Baking and decorating Jesus Cookies is one of my kids’ most favorite things to do every year.
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Jesus Cookies are a highlight of Christmas for my kids. My mom bought us a Nativity Bake Set about ten years ago, and it seriously has been one of the best parts of our holidays — every year. Not only do my kids get to decorate cookies, but they get to do it while reviewing The Christmas Story.
For us it is a wonderfully easy and natural way to keep Jesus in the midst of our celebrations.
Some years, we’ve made the cookies with gingerbread cookie dough. And once we even went all out and used the cookies for a nativity display in place of a traditional gingerbread house.
The house smelled amazingly good that year as the spices from the homebaked cookies drifted throughout. Yum! This year my gingerbread was a major fail. More on that later….
So, we opted for Sugar Cookies. This recipe is one that my mom made for me and my siblings when we were children. I made it egg white-free this year by using two egg yolks instead of the whole egg. I also omitted the almond extract that she normally used in order to keep it nut free.
FishChick4 loved it when I said yes to her request to roll and cut the dough herself. I was hesitant, believe me. Efficient Mom and Yes Mom had a battle. Thankfully, the Yes Mom won — at least for one round of dough.
This is the bake set we’ve used for the past ten years. I was stunned to find it on Amazon. Yeah! I thought they had stopped making them. Our set looks like it’s from the dark ages. I’m tempted to buy six sets so that my grandchildren can someday make their own Jesus cookies.
As I’ve mentioned before, “painting” your cookies with pastry brushes is the best way to let your little people decorate. However, I dumped those during this summer’s Great Mouse Invasion and haven’t yet replaced them. So, we used knives and very thick powdered sugar icing. And lots of sprinkles.
My kids had a blast decorating Jesus Cookies this year. Here’s my mom’s cookie recipe, adapted to be nut and eggwhite free.
Recipe: Nanna’s Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar and butter. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Blend. Add flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- Heat the oven to 375°. On lightly floured surface, roll out a portion of the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place on parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes or until lightly browned along the edges. Cool on wire rack.
- Frost with powdered sugar icing and sprinkles. Store in an airtight container. Cookies may be frozen, layered between sheets of waxed paper in an airtight container.
Recipe: Powdered Sugar Icing
Ingredients
- 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- half and half
- gel food coloring
Instructions
- In mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and a tablespoon of half and half. Continue adding half and half until you reach the desired consistency.
- Divide frosting into muffin cups or small bowls. Tint with gel food coloring.
What special cookie shapes do YOU use at the holidays?
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Thanks for sharing! I’ll be rounding up our baking things shortly and believe-you-me Efficient Mom, Perfectionist Mom and Neat-&-Tidy Mom will all be battling with Yes Mom & Fun Mom. We will see how this turns out 🙂
Thanks for sharing! As we were cutting out Christmas cookies yesterday I was thinking how it would be so neat to have symbols of the Bible story on our cookie tray. I didn’t know this cookie set existed. I put in on my wish list!
I would buy 6 sets and store them away as a 1st Christmas presents for them as newlyweds….I think it is a tradition worth passing down.
These are great! As soon as I read this post I looked the cookie cutters up on Amazon and called my mom. Together we ended up ordering 12 to give away as gifts to young families next year. What a fun gift and tradition to start with kids! I think you should pick up 6 sets and give them to the child when they move out of the house – great memory to pass on!
How fun!
Looks like a lot of fun. I need to bring Yes Mom out to play, and have Efficient Mom and Tidy Mom nap for awhile.
We’ll be making our family’s cutout Christmas cookies this weekend — my mom, my daughter, and I. And, as my sister says, in our family, how can it be Christmas without cookie pigs and tractors?
What a great idea to keep the real meaning of Christmas as part of family celebrations. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime…I should be able to get a set in time for Christmas! I like the idea of giving the bake sets for gifts too!
Thank you for being honest about Efficient mom and Yes mom. As much as I love your recipes and posts I truly love your transparency as a wife and mom. We decorated cookies with my 2 yo and I had to put perfectionist mom away and let fun mom out for awhile.
And I also think you should get 6 sets of cookie cutters and put them back for the kiddos. I am sure it will bring them years of happy memories.
I just sold that exact set on eBay earlier this week! I found it at the thrift store this past fall. Too funny!
thanks for reminding me that i have a set like this! we are going to decorate sugar cookies this weekend, and now i know exactly what shapes we’ll be using.
i have this set, too, and LOVE it! So fun to read your post! 🙂
What a neat set! The kids like cookie cutting and sugar sprinkling although we normally wait until Christimas Eve to set them loose with making cookies for Santa. Meanwhile I take each kid in one by one to wrap their gifts for the others. The older ones love having secrets. Nothing more fun then telling your siblings “I know what you’re getting for Christmas” dontcha know!
I LOVE that set!! I think one of your readers bought Amazon out- I just tried to buy the set and they are out of stock!! I have a Czech nativity cutter set that has SUPER complicated decorating- I’ve made it once. It’s the kind of scene that has many European characters in it- a goose lady, a bread man, a monk, etc. I love it!
awesome.. Let me see if can get this here in India somewhere.. Right now, stars are our only holiday shaped cookies:-)
I like that. I will have to keep my eye for that. 🙂 Maybe after Christmas clearance 🙂
I bought this set about 3 years ago… and then I had two babies, and it just didn’t happen. This is the year! Thanks for reminding me! =)
If I were to keep the egg white in how many eggs would I use? Thanks so much love the set and just got it!
I usually do one whole egg for 2 egg yolks.