Grandma's Christmas Sugar Cookies

Grandma's Christmas sugar cookies are a soft, buttery treat that will be a new holiday favorite.

Table of Contents

Sugar Christmas Cookie Recipe Ingredients
Substitutions And Additions.
How To Make Grandma’s Sugar Cookies
Christmas Sugar Cookies Finishings
How To Serve The Best Christmas Sugar Cookies
How To Store These Easy Christmas Sugar Cookies
Why We Love This Recipe
Sugar Cookie Christmas FAQs
More Christmas Cookies
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These easy Christmas sugar cookies are the perfect balance of buttery richness and light sweetness, creating a melt-in-your-mouth experience with every bite. While simple in appearance, the depth of flavor from adding cream cheese makes them far from ordinary. This is a recipe ideal for holiday gifting, cookie exchanges, family decorating sessions, or simply enjoying with loved ones during the festive season.

What to Know About This Recipe

Main Ingredients: Butter, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, almond extract, flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, sanding sugars.

Quick Steps: Mix wet ingredients, add dry, chill, roll dough into balls, press with a fork, sprinkle sugar, bake.

Total Time & Yield: 2 hours 20 minutes, makes 36 cookies.

Why This Recipe: This sugar cookie recipe is elevated by the addition of cream cheese, which enhances the richness and depth of flavor. It also makes the cookies incredibly soft and ensures they stay moist. However, this isn’t just about taste and texture—it’s a game changer in how long your cookies stay fresh, making this Christmas cookie recipe ideal for holiday baking and gifting.

Pro Tip: The dough’s ability to handle freezing and chilling without sacrificing quality makes it perfect for batch baking.

grandma's christmas sugar cookies raw ingredients that are labeled

Grandma’s sugar cookies are a fun treat with a rich, creamy texture made from simple pantry staples.

They are finished with a festive touch of red and green sanding sugars, making them a perfect, nostalgic treat for any occasion, especially during the holidays.

You’ll need:

½ cup of salted butter, softened
2 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1½ cups of granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons of vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon of almond extract
2½ cups of all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of baking soda
¼ teaspoon of salt
Red and green sanding sugars

Substitutions And Additions.

ALMOND EXTRACT: Some people dislike the flavor of almond extract. If that is you, then feel free to leave this ingredient out of the cookies.

This extract is very strong, so only a small amount is used in the sugar cookie recipe, giving it a delicious and subtle hint of almond flavor.

FROSTING: Although these easy Christmas sugar cookies are perfectly sweet themselves, you can frost them if you wish. 6

How To Make Grandma’s Sugar Cookies

STEP ONE: In a large bowl, add the butter, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract.

Using an electric mixer, beat the ingredients together until light and fluffy, about four to five minutes.

OUR RECIPE DEVELOPER SAYS

Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature so that you don’t end up with any lumps in your soft cookies.

butter, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract blended together in a bowl

STEP TWO: Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.

Turn the hand mixer to low speed and combine the ingredients just until a soft dough forms.

flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt folded together in a bowl

STEP THREE: Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for two hours.

PRO TIP:

This is a fantastic cookie dough to make ahead! The dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours after you make it and then baked when you are ready.

Or form the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, place it in a zip-top freezer bag, and freeze for up to three months.

Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then form the dough balls and bake as directed.

STEP FOUR: Once the dough has been chilled for two hours, remove it from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350°F.

STEP FIVE: Use a 1-inch cookie scoop to portion the dough, and use your hands to roll the dough into 1-inch balls.

Place the dough balls on the parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, at least one inch apart.

cookie dough rolled into balls and placed on a sheet

STEP SIX: Using a fork, make a crisscross pattern pressing down lightly into the cookie dough.

criss cross made on top of each cookie with a fork

STEP SEVEN: Sprinkle the top of each cookie with green or red sugar.

sanding sugar sprinkled on top of each cookie

STEP EIGHT: Bake in the preheated oven for 9 to 11 minutes. Be sure not to overcook these cookies.

They should not brown on the edges at all. You want them to be soft, and they should look a bit undercooked when you pull them out of the oven.

PRO TIP:

Oven temperatures vary and may need to be recalibrated periodically to ensure they are accurate. Make sure to check your cookies at the lower end of the recommended baking time.

STEP NINE: Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for five minutes before removing them to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Christmas Sugar Cookies Finishings

These sugar cookies are slightly too soft to cut with cookie cutters. We do have a great no-spread sugar cookie recipe that would be great to cut into shapes.

If you prefer to decorate the cookies, check out our sugar cookie icing recipe.

