What better way to celebrate the Christmas baking season than with classic Christmas butter cookies with sprinkles? These butter cookies will melt in your mouth! Yep!
Christmas Cookie Recipes
They’re moist cookies so you won’t bite into a dry hard cookie like the ones you buy at the grocery store. Plus, they’re incredibly festive with holly berry sprinkles! Wouldn’t they be a pretty addition to your Christmas cookie box tin?
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 sprinkles you like. But, we’ll get to that later.
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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.
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This 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 but, nonetheless, it’s a tasty, moist butter cookie recipe that I’ve made countless times and it never disappoints.
Her recipe 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 will love rolling the cookie dough, flattening the balls and dipping them in the sprinkles. So, let’s get to it.
How to Make Easy Christmas Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
*The full, printable recipe is at the bottom of this post.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb of salted butter (four sticks)
- 4 cups of flour
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 8 oz red and white sprinkles (I used hollyberry sprinkles)
Instructions:
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter by mixing the softened butter and sugar until creamy and somewhat smooth.
- Continue mixing and add egg yolks, vanilla and baking powder. Then add one cup of flour at at time and mix thoroughly. Form into one ball and refrigerate for 1 hour
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Roll a 1 inch or so ball with the cookie dough and flatten it. Dip one side into the red and green sprinkles and put it face side up on the cookies sheet as shown below.
- 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 min. Let them cool before storing.
If you’re making these Christmas butter cookies with your friends, whip up a Tiramisu Eggnog Cocktail. I’m sure they’ll love it because it’s better than plain eggnog!
Because these cookies won’t take you all day to make, you can get on with your Christmas Dinner planning. But, I gotcha covered there too with my Less Stress Christmas Dinner Planner! It’s a week-by-week, day-to-day check list with menu suggestions, main dish cooking tips and a FREE printable checklist to print out and put on your refrigerator until Christmas day!
Easy Christmas Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
Cookie Storage:
- Store cookies in a tightly sealed tin 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! Just like I wouldn’t tell you that you can only make Old Fashioned Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies at Christmas.
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
Festive Easy Christmas Butter Cookies with Sprinkles will melt in your mouth with butter flavor. Because they’re simple to decorate and only a few ingredients, they’re one cookie type that won’t take long to prep and decorate. Because, I know you need plenty of time to shop, wrap, decorate, repeat!
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
See more of our COOKIE RECIPES!
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White Chocolate Cranberry Macadamia Shortbread Cookies
I took this recipe to Weekend Potluck.
Easy Christmas Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
Ingredients
- 1 lb salted butter, softened you may use unsalted butter, if you prefer
- 4 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz red and green holly berry sprinkles
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter by mixing the softened butter and sugar until creamy and somewhat smooth.
- Continue mixing and add egg yolks, vanilla and baking powder. Then add one cup of flour at at time and mix thoroughly. Optional: Form into one ball and refrigerate for 1 hour for easy handling.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Roll a 1 inch or so ball with the cookie dough and flatten it. Dip one side into the hollyberry sprinkles and put it face side up on the cookies sheet.
- Repeat with the rest of the cookie dough and space them about 1 1/2 inches on the cookie sheets. Bake cookies for 10 min. Let cool before storing.
Notes
Cookie Storage:
- Store cookies in a tightly sealed tin 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.
Bake a them for 10 minutes. I’ll clarify step 4 in the recipe. Sorry it was confusing. Happy holidays.
The printable recipe says cook time is 30 min but step 4 of the instructions say bake for 10 min. How long do you actually bake them in the oven?
Hello. I always use salted butter in all of my recipes- sweet or savory. But, it’s up to you of which to use when a recipe already calls for adding salt which, this one does not. Happy holidays!
Salted or unsalted butter? Or does it matter?
Yes, that’s what I use. Hope you enjoy them.
I can’t wait to make these cookies. Is all purpose flour ok to use?
Glad you liked them Laura! Merry Christmas!
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe! These cookies were so easy to make and came out perfect!