Make easy Christmas cookie trees for your next cookie party

You’ll love making these easy Christmas cookie trees from just 2 whole cookies made from your favorite sugar cookie dough.

this …

I’ve made giant cookie trees and impressive Christmas towers like kransekake before, but I’ve always been annoyed at having to bake multiple different sizes to get 1 tree. Nix that. Here we take 2 full cookies and turn them into one tree.

There is no better way to make cookie trees with kids. I’ve been making these cookie trees with my students and at our annual Christmas Cookie Extravaganza for a few years, and the kids always always love putting these together. The 3 dimensional aspect of the cookie without the drama that can go with something like a gingerbread house is always appealing. And because they’re quick to go together, it doesn’t take much to help a kid make one of these. We’ve had parents with kids as young as 3 making these trees!

And while these aren’t as impressive as a 10 layer cookie tree, they’re perfect for kids both for eating and for working with your kids to create some memories without worrying about the state of your kitchen afterwards.

Let’s build some trees!

Easy Christmas cookie tree

Why you’ll rush to make a few of these little trees

1. Easy: These are crazy easy. Make the cookies, dip them in a quick icing, and then stick them together with thick royal icing. That’s it. I’m a strong believer that decorating your bakes should be easy and shouldn’t take 8 years to complete. No micro-managing is needed here. Everyone can handle this.
2. Great activity: I believe Christmas cookie parties should be interactive. While painting Springerle or dipping white chocolate pretzels might be a little fussy for little kids, making these trees is not. Stick one of these trees to a paper plate and even your smallest guests will carry around their cookie trees like gold. Cookie parties are for families, and making trees like this is an easy way to make families with young kids feel like there is something for them to do at such a party.
3. This works with any cutout cookie dough: You can make these with any cutout cookie recipe. I’m using my eggnog cookies recipe, you can use your favorite. Whole wheat butter cookies, chocolate cutout cookies, or your generations old recipe from your great great Auntie Edna would also work. Shoot, while it will make me a little sad, I’ll even look the other way if you want to use refrigerated cookie dough. The goal of this is to be easy, and if refrigerated dough gets you in the kitchen with your kids, then that’s okay.
4. Add them to a winter scene: If making a gingerbread house seems like too much of a time commitment or a hassle, make a forest of these trees instead. They won’t take you much time to put together, and you can easily intersperse them with little Lego minifigures or Calico Critters for a fun tabletop scene.

Stuff you’ll need to make Christmas cookie trees

1. A tree shaped cookie cutter: Don’t worry if your cutter has a trunk; we’ll fix that when we cut out the cookies.
2. Parchment: like always, I never never never make cutout cookies without my BFF parchment.
3. Rolling pin
4. Cake decorating bag with a plain 1/4″ tip: you can also use a butter knife; it just won’t be as clean.
5. Small bowl for icing
6. Paper plates: You can build your trees on plates or sheet trays, but if you’re making them for a cookie party, a paper plate per guest is the simplest.

Timeline for making Christmas cookie trees for a cookie party

1. Sometime before the party: Make up the cookies. Store them without frosting in an airtight container. I love love love the 1 gallon Rubbermaid TakeAlongs. They’re cookie party champions.
2. Right before the party: Mix up the icing. Tint it with matcha or green food coloring. Cover the icing with plastic wrap and place it on a table covered with paper (parchment or butcher’s paper) taped down in place. Make up royal icing and divide it into a couple cake decorating bags topped with a rubber band to keep them from leaking. Place the bags in a large cup and place it out of the way.
3. 1st pass at the party: Invite guests to dip the trees and add sprinkles. Let the cookies dry for at least 30 minutes. They can do other things, hang out or hopefully you’ve made them something to eat other than cookies!
4. Build the trees: Once the cookies are dry to the touch, you can construct them with the royal icing you set aside earlier.

