Easy Christmas Butter Cookies with Sprinkles Recipe

What better way to celebrate the Christmas baking season than with classic butter cookies with sprinkles? These festive Christmas cookies will melt in your mouth and look attractive on a cookie tray.

They’re so much better than dry, hard, and sometimes even stale, store butter cookies! Your neighbors and friends are going to love these holiday cookies!

Christmas Cookie Recipes

They’re moist cookies so you won’t bite into a dry, hard cookie like the store-bought version you pay good money for at the grocery store. The holly berry sprinkles give it a festive touch for sure. This recipe is similar to my Raspberry Almond Butter Cookies.

Wouldn’t   buttery cookies be the perfect cookie for your Christmas cookie tins or cookie tray this holiday season? They would make a great holiday gift.

Yeah.. They would be! What’s more is that you can make these butter cookies any time of year, just like my Almond Butter Cookies, and put any kind of holiday sprinkles you like. But, we’ll get to that later.

Disclosure:  I am an Amazon Associate therefore, this post contains Amazon affiliate links which means, if you make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission but, the price you pay is the same.

Christmas Butter Cookie Recipe

But, what you need to know is these cookies do not spread out all over your pan, like my Italian Anise Cookies, while they’re baking or should I say melting in the oven like some cookies that meld together. There’s very little expansion which means, you can load up your cookies sheets!

I’d still place them about an inch and half away from each other but, you can probably get away with one inch.

As you can see, this recipe doesn’t use cookie cutters like sugar cookies do. They’re easier than spritz cookies too.

This sprinkle cookies recipe has been sitting in my recipe box for many years. It came from my friend’s little old grandmother.

So, I’m not sure if it originated from Pillsbury or Better Homes and Gardens or if it’s a passed down recipe from the turn of the 20th century. Nonetheless, it’s a tasty, moist butter cookie recipe that I’ve made countless times and it never disappoints.

Her recipe, much like my Raspberry Almond Butter Cookies, was slightly different in that she put a hole in the top of the cookie and filled it with apricot and strawberry or raspberry jelly which is also very good. To make this recipe less time consuming, I instead dipped the round cookie formations into red and green holly berry sprinkles! It makes them more festive and I just love the pop of red color!

You’re kids or grandkids will love rolling the cookie dough, flattening the balls and dipping them in the sprinkles. So, let’s get to it.

You’ll need these baking supplies to make this recipe:

Baking Sheet

I could write a whole post on cookie sheets but, for now I’ll tell you my experiences. 

• I have a non-stick cookie sheet that has a black cooked on dough spot that I still can’t get off years later.
• I have cookie sheets that “warp” when I put them in the oven. When I say warp, I mean the one side elevates about an inch which made the filling of my pecan pie run onto the pie crust edges. I didn’t like that because I was selling them that particular Thanksgiving.

Vanilla Extract

I buy a big 16 oz. bottle of vanilla extract at Costco. I shake it so the bottom resin mixes in with the rest of the liquid before I use it. Using a good quality vanilla extract will help your recipes taste better. Did you know you can clear vanilla? Yep. That will keep your white icing white!

Butter

Use a good quality butter. It’s one of the main ingredients in this recipe and gives the cookies rich flavor. You can use unsalted butter if your concerned about the amount of salt in the recipe. 

Vanilla Extract

I buy a big 16 oz. bottle of vanilla extract at Costco. I shake it so the bottom resin mixes in with the rest of the liquid before I use it. Using a good quality vanilla extract will help your recipes taste better. Did you know you can clear vanilla? Yep. That will keep your white icing white!

Airtight Container

Often, I’ll use tight lid fitting tins but, I’ll also use my Rubbermaid storage containers when I know the cookies will disappear before they get a chance to become stale. Having a husband and two young boys pretty much guarantees that. 

Wire Rack

Wire racks are good to have for cooling the cookies and the stackable wire racks are great for small kitchens with limited counter space. 

Large Bowl

Using a large mixing bowl is good because when you’re mixing flour, you need a bowl with high sides to catch the flour from going everywhere. It eventually ends up on the floor and can cause slipping issues especially for grandmas. We want grandma to be able to walk during the holidays. 

