Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

I love Christmas…

Not just the day itself and celebrating our Savior’s birth, but I love all the preparations and celebrations that occur this time of year.

At this point, I can usually take a deep breath and sit back and enjoy the coming days.  Gifts are wrapped, the house is somewhat clean and desserts have been made.

If you haven’t realized this before – I love making desserts.  If there is a birthday to be celebrated, I am often asked to bring the cake.  Of course, the holidays bring a whole other slate of desserts – pumpkin bread, cinnamon sugar monkey bread, snickerdoodles, toffee bars AND Christmas sugar cookies.

Every year, I invite my nieces and nephews over to join my kids and I in making Christmas sugar cookies.

This year was extra special because my granddaughter, Lily, joined us for the first time.

Making sugar cookies is always a bit messy.  However, when you mix in a bunch of young kids, the mess is amplified.

My son Kai, and nephew Oliver, had fun choosing their favorite cookie cutters.

Lily was excited to see that there was a snowman cookie cutter.  After watching “Frosty the Snowman” for the first time this year, she is obsessed with snowmen.

Ready for the oven.

My nephew Finley and daughter Ruthie, got to work with frosting their cookies.

Lily decided to use a fork to spread the frosting with.

You really shouldn’t wear black if you are working near flour 😉

Oliver was determined to put as many sprinkles as his cookie would hold.

Finley made a gingerbread man wearing shorts.

I remember doing this when my two oldest daughters were young.  Now they are grown, but it was so nice to have my granddaughter take part in our annual tradition.

We have a rule that the kids each get to pick one cookie to eat and the rest will be saved until Christmas Day when we all gather together.

It is fun to see the kids show off their finished cookies to their parents on Christmas.

After the cookies were finished, I thought that we would try something new that I had seen on Pinterest.

These are sugar cones that have been frosted and sprinkles added to make miniature Christmas trees.

We used buttercream frosting on the cones.

Then the kids got to decide which sprinkles they wanted to ‘decorate’ their trees with.

It is so much fun to see my oldest daughter all grown up and making desserts with her daughter 🙂

Finley’s tree is finished with a mini-chocolate chip as the start on top.

Oliver had to make sure that the frosting tasted good.

I think that the kids really enjoyed making the sugar cone Christmas trees.

You could use them for decoration or eat them.  The kids decided to eat theirs.

My husband (who has a huge sweet tooth) filled the inside of his cone with frosting and then frosted the outside before eating it.

Making Christmas cookies is fun, but awfully messy.  I am glad that I used paper plates, bowls and plastic knives.

After a busy morning of making cookies, Lily decided to take a little rest next to her aunt Gracie.

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The sugar cookie recipe that I use makes soft cookies and I am often asked for the recipe.

It starts with a sugar cookie mix (I use Betty Crocker’s Sugar Cookie Mix).

4 oz. softened cream cheese

17 oz. bag sugar cookie mix

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together and bake following the directions on the sugar cookie mix package.

You’ll love these cookies!

For the frosting, I used royal icing.  

Merry Christmas Cookies!

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."