Christmas cookie trees

---

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

No reviews

• Author: Elizabeth Farr
• Total Time: about 2 hours
• Yield: 25 mini cookie trees 1x

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

Description

Elaborate Christmas cookie trees look great as centerpieces, but you can also make ultra simple smaller trees in a fraction of the time with even the littlest of kitchen helpers.

---

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• Cutout cookie dough: use eggnog cookies, Whole wheat butter cookies, chocolate cutout cookies or your favorite cutout cookie dough recipe.
• Festive sprinkles or decorating sugars

Powdered sugar icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g)
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon matcha latte powder or 1/4 teaspoon culinary or ceremonial matcha powder or a few drops of green food coloring

Royal icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g)
• 1 Tablespoon meringue powder
• 1 Tablespoon water
• 1/2 teaspoon matcha latte powder or 1/4 teaspoon culinary or ceremonial matcha powder or a few drops of green food coloring

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

---

Instructions

Make the cookies

1. Make the cookie dough according to the recipe that you’re using.  Roll out the dough between sheets of parchment 1/8″ thick.
2. Set the rolled out sheets of dough in the freezer for 10 minutes or until the parchment peels off easily.
3. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
4. Cut out trees from your dough with your cookie cutter. Transfer the trees to a parchment lined sheet.
5. Once you’ve moved the trees, cut off the trunk (if you have one on your cutter) with a bench scraper or small knife.  Also cut each tree vertically in half.  Place tree halves slightly apart on the cookie sheet.
6. Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes, rotating them halfway through baking. 
7. Continue baking as many trees as you would like to make.  You can make cutouts from another dough or wrap up the rest of the dough in its plastic wrap and make more another day within a week’s time.

Ice the cookies

1. Mix all the ingredients for the powdered sugar icing in a small bowl.  The icing should be thin but not so runny that it falls straight off the cookie.  If it seems too thick, add a couple drops of milk until it flows nicely.
2. Set out a piece of parchment with the trees you’ll be decorating.  Dip each tree part face down into the icing and then let the icing drip back into the bowl.  Set the tree down on the parchment.  Add some sprinkles if you’d like.  Continue dipping all the trees.  Once you’ve iced all the trees, set them aside to dry for at least 30 minutes.

Build the trees

1. Beat all the royal icing ingredients together until the icing holds its shape and is thick and smooth.  If it seems too thick, add a drop or two of water at a time.  Do not use milk for this icing as the fat in the milk will prevent the meringue powder from setting properly.  Scrape the icing into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip.

2. Set out paper plates (1 per guest). Run a bead of icing down the straight side of 1 cookie.

3. Connect it to its mirror side. 

4. Make a small X on the plate with the icing. 

5. Run another bead right on top of your seam on the backside of the cookie. Set the 2 pieces you’ve connected on the cross part of the X, and then add a 3rd piece sticking it to the line of icing and the back side of the X. At this point, your tree should stand up enough for you to pipe on one more line of icing on the front side of the cookie. Add on the last cookie piece on top of the icing and the last part of the X.  Don’t neglect to build on top of the X made from the icing; that is the base that will let your tree dry vertically.

6. Let the cookies sit for a little while before moving them.  They will set up fairly quickly, but giving them a little room to dry is always wise.

Equipment

bench scraper

Buy Now →

parchment

Buy Now →

rolling pin

Buy Now →

1/2 sheet pan

Buy Now →

Notes

Manage your icing: I calculated the nutrition data based on a half-batch of the Eggnog Cookies dough.  A full batch of that dough will make about 50 trees!  I’m guessing you probably don’t want to make a full forest of trees, so I also scaled down the amount of icing to that half-batch size.  If you’re building trees with icing lovers, you may need a little more of the powdered sugar icing as you’re going along.  Make a second batch if necessary.

• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 60 minutes
• Category: Cookies
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 Christmas tree
• Calories: 160
• Sugar: 16.7 g
• Sodium: 28.1 mg
• Fat: 5.8 g
• Carbohydrates: 24.9 g
• Protein: 1.5 g
• Cholesterol: 16.4 mg