Looking for wholesome activities for the festive period? We’ve seen an earlier spike in interest for our easy homemade gingerbread recipe this year and have lots of ideas for how to make your biscuits look even more fabulously festive with some simple icing designs, colourful candy or even a touch of glitter.
Baking is a great way to relax and wind down over the holidays, and it can be a fun kitchen project that keeps kids entertained while letting them unleash their creativity. These biscuits not only look beautiful, but taste delicious – plus, they’d make a lovely treat for when guests drop by. We’ve included a range of designs for different skill levels, from simple iced patterns to more intricate stained glass window-style biscuits. We’ve also included simple tips for decorating below.
Find more more festive baking inspiration in our Christmas biscuits recipes and Christmas gingerbread recipes, as well as our Christmas baking recipes and Christmas cake recipes. We also have plenty of Christmas cupcake recipes, Christmas cheesecake recipes and Christmas brownie recipes.
Tips for decorating festive cookies with a piping bag
- Ensure your icing is the correct consistency for piping – not too thick (which will make it hard to pipe) or too thin (which will cause it to run, and it won’t hold its shape)
- Put your chosen piping nozzle in the piping bag before filling it with icing
- When filling the piping bag, stand it upright in a mug or tall glass to make the process easier and less messy
- Do not overfill your piping bag; this will prevent icing from oozing out of the top
- Squeeze the icing from the top of the bag, not the middle, to ensure even pressure and flow
- For outlining biscuits, use a thicker icing to pipe a border around the edge. Let this set for a few minutes before flooding the centre with runnier icing
- To flood the biscuit, pipe enough runnier icing inside the outline and use a toothpick to spread it evenly. Gently shake the biscuit back and forth to achieve a smooth finish
- For simple dot decorations, pipe dots onto the wet icing; they will sink in and smooth out
- When piping dots, hold the bag vertically above the cookie with the nozzle close to the surface. Squeeze out a little icing to form a dot, stop squeezing, push down, then draw up sharply to finish
- For lines, hold the bag at a 45-degree angle, a little away from the surface, and squeeze with steady pressure, letting the line fall naturally into place
- Leave decorated biscuits to set completely before handling or packaging
- If using several colours, divide the icing and add food colouring gels as desired, putting each colour in a separate piping bag for tidy, distinct designs
- Cookie cutters can be used to create lots of different shapes, though plain round are probably the simplest to decorate
See our tips on how to decorate a cake and how to make a piping bag.
Christmas cookie decorating ideas
1. Christmas biscuits
Decorate these easy cinnamon-flavoured biscuits with classic white icing. They’re great for getting the kids involved, and they can also be used as edible tree decorations.
Bake more treats for the tree and the rest of your home with our decoration recipes.
2. Chocolate Christmas biscuits
Decorate these easy chocolate biscuits with your choice of chocolate, icing, sugar pearls and sprinkles. Get the whole family involved with decorating these for a festive kitchen activity.
Discover more sweet treats in our collection of Christmas chocolate recipes.
3. Spiced Christmas biscuits
Use the flooding technique to ice these cute gingerbread treats, then use the rest of the icing to ice the trees and stars, adding sweets or sprinkling with sugar.
See our easy Christmas sweets for stocking fillers or gift ideas.
4. Sugar cookies
Colourful piped icing and sprinkles turn these buttery, melt-in-the-mouth sugar cookies into a thoughtful edible gift. They’ll keep in an airtight container for up to a week.
Bake our clove sugar cookies for biscuits that are sweet, nutty and spiced.
5. Gingerbread stained glass biscuits
With a stained glass centre made from boiled sweets, these pretty gingerbread biscuits are perfect for advanced bakers looking to impress. The intricate icing patterns add to the charm, making them great presents for friends and family.
If you like the look of these, try our aromatic gingerbread cookies.
6. Christmas shortbread biscuits
Level up your biscuit decorating skills by dunking half in dark or white chocolate, then topping with candied orange peel, flaked almonds or freeze-dried raspberries. Star- or tree-shaped cutters also work well.
Discover more shortbread treats in our collection of Christmas shortbread recipes.
7. Snowflake biscuits
These snowflake biscuits use ready-to-roll fondant icing for ease, leaving you more time to spend on creating a glittery snowflake effect using silver balls and white sprinkles. They make a charming Christmas gift, and are great to make with kids.
8. Gingerbread house
Our simple biscuit recipe and design template makes creating a gingerbread house easier than you might think. Decorated with icing and sweets, kids will love getting involved with baking and decorating them, too.
See these cute gingerbread houses for a smaller version.
9. Christmas cookies
With a simple drizzle icing pattern, these festive vanilla cookies make a beautiful edible Christmas tree decoration. Or, you could pack them into boxes to give as end-of-term gifts for teachers and friends.
These Christmas crinkle cookies are also a simple but effective bake.
10. Snowman biscuits
Using coloured ready-to-roll fondant, these festive snowman biscuits are great for getting little ones to help with decorating. You can bake and freeze the biscuits ahead, then bring them out for a winter’s day activity.
Alternatively, bake our star-shaped fairy wand biscuits and decorate with flooded icing and colourful sprinkles.
Get more festive baking inspiration:
Christmas cookies for kids
Our best Christmas biscuit recipes
30 Christmas baking projects for kids
30 best Christmas desserts
Christmas cake decoration recipes
