There are a myriad of ways to decorate Christmas cookies from the simple to the complex. Decorating cookies for Christmas is one of the fun things that everyone in the family can pitch in and help with. There are tons of decorations available and decorating ideas for making Christmas cookies extra special.

Sugar

The first decorating idea is just plain sugar. You can get sugar dyed in a number of different colors and you can find it in the baking aisle of your local market. It is best to decorate either before the cookies go into the oven or decorate as soon as they come out to allow the heat to melt the sugar enough that it sticks to the cookies.

You can also consider placing chocolate kisses, chocolate chips, cinnamon drops, or the cinnamon hard candies used for decorating on the top of the cookies before baking or while the cookies are still warm and soft. You can also consider decorating with nuts, cherries or other pieces of fruit depending on the type of cookies you are making. If using nuts or fruits it is usually best to place these in the dough prior to baking your cookies.

Icing

Icing is probably the most common decoration used for cookies outside of sugar. There are a couple of different types of icings out there, to make from home but icing from the store works as well. Icing can be fairly sweet in some cases overpoweringly so, it is a good idea to use this method on cookies that tend to be less sweet or cookies with nuts that might leave behind a slightly bitter aftertaste. Only a little should be used. For Christmas cookies you can decorate them in real life pictures for example use green icing on a Christmas tree and place a variety of different colored dots for lights or ornaments. Snowmen are white and then use black for the decorations or make up your own designs.

Chocolate

Chocolate is another great way to decorate cookies. Simple drizzle stripes of chocolate over the cookies or use a fine decorating tip to draw designs on your cookies. Use white chocolate and food coloring to make a variety of different colors for your chocolate. This can also be used in place of icing, using different types of chocolate can also help to increase or decrease the sweet taste of some cookies.

Jellies and Jam

Depending on the type of cookie you are making you can also use Jelly, Jam or preserves as decoration for your cookie a dollop is usually placed in the center of the cookie before it is baked with nothing else added. You can use this with regular sugar cookies or with special jelly drop recipes. Other things you can decorate with, raisins, licorice, coconut, powdered or cinnamon sugar. You can also find butterscotch, crème de mint and peanut butter chips in addition to chocolate. They also make a food coloring dye for those that do not want any added sugar that is simply painted onto the cookie.