6 Tips for Decorating Martha-Level Holiday Sugar Cookies

When it comes to holiday cookies, you'd be surprised how far one recipe can go—especially if you come to the table with a few decorating kills. Case in point: Though they look different, the cornerstone of all the beautiful cookies shown here is one of Martha's longtime favorite recipes: Sugar Cookies. It's her go-to when she wants a delicious canvas for decorated cut-out cookies.

One recipe makes about two dozen 4-inch treats. Simply double (or triple!) the recipe to ensure you have plenty of dough to make a selection of the iterations we're sharing here. Once you've made the dough, chilled it, and rolled it out using the recipe directions, follow the instructions for each variation below.

The other essential recipe required for most of these decorating ideas is Royal Icing. Doubling our recipe makes 5 cups. That might sound like a lot, but the icing goes fast if you're covering the entire surface of the cookie, rather than just outlining it.

Extra-Large Piped Snowflakes

You'll need extra-large snowflake cutters, a piping bag, a medium plain round tip (such as Ateco #5 or #7), and the shiny metallic balls known as dragées (or your choice of sugar pearls) for these giant cookies.

1. Use cutters to stamp out the dough, then chill and bake as outlined in the Sugar Cookie recipe directions. Allow cookies to cool completely before decorating.
2. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a medium plain round tip with royal icing.
3. Pipe designs on each snowflake; immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar.
4. Let stand 5 minutes before tapping off any excess sugar.
5. Pipe small dots of royal icing to adhere dragées or other embellishments.
6. Transfer cookies to cooling racks and let icing set completely, about an hour, before serving or storing

Small Pastel Snowflakes

These more petite and colorful snowflakes are a great option if you don't want to pipe cookie decorations. You'll need 1 to 2-inch snowflake cutters and pastel sanding sugars to make them.

1. Stamp out snowflakes, then chill and bake according to the Sugar Cookies recipe directions. Let cool completely.
2. Holding a cookie by its edges, dip the top side into a small bowl of royal icing so the top of the cookie is covered. Tilt cookie to allow any excess icing to drip back into the bowl; wipe edges with your finger to remove excess.
3. Place cookie on cooling rack, dipped side up, and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Sprinkle generously with sanding sugar.
5. repeat with remaining cookies, royal icing, and sanding sugar. Allow cookies to dry completely.

Chocolate-Dipped Sugar Cookies

You can dip any sugar cookie-cutout in tempered chocolate, but Martha opted for trees, bears, and the reindeer shown here. And you can use white, milk, or dark chocolate for tempering.

You'll need your choice of cookie cutters, tempered chocolate, nonpareils, dragées, and/or sanding sugar, and a piping bag fitted with a medium tip (Ateco #5) if you want to pipe details—or, you can use nonpareils and other decorations instead.

1. Stamp out shapes using tree, bear, and reindeer cutters. Chill and bake according to the Sugar Cookie recipe directions; let cool completely.
2. Holding a cookie by its edge, dip the top side into the tempered chocolate. The top should be entirely covered.
3. Tilt each cookie to allow any excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl; wipe the edges of the cookie with your finger to remove excess.
4. Decorate the cookie with nonpareils, dragées, and/or sanding sugar. Let dry completely, dipped-side up, on a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cookies.
5. To add raised dots in a different chocolate, as Martha did for the reindeer's eye, tail, and hooves, let the chocolate set completely on the cookie surface, then fill a piping bag with a medium tip with another tempered chocolate and pipe dots.

Shining Stars

For star cookies like the shimmering gold-and-white one shown here, you'll need 2-to-3-inch star cutters, a new, small paintbrush, silver or gold luster dust, and a small amount of vodka.

1. Stamp out cookies, then chill and bake according to the Sugar Cookies recipe directions. Let cool completely.
2. Holding a cookie by its edges, dip the top side into white royal icing so the top of the cookie is entirely covered. Tilt the cookie to allow any excess to drip back into the bowl; wipe the edges with your finger to remove excess icing.
3. Let dry completely, dipped-side up, on a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cookies and icing.
4. Mix 1/4 teaspoon luster dust with vodka, one tablespoon at a time, to create a thin but not watery liquid with a consistency similar to whole milk.
5. Use the paintbrush to flick droplets of luster-dust paint onto the surface of the cookies. Let dry completely.

Sugar-Cookie "Presents"

A 3-inch square cutter, red-and-green gel food coloring, silver or gold luster dust, and a new 1/2-inch wide paintbrush are what you'll need for these cookies.

1. Stamp out the cookie shapes and chill and bake, according to the Sugar Cookies recipe directions. Let cool completely.
2. Divide royal icing into three small bowls. Tint one with red gel food coloring, one with green, and leave the third white.
3. Holding a cookie by its edges, dip the top side into white, red, or green royal icing, ensuring the top is entirely covered. Tilt the cookie to allow any excess to drip back into the bowl; wipe the edges with your finger to excess icing.
4. Let dry completely, dipped-side up, on a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cookies and icing.
5. Mix 1/4 teaspoon luster dust with vodka, one tablespoon at a time, to create a thin but not watery liquid with a consistency similar to whole milk.
6. Set the cookies on the cooling rack side by side and use the paintbrush to brush luster-dust paint across them in a crosshatch pattern. Let dry completely.

Wreaths and Small Fluted Rounds

This decorating technique creates glittering wreath cookies and smaller fluter rounds (not shown). To make them, you'll need 3½-inch and 1-inch fluted round cutters. Martha used ground pistachios, silvered pearlized chocolate balls, nonpareils, and candied-ginger "ornaments" (made by cutting out candied ginger using the tip of a 1/4-inch piping tip), and a few pink-peppercorn berries for the green wreaths.

For the red wreaths, she used ground freeze-dried raspberries, silvered chocolate balls, nonpareils, and pink peppercorns. For the small fluted rounds, you'll need pastel sanding sugar—or you can decorate them as you do the wreath cookies.

1. Stamp out shapes using the larger cutter; cut out the center of each cookies using the smaller cutter. Chill and bake both the wreath cookies and the small rounds according to the directions in the Sugar Cookies recipe. Let cool completely.
2. Holding a cookie by its edges, dip the top side into white royal icing so the top of the cookie is entirely covered. Tilt the cookie to allow any excess to drip back into the bowl; wipe the edges with your finger to remove excess icing. Set on a cooling rack, dipped side up. Repeat with remaining cookies and icing.
3. Decorate before the icing sets. Start with the ground pistachios or ground freeze-dried berries, then place nonpareils and other "ornaments. The small round cookies can be dusted with sanding sugar or decorated similarly to the wreath cookies.