Holiday Sugar Cookies with Sprinkles

These easy and fun sugar cookies with sprinkles are perfect for the holidays. You can also customize the sprinkles for any time of year or event. Making homemade cookies is a fun family tradition no matter when you do it!

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Sugar cookies with sprinkles are just what they sound like…sugar cookies that are covered in sprinkles! This is the best way to make sugar cookies, don’t worry, I’ll tell you why!

Making traditional sugar cookies requires rolling out the dough, cutting it, rolling it back up, etc. With these sprinkle sugar cookies we just make a dough ball, coat it in sprinkles, and press it down a bit to flatten it out for baking. Just like making old fashioned soft molasses cookies!

Another reason this method is preferable to me is that when kids are helping it’s nice to get a little bit of an assembly line going. Everyone has a job, we can switch up the jobs so everyone gets to design their own cookies, and before we know it there are tons of cookies ready to go.

Finally, if you need one more reason to love these cookies, you can use whatever kind of sprinkles you like. Use colorful sugar to match the theme or holiday, you can also swap out the sugar for jimmies or candy sprinkles!

There are so many options out there for sprinkles, choose whatever makes you smile for your soft sugar cookies.

Here’s what you need to make soft sugar cookies:

You can find the amounts, nutritional info, and more in the recipe card at the bottom of the post, here’s a quick shopping list of what we use in this recipe.

This is all pretty standard soft sugar cookie fare. Most of this you probably already have on hand!

• Unsalted butter, room temperature
• White sugar
• Egg, room temperature
• Vanilla extract
• All-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• Baking powder
• Cream of tartar
• Salt
• Red sugar crystals or another favorite sprinkle

How to make the best soft sugar cookies with sprinkles:

Preheat the oven to 350F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until combined. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt.

Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture until completely combined.

You don’t need to refrigerate the dough if you are in a hurry, but it you do it will be less sticky when you roll the balls. If chilling, do so for one hour.

Pour the red sugar crystals or other sprinkles onto a plate.

Make 1.5-2″ balls of dough using your hands. Then roll each ball in the sprinkles or sugar crystals to coat completely.

Place the dough balls on the prepared cookie sheets and gently press down with the bottom of a glass (or your hand) to flatten slightly. Bake for 8-12 minutes, until just golden.

Loved these soft sugar cookies recipe? Here are some more cookie recipes:

Cookies are never a bad idea! Here are some other cookie recipes that you’ll love if you enjoyed this soft sugar cookies recipe:

• Homemade Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies Recipe
• Family Favorite Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
• Double Butterscotch Cookies {Perfect for Freezing}
• Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
• Peppermint Cake Mix Cookies

Printable soft sugar cookies recipe: