Some of my completed Christmas sugar cookies

I love everything about the holidays: the blustery cold weather, brightly decorated homes, hot chocolate in cold hands, gingerbread houses, rosy red cheeks, white lights in snow-covered trees, and most of all – Christmas Sugar Cookies!

Honestly, I love my sugar cookies almost as much as Santa loves his reindeer, but only if they’re the right kind: frosting that’s not too sweet, cookies that aren’t too hard, and decorations that are just absolutely ridiculous. You might call me a sugar cookie snob, but I only go for a sugar cookie if it’s the cream of the crop.

Because I’m such a sugar cookie elitist, I am going to share with you what I deem to be the all-time secrets to making, baking, and decorating the best sugar cookies, as well as a video of me and my favorite sugar cookie recipe in action.  Watch as I work my way from ingredients to oven, then sit back and enjoy the music video of my cookie decorating fun – the best part!  Be sure to check out my ingredient list below, and watch the videos for the full “how-to” for baking and decorating these delicious sugar cookies (just hit the arrows on the sides of the playlist below to watch each step of the process).

A Healthy Blog Snacker’s 3 Secrets to Slam-Dunk Sugar Cookies:

1. Room temperature ingredients
   
   • Room temperature ingredients (specifically your butter and eggs), help to create the air pockets you need to make light, fluffy sugar cookies. Cold ingredients make it difficult to form those much needed air pockets, leaving you with hard, flat sugar cookies.
2. Roll your dough out directly on the cookie sheet
   
   • If you are making sugar cookie cutout shapes, this is a must. It’s a no-fuss way of creating those cute shapes, without having to worry about messing them up in transit to the cookie sheet. *Bonus tip* Use chef-grade parchment paper/reusable cookie sheet liners for non-stick fabulousness.
3. Dough chilled overnight for maximum shape making power
   
   • Again, if you’re making super santa and sleigh-bell shapes, ya gotta chill man! No seriously, chill that dough. If you’re impatient and try to roll it out immediately after mixing, the dough will be super sticky and you will end up one frustrated Christmas elf.

Have any great cookie tips? I would love to hear them!

Happy Snacking,

Lindsey