The Perfect Recipes for Decorating Christmas Cookies

It's here! It's here! DECEMBER! The peak of the cookie decorating season!

I'm here to tell you FIRST and FOREMOST that your cookies will be beautiful and so well-received...whether you think you messed up or not. I promise.
REPEAT AFTER ME: I will not stress out over cookies.

There. I'm glad we had that talk. Now, I want to share some recipes with you that are all you need to make the cutest decorated sugar cookies.

My perfect every time, go-to, vanilla-almond cookies are the quintessential cookie for decorating. Thick, cake-like, no chilling required. The dough can be frozen, the baked cookies can be frozen, the (royal icing) decorated cookies can be frozen. BOOM. Here's the recipe.

My go-to royal icing is all you need for decorating. Read the post with the recipe tons of tips and lots of Q and A from Bake at 350 readers.

Let's say you want to think out of the box and do a flavored cookie this year. Here are some of my favorite options:

1. Gingerbread Cookies (duh!)
2. Cinnamon Sugar Cut-Outs
3. Nutella Cut-Outs (oh, try not to eat this straight from the bowl!)
4. Butter Pecan Cut-Outs
5. Vanilla Bean Cut-Outs 

Need some decorating inspiration? Here ya go:

1. Painted Christmas Trees
2. Gingerbread Lattes
3. Trucks with Christmas Trees
4. Elf on the Shelf Cookies (no cutter required)
5. Newlywed Santa and Mrs. Claus
6. Christmas Tree Cookie Pops
7. Easy Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Do you have any questions about cookie decorating? Post them in the comments or reach out on Instagram! Happy baking!