothpicks

Partridge Cookies How-To

1. Make the pear tree: Using brown icing in a squeeze bottle with a wide tip, outline and pipe swirly lines on the trunk for bark. Let dry for 1 hour.
2. Using green icing in a squeeze bottle with a wide tip, outline and "flood" the leafy portion of tree (don't pipe all the way to edge, since adding pears in the next step may cause the green to spread).
3. While green icing is wet, pipe pears in yellow icing, using a thin-tipped squeeze bottle.
4. Using brown icing in a thin-tipped squeeze bottle, add stems to the pears. Let dry for 1 hour.
5. Make the partridge: Using tan icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, outline and flood the bird, leaving a border for outlining in next step.
6. While icing is wet, use brown icing in a thin-tipped squeeze bottle to pipe an outline around the partridge and 3 or 4 lines across its body (let the icing lines fall onto the tan icing -- don't drag the tip of the bottle through it). For feathers, drag a toothpick through the lines toward the tail.
7. Let partridge dry for 1 hour. Add an aqua eye with the thin-tipped squeeze bottle.
8. Attach the partridge to the tree: Dab green icing to the back of the bird, and place it on the dried tree (do not press down).
9. Let dry completely, 8 hours or overnight.
   

Snowman Cookies

This charming snowman cookie sports an aqua-blue top hat and has a carrot nose made from a slice of an orange gumdrop. But our favorite touch is the fine sanding sugar that goes on top of the white royal icing, giving him a glistening, snowy look.

Ingredients

• Sugar Cookies
• Royal Icing, mostly white, but also some tinted blue with food coloring

Equipment

• Printable Snowman Cookie-Cutter Template
• Plastic squeeze bottles, with wide and fine tips
• Toothpicks

For Decorating

• Aqua pearl candies
• Sliced orange gumdrops
• Halved Champagne-bubble gumdrops
• Candy hearts
• Fine sanding sugar

Snowman Cookie How-To

1. Using white icing in a squeeze bottle with a wide tip, outline body. "Flood" the body by making zigzags of icing; fill the space by spreading the icing with a toothpick.

2. Working quickly while icing is wet, add aqua pearl candy eyes, a sliced orange gumdrop nose, halved Champagne-bubble gumdrop buttons, and a candy heart.

3. While icing is wet, sprinkle fine sanding sugar over the white icing. Let set for 10 minutes, and gently shake off excess.

4. Using blue icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, outline and flood hat.

5. While blue icing is wet, add a snowflake candy.

Let dry completely, 8 hours or overnight.

Reindeer Cookies

Santa needs his reindeer! Our template gives you a leaping reindeer shape so you can create one Rudolph or a whole herd to lead his sleigh. Silver icing and sanding sugar make for fabulous antlers, while candies form the nose and eyes. A dot of white icing, dragged with a toothpick, highlights the tail.

Ingredients

• Sugar Cookies
• Royal Icing, some white, some tinted brown and silver with food coloring

Equipment

• Printable Reindeer Cookie-Cutter Template
• Plastic squeeze bottles with wide and thin tips
• Toothpicks

For Decorating

• Pearl candies
• Cinnamon candies
• Sanding sugar
  

Reindeer Cookies How-To

1. Using brown icing in a squeeze bottle with a wide tip, outline the reindeer's body, legs, and head. "Flood" these areas by making zigzags of icing; use a toothpick to spread the icing evenly to fill the space.
2. While brown icing is wet, use white icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip to pipe 5 vertical lines on the deer's belly and a dot at the base of the tail. Drag a toothpick through the lines, going left to right, 3 times. Drag a toothpick up through the dot once.
3. While icing is wet, add pearl candy eyes and a cinnamon candy nose. Let dry for 2 to 3 hours.
4. Using silver icing in a squeeze bottle with a thin tip, outline and flood antlers.
5. While icing is wet, pour fine sanding sugar over the antlers. Let set for 10 minutes, and gently shake off excess, holding cookie sideways to prevent sugar from falling onto brown icing.
6. Let dry completely, 8 hours or overnight.