Easy Holiday Sugar Cookies

It’s that time of the year!  Delicious home baked goodies for everyone!  Today I ‘m sharing my favorite way to make Easy Holiday Sugar Cookies!

Cookie exchanges, food and treats for teachers, potlucks for every extracurricular activity and goodies for coworkers and neighbors-  I love them all, but the downside of all these activities is, it doesn’t leave a lot of time for leisurely evenings in the kitchen, baking with my kids.  (The good news is, I totally have a solution for that!)  Thank you to Betty Crocker for partnering with me in bringing you these fabulously easy, holiday-themed sugar cookies!

We just finished Thanksgiving (hosted 20 family members, with everyone staying at least one night.)  It was quite a crowd, but wonderful none-the-less.  We spent a lot of time around the dining room table scanning the Black Friday ads, eating, drinking and of course, chatting.  One of the subjects that always comes up at our family gatherings, is our Granny’s delicious recipes.

Granny always made the best pies and puddings, but it wasn’t just the food we remember, it was the time she spent with us in the kitchen making us feel special and like a big kid- helping her do all the mixing, stirring and other important cooking things.  Nowadays we don’t have as much free time, but I still want to make sure my kids have great memories of us baking and having fun in the kitchen.

I often rely on the pre-made Betty Crocker® Cookie mixes.  They’re so versatile and can be mixed up and ready to turn into cookies in just a few minutes.  (You don’t even need a mixer- just a big bowl and a fork!)  Need ideas on what to do with your cookie mix?  Visit the Betty Crocker page for tons of recipes and ideas.

For this round of baking, we got creative with our cookies and made a variety of cookie shapes.  To make the colored dough, I mixed up two bags of sugar cookies and divided the dough into 4 equal amounts.  I added a few drops of food coloring and mixed the dough until I got the desired color.

We made candy cane sticks.  (I bought sanding sugar for these, but forgot to add the sugar to the cookie before baking…  oh well- still cute!)

Trees and hats.  (My missy made these all on her own- no input at all from me.  FYI, you can get the perfect shade of brown by mixing together green and red, ha ha!)

A huge candy can for Dad, the love cookie was for me and the kitty for her best friend.

With the leftover dough, I was able to make about 20 more circle cookies.  I frosted these with Betty Crocker frosting mixed with confectioners sugar (makes the frosting stiff) and topped them with my forgotten sprinkles!

They turned out so pretty (and smelled delicious too!)

Now it’s your turn!  What is your very favorite type of Christmas cookie to bake?