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Festive, easy, and fun…Holly Jolly Santa Cookies – Tis’ the Season! Simple vanilla sugar cookies shaped into the cutest, fattest little Santas, made effortlessly by shaping the dough into round balls. Frosted with a deliciously sweet whipped cream cheese frosting and you’ll have yourself the most perfect Christmas cookie. Fun to bake, delicious to eat, a great homemade gift, and a festive addition to your holiday cookie box!
As I write this the snow is falling outside my NYC hotel room, and well, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This is so cheesy, but New York in December, and with white fluffy snow, is the most magical experience. I am so happy it decided to snow on my last day here in the city. I’ll be home by the time you read this, and back in the deep, deep Colorado snow. But I’m feeling extra thankful that I was able to see NYC this time of year…and in snowy winter weather too. Next year I’m bringing my mom and little Asher with me. It’s always better with family, especially those two Christmas loving freaks. They would be loving every minute of this snowy, Christmas scene.
Anyway, it feels very fitting to be writing this post as the snow falls. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, these cookies are cute wintry cookies…and of course, delicious. Something about a fat little Santa covered in sweet frosting (and even some chocolate candies too) is always adorable.
Those of you who’ve been following HBH since the VERY early days, there’s a slight chance you’ll remember these cookies. I shared a version of this recipe only a month and a half into HBH’s inception. While looking back through old content a few weeks ago, I stumbled across this recipe.
The crazy thing about developing so many new recipes is that sometimes I forget about the old (and really GOOD) recipes I’ve created. Even though the photos of these cookies were horrid, I still found them to be so cute. And I remember Asher having so much fun helping me bake them. So I’m bringing one of my favorite cookies back to life. And while it is a slightly decadent cookie, I love them so much.
(cookie dough balls lined up and ready to assemble)
(assembling the red parts of Santa)
As you all know, I am no professional when it comes to decorating sweets. BUT I still love to make my desserts, especially the holiday ones, as cute and festive as possible. Enter these easy, rolly, polly, Santa cookies.
The idea is to take simple sugar cookie dough, roll it into tiny balls, attach them together into a “Santa” body, and bake. If you use the photos as guides, it’s the easiest sugar cookie you will make. Not to mention, so much fun! No stress, no pulling out your hair, just fun. Exactly what holiday baking should be.
Here is how you make these Holly Jolly Santa Cookies.
Start with the dough. I used my favorite sugar cookie dough that’s heavy on the butter…and vanilla. I died half of the dough red using food coloring and kept the other half of the dough plain. If you can find a great natural red food die, I would highly recommend using that. Sadly I’ve yet to find one that works well. If anyone has found one they use and love, please let me know!
Once the dough is died, it’s literally as simple as rolling each dough into multiple balls. Again, if you look through the photos you will most likely understand the process much, much easier. You need five white dough balls and five red dough balls to make one Santa.
Attaching the pieces…
This is the step that you might think will be tricky, but it’s actually so easy. To make each Santa, just gently push the dough balls together. Once again, use the photos as guides. Nothing needs to be shaped perfectly or lined up just right. As long as you have a rough body formed, the cookies bake up like adorable fat Santas.
Promise.
Once you have your Santas formed, add mini chocolate chips for eyes and buttons, then bake! The process of rolling the balls will take a little time, but to me, this is easier than cutting out shapes…and I think they are way cuter, not to mention a little more unique. Because let’s be real, everyone is making your basic sugar cookies this time of year. Bake something a little different!
Decorating is easy.
Since the cookies themselves are already so cute, decorating is EASY. I used a sweet, creamy, whipped cream cheese frosting to add a layer of excitement to each bite. The frosting is used for Santa’s beard, hat, and hands, but my recommendation? Keep a small bowl of the frosting aside for adding to each cookie while eating. The frosting is SO GOOD and the cookie is made even better with a bit of additional frosting spread all over our little Santas.
For Santa’s nose, I use a mini red M&M. Simple, easy, and so cute.
These cookies make a delicious addition to any holiday party, cookie plate, or even cookie gift box. And if you have young kids these are a must bake before Christmas. They’ll have so much fun attaching the pieces since it’s something they can easily do all by themselves!
