Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies

Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies give you a tray of decorated holiday cookies without rolling dough or stamping a single cutter. I bake one pan of soft green dough, cut it into eight triangles, and finish each with piped frosting, sprinkles, and a pretzel-stick trunk.

After enough Decembers of fiddly cut-outs, this is the version I make when I want the look without the work. Spread the dough level and pull it while the top still looks matte, and the trees stay soft.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Affiliate, if you purchase through those links, I earn a commission. Thank you!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• You spread a single sheet of dough, bake it, and slice the trees afterward, so there’s no rolling, chilling, or re-rolling scraps.
• The two-tone green is the whole effect. Lighter green dough under a darker green frosting is what reads as a decorated tree, and it takes one extra squeeze of gel to get there.
• They’re built to travel. One pan cuts into eight sturdy triangles that hold their shape in a tin and survive the trip to parties, cookie swaps, and gift boxes.
• The decorating is forgiving. A quick zigzag of frosting and a scatter of sprinkles hides any uneven piping, so they look finished even if you’ve never held a piping bag.
• These are the shortcut for when you don’t have the time or the patience for shaping or using cutouts. If you’d rather roll and stamp proper shapes, my Christmas Sugar Cookies are the classic cut-out route.

Ingredients You’ll Need

You’ll need all the ingredients shown in the photograph below.

• Green gel food coloring. Use gel, not liquid. Gel gives you a saturated green without thinning the dough or frosting the way liquid does, and you want it in two strengths: a lighter green for the dough and a noticeably darker one for the frosting.
• Unsalted butter. The dough takes 10 tablespoons and the frosting another 3, so this is a properly buttery cookie. Unsalted lets you control the salt, which matters in something this sweet, where a little salt keeps it from tasting flat.
• Sprinkle. This is where the decorating lives. Large star sprinkles, hundreds and thousands, sugar pearls, and gold balls all work, and mixing a few shapes and sizes is what makes the trees look finished. One thing to check on a vegetarian table: some sprinkles use non-vegetarian glazes or colorings, so pick ones you’re happy with.
• Pretzel sticks. These are the trunks, pushed into the base of each triangle after baking. Everything else here is vegetarian as written, with no swaps needed.

How to Make Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies

A complete printable recipe and the measurements in both US customary and metric are available in the recipe card below.

Prep the pan

Preheat to 350°F (175°C). Line a 9-inch cake pan or springform with parchment, butter the parchment, then dust it with flour and tap out the excess.

Butter and flour it well; that’s what gets the cookie out in one piece. A springform makes life easier, since you pop the ring instead of inverting the whole thing.

Mix and color the dough

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in one bowl. In another, beat the butter and sugar, then mix in the egg and the vanilla, then work in the flour mixture.

Add the green gel a little at a time until the dough is the shade you want, and scrape the bowl so the color runs evenly throughout.

Bake and level

Spread the dough into the pan with an offset spatula or palette knife, getting it as level as you can so the trees bake to an even thickness. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes, until the top is set and no longer wet-looking.

If the edges have risen above the center, press them flat with the bottom of a glass while the cookie is still warm in the pan.

Cool completely, then cut

Let the cookie cool all the way through in the pan, on a wire rack, before you touch it. Cut it warm, and the triangles tear.

Run a knife around the edge to loosen it, release it from the pan, then cut the round into 8 triangles and trim the rounded ends so they read as trees. Push a pretzel stick into the base of each one for the trunk.

Frost and decorate

Beat the powdered sugar, milk, butter, vanilla, and green gel into a frosting a shade darker than the cookies.

Pipe a zigzag over each triangle with a thin tip or a snipped freezer bag, and add the sprinkles straight away, because the frosting starts to set fast and they won’t stick if you wait.

Recipe Notes and Expert Tips

• Use a metal pan. A light metal cake pan or springform pan bakes these most evenly. The cookie can take longer and sometimes stay underbaked in the middle if using a glass dish, so metal is the safer choice.
• Judge doneness by the surface, not the timer. The edges set before the center does. As long as the top looks matte rather than wet and glossy, it’s baked; leaving it in past that point dries the cookie out.
• Pipe a thin zigzag. A light layer is plenty. A thick layer of this frosting turns very sweet and can soften at room temperature, so a thin zigzag holds up better and still covers the cookie.
• Decorate one tree at a time if you’re new to it. Pipe a cookie, sprinkle it, then move on, rather than piping all eight and losing the window to press the sprinkles on. That same stop-and-decorate rhythm suits my Snowman Cookies too, a glaze-and-coconut cookie that’s also fun to decorate with kids.

Recipe Variations

• Skip the pretzel trunks and trim the bottom of each triangle into a short stem instead. Some bakers prefer that look; I haven’t tested the trimmed version here, but it’s a simple change, and you only lose the salty bite of the pretzel.
• For a finish that stacks and ships better, swap the buttercream for a thin royal icing. This is untested on this recipe, but royal icing is a reliable way to get a hard, stackable surface where this frosting only crusts on top; it sets faster, so you’ll need to decorate quickly.
• Color the dough red instead of green, or split it for a mixed tray. This swap uses the exact same method as tested, so there’s nothing else to adjust; only the final color changes.

How to Store Leftovers

Keep the decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week, in a single layer or with parchment between layers so the frosting and sprinkles stay put.

To freeze, leave the pretzel trunks off and freeze the cookies on a tray until solid, then move them to a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Thaw them at room temperature and add the pretzels before serving.

What to Serve With Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies

These are cookies, so what they want is something to drink and some company on the plate. A mug of hot cocoa with marshmallows is the obvious match, and a peppermint tea or a spiced chai works just as well if you want something warm with less sugar. Cold milk is the no-fuss one for the kids.

On a holiday cookie tray, I set these next to a couple of other shapes so there’s some variety. My Gingerbread Cookies bring a darker, spiced cookie into the mix, and my Reindeer Christmas Cookies use the same pretzel trick for antlers, so the two sit together naturally on one platter.

FAQs

More Festive Christmas Treats to Try

If you’re building out a holiday tray or a few gift boxes, here are the ones I’d put alongside these.

• Christmas Tree Cupcakes. The same tree look in cupcake form, and a faster bake when you’re feeding a party.
• Santa Whoopie Pies. My pick when time is short, since they come together fast and wrap up well as a gift.
• Reindeer Chocolate Bark. The no-oven option, good for filling cellophane bags when you need a quick handout.
• Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. A chocolate cookie for the tray that also freezes well if you’re baking ahead.