Decorated Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars

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Looking for a Christmas dessert that is simple and will feed a crowd? Create a beautifully decorated pan of Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars! They’re soft and chewy cookies that look fancy, but couldn’t be easier! If you’re looking for more Christmas cookie ideas, check out my Christmas Cookie recipe archive! Get ready for an easy sweet treat!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

I am sort of in love with this recipe and the way these cute little Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars turned out! Sugar cookie bars and I have a history together and I love them for a number of reasons. Mainly because they are so darn good and you don’t have to spend an afternoon scooping cookie dough to feed a crowd.

This holiday season, instead of making my Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Bars (one of my all time favorites…I’ll probably still make these!!) or these Simple Sugar Cookie Bars (which are thick and delicious!) I opted for a thinner, frosted AND decorated Christmas sugar cookie bar that is deceivingly simple to make.

Main Ingredients Needed

For the Sugar Cookie Bars

• all-purpose flour– unbleached, this is used to fill out the rest of the cookie and help bring all the ingredients together.
• baking powder– this is used for leavening.
• granulated sugar – to sweeten
• salted butter– cold & cubed! The salt in this helps balance all the other flavors.
• large egg– this is used for texture and structure.
• pure vanilla extract–  this is what makes these super delicious.
• pure almond extract–  once again, pure extract. If you don’t like almond extract, leave this ingredient out and consider doubling up on the vanilla.

For the Frosting + Decorations I used

All of these things are optional, but I wanted to list everything I used to create and decorate. Feel free to use some or all of it. Have fun and let your creativity shine!

• 2 tubs of vanilla frosting– store-bought. One can will be for frosting the pan of cookie bars, the other for decorating. You can use any flavor that you want, although if you’re decorating your bars like I did, you’ll want a white or cream colored frosting so that the designs show up. I took this shortcut because I was short on time. They turned out great! However, if you want to make your frosting from scratch, consider using my Homemade Buttercream Frosting or my Royal Icing recipe!
• 1 can of chocolate frosting – or homemade Chocolate Frosting
• green decorating icing with tips (Wilton Brand)
• red decorating icing with tips (Wilton Brand)
• mini M&M’s
• regular sized M&M’s
• red & green festive sprinkles
• pretzel rods
• small red sprinkles
• small black sprinkles
• coarse granulated sugar sprinkles
• edible snowflake decorations

How to Make Decorated Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars

I used my Vanilla Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe for the sugar cookie base and instead of cutting out shapes with my cookie cutters, I pressed the dough into a half sheet pan and baked. Let cool completely. THEN, I used…wait for it…store bought frosting and covered the entire thing with a thin layer and went to town decorating! For full recipe details, including ingredients and measurements, see the printable recipe card down below.

I ended up making and photographing these bars twice!! So, you might see some varying techniques as to how these were decorated. You can pick and choose which you think are the cutest and make these how you like!

Preheat Oven + Prep Half Sheet Pan

Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly grease a half sheet pan (18×13) with non stick cooking spray. You could alternatively use parchment paper on the pan to easily lift out the cookie bars and cut into individual cookies. Set aside.

Make the Sugar Cookie Dough

In a large bowl, stir flour and baking powder together. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together. Stir in the wet ingredients (egg, extracts and vanilla). Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients.

Bake + Cool

Press cookie dough mixture into prepared pan to create an even layer. Bake 15-20 minutes or until the edges are lightly golden brown. Allow to cool completely to room temperature before starting to frost and decorate.

Frost

Using 1 can of vanilla frosting, cover the cookie bars with a thin single layer. Using a sharp knife, score the top of the frosting to create 25 rectangles (5×5) to help with decorating and creating even cookie creations.

Time To Decorate!

Using other candies and frostings from the store, I went row by row, creating Santas, Snowmen, Christmas Trees and Rudolphs! Feel free to just make an entire sheet pan of Santa’s or Rudolph’s. No need to make them all, although they are really cute. 😉

FOR SANTA: Using the Red Decorating Icing, pipe the entire length of one row of cookies to create the red portion of Santa’s hat, like you’re writing wide upside down U’s. Fill a disposable icing bag with vanilla frosting and cut off the tip. Using circular motions, pipe white icing along the red hat border to create Santa’s curly white hair. Create two rows. Using this same circular motion, pipe along the bottom edge of the cookie to create Santa’s beard. Pipe on white mustaches. Add a red sprinkle or red mini M&M for the nose and two black sprinkles for the eyes. Sprinkle coarse granulated sugar over the hair.

FOR RUDOLPH: Fill disposable icing bag with chocolate frosting and cut off the end. Pipe upside down U shapes onto each rectangle and fill in. Using a butter knife, spread frosting around to remove piping lines. Add either two brown mini M&M’s or two black sprinkles for the eyes and red M&M’s for the nose. Break apart pretzel rods and create antlers.

FOR TREES: Using either the round or star tip, pipe green frosting into triangles and fill in. Sprinkle with red & green holiday sprinkles or mini M&M’s. Add yellow mini M&M on top of each tree. Break apart pretzel rods to create tree stump.

FOR SNOWMEN: Using the white frosting, pipe figure 8’s onto each rectangle and fill in. Pipe a red scarf using the red frosting with either the round or star tip. Add two black sprinkles for the eyes and an orange mini M&M for the nose. Optionally: add three black sprinkles or two brown mini M&M’s as buttons, edible snowflakes and coarse granulated sugar sprinkles as snow along the bottom.

Cut and Serve

Once all of your little guys are decorated, take a large sharp knife or even a pizza cutter and cut along the scored lines to make individual cookie bars. Serve and enjoy!

Storing Directions

These sugar cookie bars stay soft and tasty for up to 5 days when stored at room temperature in an airtight container. To lengthen their shelf life, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days. You may want to keep them on the baking pan and cover well with plastic wrap.

Helpful Links and Tips

I found nearly everything on Amazon, though it seems like Joann’s, Target, Walmart or other good grocery stores would have a lot, if not, all of these supplies.

Other Cookie Recipes, in Bar Form You Might Like:

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
• Double Chocolate Cookie Bars
• Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars

These Christmas cookies are perfect for this time of year! They’d be so fun to bring into a child’s classroom for a party or add to a plate for a holiday cookie exchange! The printable recipe card is below. Merry Christmas, Friends!

If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.