Jolly Santa Cookies for You to Make This Holiday Season

Soft sugar cookies topped with homemade icing and fun candy decorations that look just like Santa’s face.

A simple, kid-friendly recipe that’s festive, sweet, and always a crowd favorite.

I’m all for simple cookies and sweets at Christmastime, but every now and then I can’t help but get a little creative.

Especially when it comes to making these adorable Jolly Santa cookies!

I use sugar cookies and icing for the cookie, then shredded coconut, red sugar, and other easy-to-grab decorations to make the face.

And it’s fun to watch the girls come up with their own creations (we always end up with a Santa with three eyes).

Sometimes it ends up being a total mess, but that’s half the fun!

So if you’re looking for something easy, fun, and festive to bake this year, check out these adorable cookies:

Ingredients for Jolly Santa Cookies

These are soft, sweet, and so much fun to decorate. The coconut beard gets everywhere (fair warning), but they always turn out adorable, even when the faces look a little “abstract.”

For the Cookies:

• Flour – just your regular all-purpose kind, makes the dough soft and easy to roll.
• Baking powder – gives the cookies a tiny lift so they don’t bake up flat.
• Salt – just a pinch to balance all that sweetness.
• Butter – softened, because cold butter makes the dough impossible to mix.
• Sugar – regular white sugar for that classic sugar cookie taste.
• Egg – helps everything hold together and adds a little chewiness.
• Vanilla extract – gives that warm, cozy flavor you can smell from across the kitchen.

For the Icing:

• Powdered sugar – the base that makes it sweet and smooth.
• Milk – thins it out until it’s spreadable (start small, add more if needed).
• Vanilla extract – just a splash for flavor.
• Light corn syrup – optional, but it makes the icing shiny and pretty.

For the Decorations:

• Sweetened shredded coconut – makes the fluffiest little Santa beards.
• Mini chocolate chips – perfect for tiny eyes.
• Red M&Ms – Santa’s cute little nose.
• Red sanding sugar – for the hat, it sparkles and looks festive.
• Mini marshmallows – the pompom on Santa’s hat, my kids always sneak one before decorating.

How to Make Jolly Santa Cookies

1. Make the Dough

Beat the butter and sugar until it looks fluffy, then mix in the egg and vanilla.

Stir in the dry stuff little by little until the dough comes together soft but not sticky.

Chill it for a few minutes if it’s too warm to roll.

If the dough sticks to your rolling pin, sprinkle a bit more flour and keep going.

2. Roll and Cut

Roll the dough out on a floured counter about a quarter inch thick.

Use a round cutter or even the rim of a glass to cut circles.

Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment.

3. Bake

Bake the cookies at 350°F for around 9 minutes or until the bottoms just start to turn golden.

Let them cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then move them to a rack.

Don’t wait too long or they’ll harden on the pan and lose that soft center!

4. Make the Icing

Whisk powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla together until smooth.

Add a drop or two more milk if it’s too thick.

A tiny bit of corn syrup makes it shiny if you want that bakery look.

5. Decorate

Spread icing on each cookie, then press on coconut for the beard.

Add chocolate chip eyes, a red M&M for the nose, and red sugar for the hat.

Stick a marshmallow on the side for the pompom.

If you let the icing sit for a minute before adding decorations, they’ll stay in place better.

Baking Memories with the Jolly Santa Cookie Recipe

There you go! Your very own batch of Jolly Santa Cookies.

They’re sweet, silly, and just the right kind of messy to make with kids.

Honestly, they never look exactly the same twice, but that’s part of the fun.

I usually end up with coconut all over the floor and a few noses missing, but somehow they still turn out so good.