One of the best ways to spread Christmas cheer is to make amazing cookies for all the neighbors near. Decorating cookies are a surprisingly easy and fun way to celebrate the Christmas season, or any season, with loved ones.

Sugar cookies need to look cute, but more importantly, need to taste good. While from scratch is normally the better choice, I have found during my cookie baking obsession this year that Betty Crocker’s Sugar Cookie Mix actually tastes better and is easier to cut out than a from scratch recipe.

Whichever you choose, box or grandma’s secret recipe, cutting out cookies is always easier when the dough is chilled before use. Once the dough is out of the refrigerator, dust the surface that you will use to roll out the cookies with flour. This step is important to get correct, but from experience, I know that it is very frustrating to get all the cookies cut and then try to move them without them sticking. Sometimes you can be left with broken stars, Santas with no hats, or trees with no trunks. After the flour, roll out the dough to about a quarter of an inch thick and cut out all of your desired shapes.

Put them on an ungreased cookies sheet. Use parchment paper for easy removal. Bake for 5-9 minutes depending on your oven. The first batch will likely be a guinea pig to see if your cookies are too wet in the middle or too dry. Give the cookies time to settle and cool.

When decorating, the object is to be creative, but don’t forget to have fun. Ultimately, if you are not a pro, the way they look does not matter so do not worry. Here is a simple design from a snowman cookie. For this, I used homemade frosting in a plastic bag. The key is the make a very small hole in the bag for control.

Take the frosting bag and outline the hat of the snowman. This can be done in black frosting or just white. Here, I used white frosting with the intent to then use black sugar sprinkles.

Next, fill in this outlined area and sprinkle with black sugar.

Shake off the excess sugar. Then, outline and fill in the body of the snowman.

Finally, I added three little red candies that I found on a stale gingerbread house on my fridge. This step could be done in various ways: with colored frosting to make a scarf,  a face, or by using circular sprinkles as buttons.

Sugar cookies are a great way to bond, with friends or family, especially during the Holiday eason and extra time over break.