If you love making cookies for Santa, and love writing letters to Santa, why not try the best of both worlds? Here’s how you can write to Santa on your cookies. These fun “Letter to Santa” cookies are truly easy to make. And once you have a (edible ink) pen in hand, you can take it any direction you like.
We got inspiration for this project from Lisa of Delicious Table because her Santa’s Cookies and Milk cookies are on point. Of course, practice makes perfect, and it took a few rounds for us to get this right. (We never quite got the “hole punch” to work – the cookies puffed up and closed the hole.) We also tried a few different version of the icing to settle on just the right texture.
Letter to Santa Cookies
Fun Christmas sugar cookies that you can use as a base for writing a letter to Santa (with an edible writing pen). Adapted from Delicious Table, Land O' Lakes, and Sweet Jenny Belle.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 T. orange juice freshly squeezed
- 1 T. vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Royal Icing
- 1 pound powdered sugar
- 2 1/2 T. meringue powder
- 1/8 tsp. vanilla
- 1/2 cup warm water (scant)
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
Instructions
Cookies
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In a large mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg, baking powder, orange juice, and vanilla, and continue mixing. Mix in the flour until a soft dough is formed. Wrap the dough securely in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
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Remove dough from refrigerator, turn out onto a floured board. Roll out dough to 1/4" thickness. Cut into squares using a square cookie cutter or plastic container lid. Place cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned (watch carefully!). Cool cookies on a baking rack.
Icing
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Place all ingredients in mixer and blend on low speed for ten minutes. Cover icing with plastic wrap or a towel until ready to use (unused icing may be stored in the refrigerator if covered securely).
Cookie Decorating
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Fit a pastry bag with a round tip and fill the pastry bag with icing. Pipe a line around the edge of the cookie. Fill in the rest of the cookie with icing and carefully spread the icing so it is flat across the cookie in a nice square shape. Set the cookies in a dry and safe place and let the icing set for at least 24 hours.
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Using a ruler, carefully draw the red vertical line and the blue horizontal lines for the writing paper. Then give the pens to your family and let them write to their hearts' content.
So many tips to note: One, you can buy meringue powder from Amazon, Michaels, or at well-stocked baking or kitchen supply stores.
Two, if your royal icing is too hard to spread (it should gracefully flow into shape), try adding more corn syrup.
Three, you don’t need any kind of custom cookie cutter. We just used the lid of a plastic container.
Four, some special equipment to note: You’ll want an edible food-writing pen – We like this food writing pen from Wilton. You can find this at Amazon, Michaels, or other baking or craft supply stores. 
Five: Leave perfection at the door. If you have a few bumpy lines or smudges, don’t sweat it! Seriously – Santa won’t mind a bit.
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Letters to Santa – Handwritten Note Cookies
Blogger disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links to products that I have used successfully.
Hi! I'm Jeanne Fratello - a writer, reporter, and food enthusiast who is on a mission to write great stories about food and where your food comes from.
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