I’m really hoping to be able to set aside time one of these days before Christmas to do a baking day with Asher. These are the perfect cookies to make with her!
If you make these holly jolly Santa cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Jolly Santa Cookies
Servings: 14 Santa Cookies
Calories Per Serving: 691 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1-2 teaspoons red food coloring
- mini chocolate chips (for eyes and buttons)
- mini holiday M + M s (for Santa's nose)
Cream Cheese Buttercream
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (optional)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups powder sugar
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. 2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour, and salt, beat until combined, and the dough begins to form a ball.3. Remove 1 cup of the dough and set aside. With the remaining dough, add in 1 teaspoon red food coloring, adding more if needed for better color. Keep in mind that the color will darken over time.4. From the red cookie dough, make 1 (1-inch) ball and 5 (1/2-inch) balls. From the plain cookie dough, make 1 (3/4 inch) ball and 5 (1/4-inch) balls. You will have a body, head, hat, four red arms and four white hands and a white ball for the top of the hat. I find it easiest to make all the parts first, then assemble. 5. On the prepared baking sheet, place the red 1-inch ball, gently flatten until 1/2 inch thick. Attach four of the red 1/2-inch balls for arms and legs. Next, attach the plain 3/4-inch ball for a head, gently flatten until 1/2 inch thick. Attach the plain 1/4-inch balls for hands and feet. Shape the remaining red 1/2-inch ball into a triangle for a hat and attach it. Repeat with remaining dough, arranging the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Add chocolate pieces for eyes and buttons (see above photos for visuals, this will help!).6. Transfer to the oven and bake the Santa's for 12-15 minutes, until lightly golden7. To make the frosting. Add the butter and the cream cheese to the bowl of a stand mixer and whip until extra light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat together until whipped, about 2 more minutes.8. To decorate. Transfer half the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small tip. Or, take a ziplock bag and snip a very small portion of the corner off the bag. Use the bag to go around Santa's face, arms, and legs. Put a small dot on the tip of his hat and then place one red mini M&M on his face as his nose.
Notes
Storing: the frosting will set up, but it's best to store these cookies in a single layer in an airtight container. If using these cookies to fill a cookie box, place a piece of wax or parchment paper between each cookie to help protect them, then carefully stack the cookies, or line them up side by side.
Freezing: unfrosted cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw, then decorate as directed.
Christmas in July! Has anyone ever done these as cutout cookies? I haven’t found a cutout cookie recipe yet that I’ve really loved, and these are my family’s favorite cookies. Looking for a cutout recipe that is closer to short bread than sugar cookie and wondering if anyone has tried rolling/cutting the dough in this recipe.
Hi there,
I wouldn’t recommend that for this recipe, I have other cut out recipes that will work better for you:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/vanilla-wreath-cookies/
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/christmas-lights-cookies/
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/the-santa-clause-cookies/
I hope this helps! xT
These are my new favorite Christmas cookies! Who could not love how cute and adorable these are?? Honestly, they took a long time to make but I had a cookie-baking date with a friend and a bottle of wine so we pumped these out in no time! My family LOVED them!
For years I made my mother-in-laws favorite Christmas cookies made from “Aunt Chicks” molds. They are very beautiful but super labor-intensive. Your cookies are equally adorable and take much less time. Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Hi Mary,
Amazing!! So glad to hear you family has been enjoying these cookies, thanks so much for making them:) xT
These Santa cookies are adorable. Glad you had some Christmassy fun in NYC. Dyed cookie dough not died- sorry to point this out!
Thank you!!
I did it! Super proud and I found a natural food dye from Super Food Kitchen.
Hey Stacey,
Happy Monday!❄️ I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a lot for making it! xx
I am wanting to try with Watkins natural red dye, it recommends using cream of tartar to help deepen the red color. Do you think that would affect the bake on these?
Hi Heather,
I haven’t tested this, but I don’t think it would cause any issues. Please let me know if you give this recipe a try! xT
Very cute but ours were more like Stuffed Santa blobs. The balls need to be much smaller. But they were fun to make and now I know to make smaller than the pictures look. I am sure they will be yummy still!
