Laura the Gastronaut > Holiday Cooking > Sugar Cookies

Christmas Sugar Cookies

12 Days of Christmas Series

December 24, 2020 | Updated: January 6, 2023 | Laura

Welcome to my 12 days of Christmas Foods!

Each day I make a different Christmas recipe. I'll share which recipe I used, a little history about the recipe, the steps involved in making it, and, of course, delicious pictures.

On the eleventh day of Christmas foods, I made Christmas sugar cookies from a family recipe. These cookies are my favorite, and it wouldn't be Christmas without them. I could easily eat at least 10 of them in one sitting. These cookies end up being an all day affair- from mixing up the dough, to rolling it out, baking, icing, and decorating. A beloved Christmas tradition!

History of Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies have been around since the mid-1700s. They were created by German Protestant Settlers (Moravians) in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Because of this, they were known as Nazareth cookies.

Along with the recipe, German and Dutch settlers also introduced cookie cutters. They were so fun that this really increased the amount of cut-out cookie recipes in popular cookbooks. Plus, they were so simple to whip up that even kids could make them which led to them being left out as a snack for Santa Claus beginning in the early 1900s.

In the 1970s, the game was changed when pre-made sugar cookie dough was introduced to the world. This made it even easier to make those holiday cookies! Now, sugar cookies are made not only at Christmas, but also for Easter, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day.

You can find my sources and read more about sugar cookies on Redbookmag and Sweetoothdesign.

Homemade Sugar Cookies

I used my family recipe for these sugar cookies. These are the cookies I've been eating since I was a small tot, and couldn't imagine Christmas without them. It's a very simple recipe consisting of butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla. There's so many wonderful sugar cookies online you can make just like this one!

See you all again tomorrow for day 12. Can't believe tomorrow is Christmas! Happy Cookie Decorating!

Category: Holiday Cooking
Keywords: christmas sugar cookies, history of sugar cookies, 12 days of christmas recipes, christmas cooking

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
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More 12 Days of Christmas Foods:

✽ Christmas Fudge (you can't go wrong with a piece of homemade fudge on Christmas day)
✽ Figgy Pudding (figgy pudding was such a surprise- so so delicious)
✽ Gingerbread Cookies (another classic Christmas cookie)
→ Check out all of my holiday cooking adventures!

Bon appétit!

December 24, 2020 by Laura Ehlers

*This Christmas Sugar Cookies blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.