When it comes to Christmas cookies, it’s all about decoration, people! It’s also about cozy family time and memory making opportunities with kids. The process should be slow and joyful, it should also be messy and oh so good. Other than those special touches, the recipe itself is the most simple.

So far we have made Christmas banana bread and have boxes with ginger bread Christmas trees waiting for their turn, but cookies took priority today because of all the kids’ nagging. I looked at my pantry refilled by Instacart today and realized that I have everything I need for sugar cookies, so why not? Time is another thing you need and I had some of that today as well, so Christmas cookies baking adventure it was then.

Most people will have what’s needed for this simple recipe, but if you don’t, Instacart can hook you up, sometimes within an hour, so no special trip to a grocery store is required. I also love using one-of-a-kind items that I order from Personalization Mall. This time we tested new aprons for kids that had their names and information about being mommy’s helpers.

They looked so cute together and felt like real cooks. So much so that my son’s brand new apron is now covered in chocolate. But that’s what they are for, right? I enjoyed working with wooden personalized spatulas and felt like a very seasoned baker.

I decided to make traditional sugar cookies with butter, but went a little different way with decorating. I dislike those synthetic colorful frostings with all my heart, so we melted some dark chocolate and used various sprinkles to create some serious magic. Let’s take a look:

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks of unsalted organic butter
• ¾ cup of raw brown sugar
• 2 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 organic egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• A pinch of Himalayan salt
• ¼ teaspoon of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of cardamom powder
• Hershey’s dark chocolate for melting
• Sprinkles for decoration

Making cookies takes some time, but the process is not very complicated. Mixing the stiff dough is the only tricky step; otherwise a 10 year old could totally do it.

I started by lining two baking sheets with foil. Parchment paper is fine too. This recipe makes about 30 cookies, so I needed two trays.

I used stand mixer for dough, but at the end worked with hand held mixer to fight with all that toughness. The first step was to put room temperature or a bit warmed up butter and sugar together and beat them on high speed until light and fluffy.

Next goes the egg and the beating continues. Finally, vanilla extract is added to the mix and is mixed for another minute or two.

In separate bowl I put flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom powder together and mixed thoroughly.

Cardamom powder is a necessity for Christmas baking in my family and I don’t even know why.

It just adds that very much needed special touch without which Christmas cookies just wouldn’t be Christmassy for me.

Finally, I slowly added all the dry ingredients into the wet ones and kept beating, which at the end became kind of like kneading. This is when I got my hand held mixer out for more power and it helped. When the dough was stiff and ready, I put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

When the hour is almost up, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take the dough ball out from the fridge and place it on a floured surface.

It is buttery and will be sticky, so have more flour handy. I divided my ball into two parts and rolled one out to about ¼ inch thickness. Then I took Christmas cookie shapes and cut bells, angels, and Christmas trees.

After I was done with the second ball, I collected all the scraps and made the third one from all of them.

Cookies take about 14 minutes to bake and are done when golden brown.

Let them cool fully before starting with decoration.

Our decoration was simple, but the cookies looked stunning.

I simply melted Hershey’s dark chocolate, showed kids how to dip them in chocolate, made them plates with sprinkles and left them to it.

The result was beautiful and the table was surely messy, but who cares, right?

Enjoy this beautiful tradition and eat your cookies in about two weeks!