Make the Dough

• In a bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. If using vanilla extract, add it here.

• Gradually add flour (and a pinch of salt if using), mixing until the dough just comes together. Don’t overwork it — you want it smooth but not tough.

• Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 20–30 minutes. Chilling helps keep cookies from spreading too much and holds the shape.

Shape the Cookies

• Preheat oven to 350 °F (175 °C).

• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled dough to about ¼-inch (≈ 5–6 mm) thickness.

• Use a Christmas-tree cookie cutter (or a knife if you don’t have one) to cut out tree shapes. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat.

• If you want “trunks,” you can insert a small piece of pretzel stick at the bottom of each tree cookie (press gently so it stays in place).

Bake

• Bake for 10–14 minutes, or until edges are just starting to turn golden. Cookies should remain fairly pale for a tender, buttery texture — avoid over-baking for a soft short-bread-like bite.

• Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.

Decorate
You have many decorating options depending on how fancy you want to go:

• Icing & Sprinkles: Pipe or spread a thin layer of royal icing or powdered-sugar glaze, then add sprinkles or candy decorations (like ornaments).

• Chocolate-dipped trees: Dip half (or base) of each cooled cookie in melted chocolate or white chocolate; allow to set. Optionally sprinkle crushed nuts or crushed freeze-dried berries on the wet chocolate for festive color and crunch.

• Colorful sugar/simple glaze: Mix powdered sugar + a little milk + food coloring for a quick glaze. Drizzle or flood the cookies, then add edible pearls, colored sugar for ornaments, or dust with colored sugar for sparkle.

• Trunk + ornaments look: Use pretzel stick as trunk, pipe brown icing or melt chocolate for trunk, decorate tree with green icing and “ornaments” — candies, sugar pearls, or sprinkles.