How To Serve The Best Christmas Sugar Cookies

These soft sugar cookies are perfect for holiday snacking, a Christmas party, a Christmas cookie exchange, or giving as gifts.

Serve them alongside our Christmas punch.

Or leave a few out for Santa! Don’t forget our Grinch cookies and snowball cookies for even more delicious treats.

MORE CHRISTMAS DESSERT RECIPES

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Christmas Cut Out Sugar Cookies

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Christmas Red Velvet Poke Cake

Speaking of simple homemade recipes for the holidays, these M&M pretzel hugs are really easy, tasty, and absolutely adorable.

We’re also big fans of this Christmas Chex mix for a holiday movie night snack.

How To Store These Easy Christmas Sugar Cookies

Here are some handy tips on how to store your homemade treats:

MAKE AHEAD: If you want to get a head start on your holiday baking, you can make the cookie dough ahead of time, you simply:

Prepare the dough as instructed in the recipe
Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to five days
When you’re ready to bake, let the dough come to room temperature for about 10-15 minutes
Scooping and baking your cookies as directed in our recipe

IN THE FRIDGE: Keep the Christmas sugar cookies in an airtight container with a lid or in a zip-top bag. Refrigerate for up to five days.

IN THE FREEZER: Freeze these classic sugar cookies in zip-top freezer bags for up to three months, then simply thaw before serving.

Why We Love This Recipe

HOMEMADE NOSTALGIA: These cookies capture the essence of homemade baking, evoking warm and nostalgic feelings of grandma’s kitchen.

CREAMY TEXTURE: The combination of softened butter and cream cheese creates a luscious, creamy texture that makes each bite irresistibly decadent and satisfying.

FESTIVE APPEAL: With the addition of red and green sanding sugars, these cookies are not only delicious but also visually appealing, making them the perfect treat for special occasions.

close up shot of grandma's christmas sugar cookies piled on top of each other

If you’ve been looking for the best sugar cookie recipe around, look no further! These soft, buttery cookies will be a new favorite holiday treat.

From scratch, easy Christmas sugar cookies are so easy to make that you’ll be enjoying them with a mug of hot chocolate before you know it!

Does the dough have to be chilled, or can I bake the cookies immediately after mixing?

This simple recipe needs to be chilled for at least a couple of hours to ensure the cookies bake up nice and soft and don’t spread too much on your cookie sheet.

How do you make sugar cookies keep their shape?

Giving your cookie dough time to chill in the refrigerator will help the cookies to keep their shape. Starting to bake your cookies when the dough is at a lower temperature will prevent them from spreading.

Can I use cookie cutters for these sugar cookies?

These cookies are slightly too soft to cut out shapes.

How far in advance can I make Christmas cookies?

These cookies can be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge for up to five days or in the freezer for three months.

What makes a cookie moist and chewy?

Adding both eggs and cream cheese to cookie dough will give you moist and chewy cookies.

More Christmas Cookies

Best Christmas Sugar Cookies

5 from 40 votes

Grandma's Christmas sugar cookies are a soft, buttery treat that will be a new holiday favorite.

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 2 20

Servings cookies

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Ingredients

½ cup salted butter, softened
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1½ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
red and green sanding sugars

Instructions

In a large bowl, add butter, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Using a hand mixer, beat until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes.
Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Turn the hand mixer to low speed and combine the ingredients until a soft dough forms.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Once the dough has been chilled for 2 hours, remove it from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside.
Use a 1-inch cookie scoop to portion the dough and use your hands to roll into 1-inch dough balls. Place the balls on the parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, at least 1 inch apart.
Using a fork make a criss cross pattern pressing down lightly into the cookie dough.
Sprinkle sugar with green or red sugar.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Make sure not to overcook these cookies. They should not brown on the edges at all. You want them to be soft, and they should look a bit undercooked when you pull them out of the oven.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Video

Notes

Make sure your cream cheese is at room temperature so that you don’t end up with any lumps in your soft cookies.
This is a fantastic cookie dough to make ahead! The dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours after you make it, then baked when you are ready. Or form the dough into a ball and wrap tightly in plastic wrap and place in a zip-top freezer bag and freeze for up to three months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then form the dough balls and bake as directed.
Oven temperatures vary and may need to be recalibrated periodically to ensure they are accurate. Make sure to check your cookies at the lower end of the recommended baking time.

Nutrition

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This recipe was developed, tested, cooked and photographed by the Spaceships Kitchen. From our dinner table to yours, we hope you think it's out of this world!

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