12 christmas sugar cookie recipes

No sugar, flavour is still so nice, and much healthier too!

Classic Viennese Christmas cookie. Soft and buttery with a dusting of snowy sugar.

Moravian Christmas cookies rolled paper-thin with molasses, brown sugar, and warm spices like clove, cinnamon, and ginger. A heritage Pennsylvania Dutch holiday cookie that snaps with every bite.

Just in time for Christmas, these delicious cookies made with molasses and brown sugar are full of the holiday spirit.

German springerle Christmas cookies: anise-scented egg-and-sugar dough pressed with carved wooden molds, dried overnight, and baked low to set the embossed pattern.

Classic Christmas cut-out sugar cookies with clean edges that hold their shape. A simple butter-and-shortening dough that rolls thin, bakes crisp, and takes royal icing like a dream.

Ginger bread is one of the classic and traditional cookies people make for Christmas. The rich flavor from brown sugar and molasses is so good and the spices make the uniquely delicious taste.

Sugarplum cookies with dried or candied fruit hidden inside each ball of vanilla sugar cookie dough. Topped with creamy frosting and colored sugar for Christmas cookie trays.

Cream cheese snowflake cookies with lemon zest, topped with powdered sugar icing and edible glitter. Delicate, buttery Christmas cutout cookies that sparkle.

Tiny green sugar cookie balls arranged in rings with candied cherry "berries" to make festive Christmas wreath cookies. A fun, easy holiday baking project for kids.

Rosettes are delicate Scandinavian fried cookies shaped on a decorative iron, crisp like a wafer and dusted with powdered sugar. A Christmas tradition in Nordic and Midwestern kitchens.

Holiday decorating icing whisks powdered sugar with a splash of milk and a drop of flavor extract into a smooth, pipe-able glaze for outlining, flooding, and drizzling Christmas cookies.