Plastic Wrap

I use it to wrap the cookie dough ball before placing it in the refrigerator for a one hour chill time. This makes the dough pliable. Let the dough sit at room temperature for ten minutes before rolling into 1-inch balls. 

Airtight Container

Often, I’ll use tight lid fitting tins but, I’ll also use my Rubbermaid storage containers when I know the cookies will disappear before they get a chance to become stale. Having a husband and two young boys pretty much guarantees that. 

Wire Rack

Wire racks are good to have for cooling the cookies and the stackable wire racks are great for small kitchens with limited counter space. 

Large Bowl

Using a large mixing bowl is good because when you’re mixing flour, you need a bowl with high sides to catch the flour from going everywhere. It eventually ends up on the floor and can cause slipping issues especially for grandmas. We want grandma to be able to walk during the holidays. 

Vanilla Extract

I buy a big 16 oz. bottle of vanilla extract at Costco. I shake it so the bottom resin mixes in with the rest of the liquid before I use it. Sometimes, I’ll buy the McCormick brand if I’m out of it and don’t feel like driving to Costco that particular day.

Using a good quality vanilla extract will help your recipes taste better. Did you know you can clear vanilla? Yep. That will keep your white icings white!

Electric Mixer

You can use a stand mixer with paddle attachment if you have one. Cooking in the kitchen got so much easier when I bought a stand mixer.

Butter Cookies with Sprinkles Recipe

Cookie Dough

Ingredients

*The printable, full recipe is in the recipe card at the bottom of this post

• salted butter (four sticks)
• all purpose flour
• sugar
• large egg yolks
• baking powder
• vanilla extract
• red and green sprinkles (I used hollyberry sprinkles)

Equipment

• stand mixer or handheld mixer
• large baking sheets
• ​oven
• plastic wrap
• ​cooling rack

Instructions

*The full, printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.

1. First, in a large bowl, cream the butter by mixing the softened butter and sugar until creamy and somewhat smooth.
2. Next, continue mixing and add egg yolks, vanilla extract and baking powder. Then add one cup of flour at at time and mix thoroughly. Be sure to use a spatula to get the cookie dough stuck to the bottom of the bowl. Form into one dough ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour of chill time. That will make it easier to handle.
3. Then, preheat your oven to 350F. Roll a 1 inch or so ball with the cookie dough and flatten it with the palm of your hands. Dip one side into the red and green sprinkles and put it face side up on the cookies sheet as shown below. Use parchment paper if you prefer but, I don’t find it’s necessary as the cookies don’t stick to the baking sheet because of the large butter content. Therefore, you can use ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Then, repeat with the rest of the cookie dough and space them about 1-inch balls on large baking sheets. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes but, check them at 10 minutes in a preheated oven (350F).  Let them cool before storing.
5. Next, repeat with the rest of the cookie dough and space them about 1-1 1/2 inches on the cookie sheets. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes but, check them at 10 minutes in a preheated oven (350F).  Let them cool before storing.

 

Because these cookies won’t take you all day to make, you can get on with your Christmas Dinner planning. 

Storage

• Store cookies in a tightly sealed in an airtight container, plastic zipper bags or plastic containers.
• Freeze cookie dough by wrapping the cookie dough ball in wax paper and placing it in a plastic zipper freezer bag. Free for up to three months.
• Freeze baked cookies in a plastic container and place a piece of wax paper in between the layers of cookies.

But, don’t stop at Christmas. These butter cookies can be made for any occasion with a variety of colored sprinkles. The versatility of these cookies is supreme! 

Make these butter cookies for other holidays or just because:

• July 4th with red, white and blue sprinkles
• Easter with pastel colored sprinkles
• Halloween with black and orange sprinkles or black, orange and purple sprinkles
• Valentine’s Day with red and pink sprinkles

These Festive Christmas Cookies will melt in your mouth with real butter flavor. They’ll soon become your favorite cookie! Because they’re simple to decorate and with only a few ingredients, they’re an easy recipe that won’t take long to prep and decorate. They’re easy peasy! No rolling pin required.

Because, I know you need plenty of time to shop, wrap, decorate, repeat!

Now that you know how to make easy Christmas butter cookies recipe, add it to your Christmas cookies list, buy those ingredients and let’s get started. Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

You may also like

Raspberry Almond Butter Cookies

Almond Butter Cookies

I took this recipe to Weekend Potluck.