You can learn much more about decorating cookies in my book, Sugarlicious.  And for more detailed information, check out these posts:

• Basic cookie decorating instructions 
• Cookie decorating cheat sheet 

outline and flood method

Both of the above resources cover the “outline and flood” method, in which you use two consistencies of icing: A stiffer icing to outline and a thinned icing to fill, giving you a nice, smooth background.

Here, however, we are going to use only one consistency of icing to keep things simple.

The consistency is somewhere in between a stiff outline icing and a runny flooding icing. To prepare one consistency of icing, overturn a spoonful of icing. It should fall easily and take about 20 seconds for the lines of icing to disappear. 

To thin royal icing, add drops of water, a few at a time. To thicken royal icing, add confectioner’s sugar. 

First, prepare your icing, divide it, color it, fill the icing bags and decorate away!

My favorite royal icing recipe (which dries hard enough to the touch to handle the cookies, but doesn’t dry so hard as to be unappetizing) has it’s own blog post, but I’m also including below.

Royal Icing Recipe

4 tblsp meringue powder (available at many supermarkets and in most craft stores)
1/2 cup water
7-8 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tablespoons Crisco
2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Note the Crisco and light corn syrup are optional, but they help the consistency of the royal icing so it doesn’t dry brittle. 

Whip the meringue powder and water on high speed with a hand mixer or with the wire whip of a standing mixer for several minutes, until mixture is fluffy and peaks form.

Add 3 cups of the confectioner’s sugar and blend on low. Blend in the rest of the ingredients.

Add confectioner’s sugar, a cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached. You want the icing not to be so stiff you can’t squeeze it out of the bag, but not so runny it runs everywhere.

If you take a spoonful and overturn it, it should cling to the spoon for a couple seconds and then slowly fall into the bowl and the lines of icing will disappear in about 20 seconds. 

Store at room temperature in a sealed container for up to a month.

How to color royal icing

Divide the icing and tint your favorite colors by stirring in a few drops of food coloring. Start with just a drop or two of food coloring, and then add more as needed.

Remember you can always add food coloring, you can’t take it away. The amount of colors you’ll need for each depends on how many cookies you are decorating and what you are decorating. I usually tint about 3/4 cup to 1 cup at a time. 

Note you won’t need that much brown (for the tree trunk) or peach (for Santa). 

how to assemble a decorating bag 

To assemble a decorating bag with a coupler and tip, snip about 1/2 inch from the tip of the bag. Unscrew the ring from a coupler and insert the coupler into the bag, narrow end first.

The coupler should fit fully inside the decorating bag. Hold a decorating tip over the cut end of the bag and onto the coupler, and screw the ring back on.

Fold over the top of the bag to form a cuff, fill the bag with icing (about ½ cup to ¾ cup), twist the bag above the icing, and close tightly with a rubber band. Don’t worry about what tip size goes on what, you’ll be switching those all around anyway.

how to make cut-out sugar cookies

This is my always-use, no fail cut-out sugar cookie recipe. It holds its shape beautifully when baking and tastes delicious.

other cut-out cookie recipes you may use:

• vegan sugar cookies
• chocolate cut-out sugar cookies
• gingerbread cookies 

Cut-out Sugar Cookie Recipe

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and blend well. Add extracts and blend.

Mix flour and salt in a separate bowl, and gradually add.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap (I usually put mine in a gallon size Ziploc bag) and chill dough for about 2 hours.

Working with about 1/3 of the batch at a time, briefly knead the chilled dough and roll about 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface. Cut out shapes.

Bake cookies on parchment paper-lined baking trays in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for 12-14 minutes.

Thicker or bigger cookies may need up to 20 minutes. Just watch for edges that are nicely golden. Let cool completely before decorating.

how to decorate Christmas cookies

Now here’s the fun part.

piping icing

To pipe icing from a decorating bag, hold the bag in your dominant hand as though you were holding a glass of water. Rest your other hand on top of your dominant hand to steady the bag. It’s important to use two hands when decorating to make the lines steady.

Squeeze with steady, consistent pressure to pipe the icing, letting the decorating tip hover about 1/4 inch above the surface and letting the icing “fall” to the cookie. T

o stop, quickly press the decorating bag down, then pull away.

decorating a cookie 

First, pipe the outline of your cookie design, then let the icing set about 10 minutes. Then pipe back and forth in a zig zag motion to fill the entire cookie with icing, leaving no holes or gaps.

When that sets about 10 minutes, add details on top.

The beauty of using a coupler with your decorating bags is that you can switch decorating tips on the same color of icing without making a whole new bag.

Below, I’ll give you the step-by-steps for each cookie as well as the size decorating tip you’ll put on the color used.

How to decorate Santa cookies:

Outline and fill the hat cuff and ball at the end of the hat with white using a 4 tip. Immediately coat with sprinkles and overturn to shake off the excess.

Outline the beard and mustache with white and let set before piping to fill the beard and mustache. Fill the face with peach using a size 3 or 4 tip. Outline and fill the hat with red using a 4 tip. When the peach icing has set, pipe two dots with the black using a 2 tip.

How to decorate candy cane cookies

Fit red, white and/or green icing bags with size 4 or 5 tips. Pipe stripes, alternating preferred colors.

How to decorate a stocking cookie:

Outline the cuff with white icing using a size 4 or 5 tip. Let set and pipe to fill the cuff. Immediately coat with sprinkles, and overturn to remove the excess.

Outline the toe and heel with green using a size 4 tip. Let set and pipe to fill the heel and toe with green. Outline the stocking in red using a size 4 or 5 tip. When set, pipe to fill the stocking.

How to decorate a Christmas tree cookie:

Pipe the star with yellow icing using a size 3 tip. Outline the trees with green icing fitted with a size 5 tip, then pipe to fill the trees.

Pipe brown icing using a size 4 or 5 tip to make the trunk.

When the green has set a bit, pipe the strings of lights with the yellow, and pipe dots in different colors for ornaments.

How to decorate ornament cookies:

Use a size 3 or 4 tip with yellow to pipe and fill the ornament top. Decorate your ornaments however you like.

To make white sparkle, outline a space with white using a size 4 tip. Fill and immediately coat with sprinkles. Outline and fill other colors and shapes on the ornaments.

Let the cookies sit at room temperature uncovered overnight at least so they are dry to the touch. You can now package the cookies in cellophane bags with ribbon or in gift boxes.

If packed tightly enough, you can also ship these cookies.

I love to freeze my cookies, especially with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. To freeze decorated cookies that are fully dry, place the cookies in a single layer in a Ziploc freezer bag. Stack the freezer bags of cookies in the freezer.

To thaw, remove the bags from the freezer and let sit at room temperature. DO NOT open the bags or remove the cookies until the cookies have fully thawed, or moisture will affect the icing.

NOTE: This post for decorated Christmas cookies was originally published in December 2013 and updated in November 2020.