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These soft, melt-in-your-mouth Christmas Butter Cookies deliver classic holiday flavor with simple pantry ingredients—perfect for gifting, decorating, and filling cookie trays. If you’ve been searching for a foolproof butter cookie recipe, this homemade version is rich, golden, and always bakes up beautifully.
Tis the season for baking cookies! My Christmas Ooey Gooey Butter Cookies are a hit with readers, as are these No-Bake Christmas Crunch Cookies.
Why you’ll love this homemade butter cookie recipe!
While I love decadent cookies like Double Chocolate Chip Cookies or Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, I also love going back to the basics. And what better cookie to do that with than these Christmas Butter Cookies?
If you’ve ever been gifted one of those blue tins of Danish butter cookies (you know—the tins your grandma probably saved and used to store buttons and sewing supplies!), this butter cookie recipe has a similar flavor. But better because they’re homemade!
Serve them with a mug of hot chocolate this Christmas, leave them out for Santa, or hand them out as scrumptious gifts!
- Classic holiday flavor: Real butter creates that signature melt-in-your-mouth texture you expect from old-fashioned butter cookies.
- Freezer-friendly: Make the dough ahead and freeze logs or shapes for holiday baking on demand.
- Decorate your way: Plain, sprinkles, chocolate dipped, or chocolate and sprinkles—any way you make them, they’re going to be a hit.
Need some more cookies to add to your holiday baking list? Don’t forget the Homemade Frosted Sugar Cookies and Christmas Wreath Cookies!
Ingredients for Christmas Butter Cookies
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
- Granulated sugar – Creates a crisp-tender texture without making the cookies overly sweet.
- Butter – Softened, unsalted butter is best.
- Egg – Bring your eggs to room temperature for easy mixing and a smoother cookie texture.
- Vanilla extract – Almond extract is another option for the holidays.
- Milk – Full-fat milk is best, but you could use reduced-fat or dairy-free milk instead.
- Cake flour – All-purpose flour can be used instead. Just note that the texture will be slightly different. Learn more: Cake Flour vs. All Purpose Flour (What’s the difference?)
Variations
- Sprinkle the tops of the freshly piped cookies with holiday-themed sprinkles just before baking for extra holiday cheer!
- Once the cookies have been baked and cooled completely, consider dipping the tops in melted chocolate, and adding a dash of sprinkles on top.
- Use a 1:1 gluten-free flour such as Bob’s Red Mill for gluten-free cookies.
How to Make Christmas Butter Cookies
- Get started: Preheat the oven, and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Cream the butter, sugar, and salt.
- Finish the cookie dough: Add the flour is added in parts to prevent overmixing of the dough.
- Pipe the cookie dough: Add the cookie dough into a piping bag with a star tip, and pipe the dough onto the baking trays. Feel free to get creative with the shapes of your cookies!
- Bake the cookies: Transfer the cookies to the oven, just until they are fluffy and light golden brown. Be careful not to overbake! Allow them to cool for 5 minutes on the trays before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Serving Suggestions
Enjoy these Christmas butter cookies alongside a glass of milk, warm hot chocolate, or eggnog.
These butter cookies are great for holiday cookie exchange parties or added to a Christmas Dessert Charcuterie Board or cookie platter!
How to Store Christmas Butter Cookies
- Room temperature: Store in an airtight container for up to 7 days.
- Freezer (baked cookies): Freeze up to 3 months in a sealed container with parchment between layers.
- Freezer (dough): Wrap logs tightly in plastic and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw slightly before slicing or shaping.
Frequently Asked Questions
Butter cookies have a higher ratio of sugar to butter compared to shortbread cookies which have more butter and a higher fat, making them a little richer and slightly denser.
No. This cookie dough doesn’t require prior chilling unless it’s warm (see below). You can chill the cookie dough if you prefer, but this might make piping the dough a little tricky as the dough will naturally stiffen in the fridge.
Not a problem! Add up to ¼ cup of milk to the cookie dough, and return it to the piping bag. It should come right out!
Either the dough or your butter was likely too soft or warm. Chill the shaped cookies for 10–20 minutes before baking to keep clean edges.
More Classic Christmas Cookies
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Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
Cookies
Pizzelles
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Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies
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Christmas M&M Cookies
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Christmas Butter Cookies
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Measuring cup
- measuring spoons
- 2 baking trays
- Parchment paper
- Large piping bag
- Large star piping tip
Ingredients
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 10 tablespoon butter softened
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ⅔ cups cake flour
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375ºF and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Add the sugar, butter, and salt to a bowl and cream them together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. You want the butter and sugar mix to be almost white so beat for about 5 minutes.½ cup granulated sugar, 10 tablespoon butter, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and stir well to combine.1 egg, 1 tablespoon milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Add ½ cup of cake flour and stir gently. Add another ½ cup of cake flour and stir again. Add the final ⅔ cup of cake flour and mix into a thick, sticky batter. Adding the flour in parts ensures that the cookie dough is not over-mixed and stays nice and soft.1 ⅔ cups cake flour
- Scoop the cookie dough into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe the cookies onto the parchment-lined trays. You can pipe the cookies into any shape you’d like. Spirals/rosettes are the most classic shape! No matter what shape you choose, try to keep the cookies about 2” in size.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. The edges will be slightly golden brown but the cookies will still be a little pale in the center.
- Let the cookies cool on the tray for 5 minutes then move to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
- Add some festive flair: You can sprinkle the cookies with holiday sprinkles before baking for an easy, pretty decoration.
- Make them decadent: You can also dip the cooled cookie into melted chocolate and then add festive sprinkles on the chocolate side of the cookie.
- Soften the dough: If the cookie dough is too stiff to pipe, add up to ¼ cup milk to soften it.
- Skip greasing the baking sheets: Don’t grease the baking trays with butter or non-stick cooking spray as the cookies will absorb that excess fat while baking which can create unnecessary spreading.
- Use real butter: Margarine just won’t work when you’re making butter cookies!
These are a delight!!