Thanks for trying the recipe Claire! Glad to hear they were enjoyed:) xx
This was the best cookie I ever made! So easy an cute! Thank you so much for this recipe! Everything stuck well together.. I’m so impressed
Hey Connie,
I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your review, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Merry Christmas! 🎁🎄
I absolutely love these cookies! They were pretty easy and came out great. I found that gel food coloring worked great for the suit. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Hey Jessica,
I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your review, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Merry Christmas! 🎁🎄
I made these cookies last year and will make them again this year. Time consuming but sooo cute! I used gluten free cup 4 cup flour. They came out just like the photo. I also used a digital scale to make all the different sized balls uniform.
Hey Melinda,
Happy Holidays!!☃️ I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and your comment! xT
I made these with my 8 year old granddaughter’s today and they were a huge hit and so much fun to assemble! (And eat!)
Hey Annie,
Happy Holidays!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed and appreciate you giving it a try! 🎄❄️
Made these yesterday. So much fun to make and delicious too! My husband was so impressed with the way they turned out. Definitely chill them before cooking. Turned out perfect. Almost to cute to eat!!
Hey Sue,
Happy Friday!!☃️ I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and your comment! xT
Loved making these with my daughter! They came out great and tasted amazing. I think what helped was chilling the Santa’s before baking. They held their shape and baked great! Also definitely use less dough than you think. I made mine too large and only got about 8 Santa’s out of the dough.
Hey Toni Ann,
Happy Holidays!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed and appreciate you giving it a try! 🎄❄️
Made these by ACCIDENT lol I thought I was on a different cookie page – oops! I was surprised to find these cookies weren’t as difficult to make as I thought. They are such cute little chonks and I love them.
A couple things that worked well for me: gel food colorings gave me a deep red, make the dough balls smaller than you think you should (my smallest white was the size of a blueberry and my smallest red a small raspberry), and resist the urge to over bake. I also added some eggnog to the icing and it’s sublime.
My only issue was after baking some of the limbs came off quite easily, like didn’t fuse together properly. I used some warmed icing as glue and it’s fine but I’ll try to fix next time.
Hey Meredith,
Happy Holidays!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you! Thanks for sharing what worked well for you!🎁🎅
HoHoHo- in the immortal words of Clark Griswald holy shit where is the TYLENOL after making these!!!! They are DELICIOUS but they are a large effort in my opinion. The dough comes together super easy but rolling out all those balls…. I actually did Two batches and got 23 large Santa’s. They are sooooo cute and no issues with them coming apart either. Thank you for the inspiration!!!
Hey Shelley,
Lol thanks so much for giving these cookies a try, glad to hear they were enjoyed! Sorry they were a little complicated! Happy Holidays! xx
Mine didn’t work…? The dough became pink when I cooked it and the arms fell off… cute idea tho!
Hi Coco,
Thanks for giving these cookies a try, sorry to hear you had some issues. Was there anything you adjusted in the recipe? What kind of food coloring did you use? Let me know how I can help! xx
Just made these and we had a lot of fun making them! The cookies turned out great and delicious!!
So much fun making these Santa cookies! They are adorable and really quite easy to make. If you can roll a piece of dough into a ball, you can make these cookies. Can’t wait to share them with my friends and family. Thanks for such a cute Santa cookie Tieghan.
Hey Jane,
Happy Holidays!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you!🎁🎅
Hey Ileabeth,
Happy Holidays!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you!🎁🎅
Made these yesterday! They turned out so cute but I had some spreading. Nothing too bad, but just not as round and plump as yours! Do you chill your dough at all??
Hey Brenna,
Thanks so much for giving these cookies a try! If your dough is warm from rolling and assembling, you can definitely pop them in the fridge or freezer for a bit, that will help with the spreading! xT
These cookies are so incredibly fun and cute to make! So much easier than I thought. Made with my 7 year old niece and she did so great making the shapes!
Hey Rachel,
Happy Sunday! I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your feedback, so glad to hear it was delish! xx