These Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars are so soft and thick, with a thick layer of buttery sweet frosting. They’re filled with, and topped with sprinkles for an adorably festive Christmas cookie bar!
Baking is one of my favorite parts of the holidays, well scratch that – first eating all the sweets is my favorite, then making them. There are so many good holiday treats that I love to make every year from peanut butter blossoms, to adorable Christmas tree sugar cookies. These Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars are definitely a new favorite of mine.
When I don’t want the hassle of actual sugar cookies, but I want the delicious flavor, these cookie bars are the perfect solution. These Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars are practically the same as my traditional Sugar Cookie Bars, but of course they’re jazzed up for Christmas.
The best things about Sugar Cookie Bars:
- No chilling the dough
- No rolling and cutting the dough
- So much easier to decorate
- Thick and soft cookie bars
How to make Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars:
Preheat your oven and grease a 9×13 pan. Mix your butter and granulated sugar together in a large bowl. Add in the egg, vanilla extract, and cream cheese. In another bowl whisk together your dry ingredients; flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients in to the wet ingredients until you have a nice soft dough. The mix in the sprinkles.
Press the dough into the baking pan. Bake until the edges of the bars are lightly golden and the bars look cooked throughout. Let them cool completely.
Mix together all the ingredients for your frosting, then spread it evenly over the top of the cookie bars. Sprinkle the top nicely and evenly with the Christmas sprinkles. Let the frosting set, then cut the bars apart and serve.
Tips for making the best Sugar Cookie Bars:
- The bars are done baking when they look slightly golden around the edges, and the middle may still look a little underdone. They will keep cooking in the pan as they cool.
- There are so many fun ways to decorate these Christmas sugar cookie bars. You can tint your frosting red, or green for a fun look.
- You can decorate the bars topped with holiday m&ms, or holiday sprinkles
If you share these Christmas sugar cookie bars with your friends and family, you can almost guarantee they’ll be asking you for the recipe. These Christmas sugar cookie bars are such a fun, festive, and delicious holiday treat. And did I mention easy? Cause that’s definitely the best part!
More Christmas Cookie Recipes:
- Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Christmas Tree Cookies
- Christmas Ginger Cookies
- The Best Sugar Cookies
- Santa’s Cookies (small batch)
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Christmas Sugar Cookie Bars
Ingredients
For the Sugar Cookie Bars:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 oz cream cheese (softened)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup Christmas jimmies
For The Frosting:
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 TBS heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3-5 drops food coloring (optional)
- 2 TBS assorted Christmas sprinkles
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
For the Sugar Cookie Bars:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, cream cheese, and vanilla and mix until they are combined.
- Add in the dry ingredients, flour, baking powder and salt, and stir them in until you have a soft dough.
- Fold the Christmas sprinkles into the batter.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture into the wet mixture, while stirring until everything is combined.
- Press the batter into a greased 9×13 baking dish and spread it out evenly with your hands or a rubber spatula.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes or until edges just barely start to turn golden. Allow the bars to cool completely.
For The Frosting:
- Mix together all the ingredients for your frosting until fluffy creamy. Continue beating for a few minutes, or use imitation vanilla for a whiter frosting. Add in food coloring if desired.
- Spread frosting evenly over cooled cookie bars.
- Top with sprinkles, or Christmas m&ms, as desired.
- Cut into squares and serve.
Linda says
I made these for christmas eve and they tasted way too buttery. One of my family members tasted it and said it tasted like she put a stick of butter in her mouth. Nobody else ate them. It was embarrassing. I will not be making these again.
Lisa says
Cream cheese video shows sour cream
Aimee says
You’re right, good catch! We used to make them with sour cream, and personally I prefer the cream cheese. But you can use either if you want to use sour cream instead.
Margie says
I made bars. Dough was just right. I think I put too much red in it. Will that b ok?
Aimee says
Sorry, I’m not sure what too much food coloring will do. How did it turn out?
Sonya Anderson says
I feel there is too much vanilla in the icing, it turned out not a nice white colour. Other then that a great recipe!
Aimee says
Dang that your frosting didn’t turn out as white as you wanted. If you whip the frosting longer it usually will lighten in color, or you can use imitation vanilla that is clear colored.
Tiffany Done says
These cookie bars are so easy! The dough was a little crumbly but once you press it into the pan and bake it, it turned out just fine. One thing I loved was that the sugar cookie part was good enough that you could eat it by itself. A lot of other sugar cookie recipes the cookie part is bland. This is not the case with these cookies. I would also say that I think these cookies are almost even better the second day. I made them for book club and everyone loved them.
Sherri says
Can these bars be frozen?
Aimee says
You can freeze them, but I recommend frosting them after thawing.
Jordan says
These are so yummy and so festive! This is also the perfect make-ahead recipe for a easy dessert to feed a crowd. Thanks for sharing!
Gwenn says
Dough was auger crumbly – hard to cover the pan. Edges came out brown afternoon only 15 min of baking. Hoping to salvage the middle section with frosting.
Aimee says
Did you make sure to spoon and level the flour, as directed? That way of measuring gives a lot less flour per cup, than if you pour the flour in the cup, or scoop straight with the cup.
Gwenn says
Yes fluffed and leveled the flour as directed – seemed like 2.5 cups was too much.
Aimee says
I’m sorry it was for you :/ It is a crumbly dough, but I’ve made these several times and they bake up great, never dry for me.
Lisa C Huther says
Aimee, unfortunately the ingredient list says the flour is scooped and leveled.
Aimee says
It does say that, but you’d be surprised that people still don’t follow it all the time 😉
Aimee says
And I’m sorry the edges turned darker brown, I always like to check my baking recipes early incase my oven runs hot. I hope you’ll be able to save the middle
Barbara says
I made this and the icing was so runny. Did just what the recipe instructed.
Aimee says
I’m sorry about that, if you haven’t spread it I recommend adding more powdered sugar till your icing is no longer runny. I’ll edit the recipe saying to start with less milk and add more as needed. Thinner milks may make a thinner frosting
Aimee says
I’m so sorry about that Barbara! I just checked the recipe and realized somehow it got posted saying 2 cups powdered sugar, when I actually use 3.5 to 4 cups. I updated that, I’m so sorry!
Chris Dawson says
Little Debbie and Sara Lee ain’t got chittttt on dis cook-eeeeeee!!! Nuff said👌👍👊😁😁😁😁💯
Aimee says
Thank you so much! You just made my day 🙂