This super fun and festive Christmas cookie tree is undetectably vegan, dairy free, and gluten free, yet makes the most elegant holiday centerpiece! Made with sugar cookies for the perfect complement to your vegan gingerbread house!

vegan cookie tree

I actually used my vegan sugar cookie recipe as the inspiration for these vegan Christmas tree cookies.

However, we need a lot of dough for this cookie tree, so I tripled the recipe, and made it entirely nut free (because almond flour is expensive! Plus these cookies taste amazing as is).

The ingredients you’ll need for this Christmas cookie tree are actually fairly simple!

  • Flour: you can use gluten free 1:1 baking flour here or all purpose.
  • Sugar: I used coconut sugar, but you can also use granulated sugar as well!
  • Ground flaxseed: this represents the “egg” in these vegan Christmas cookies, and works amazingly.
  • Baking powder: to make sure these cookies don’t spread!
  • Vegan butter: you can use coconut oil for the cookie part, but definitely stick with vegan butter for the vegan buttercream. There are many nut-free brands on the market as well, including Miyoko’s oat butter and Earth Balance.
  • Powdered sugar: this is for the vegan buttercream that we’ll pipe on top!
cookie tree with lights

While the ingredients are simple, you will definitely need more of them than the average cookie recipe. This is because even though we’re technically only making 20 cookies for this Christmas cookie tree, the larger cookies are almost like 3-4 regular sugar cookies in one!

The full ingredients and instructions are found down below in the recipe card, so go check that out below!

For equipment, I recommend the following:

  • Large mixing bowl
  • Hand mixer or stand mixer: you can use either here! But you’ll definitely need at least a hand mixer. I personally recommend the Oster hand mixer- it’s my favorite!
  • Cookie star tree cutters (link in the recipe card)
  • Piping bags
  • Wilton #30 star tip
close up of star

Making a Christmas cookie tree is actually a lot of fun, and it’s so easy to make it vegan. In fact, no one will know that this cookie tree is entirely dairy free and egg free!

The full recipe is found down below in the recipe card, but let’s go over the basics here.

Make the dough

The vegan sugar cookie dough is just as easy as making my small batch vegan sugar cookies.

You’ll first cream together the vegan butter, sugar, and flaxseed.

Then fold in the dry ingredients, and chill the dough in two large disks.

For this cookie tree recipe, we’ll need to make two of each size star shape. The cookie set that I used had 10 different sizes, so you’ll have a total of 20 cookies.

Roll the dough about 1/4″ thick, and cut out as many cookies as you can in the first roll. Then repeat for each roll of the dough and the second disk.

If you have any dough left, you can use it for regular vegan sugar cookies and decorate them with vegan royal icing!

Bake the cookies

As noted before, each sized cookie bakes at different times. I recommend trying to bake the larger cookies together and the smaller cookies on their own cookie sheet.

You’re looking for lightly golden edges.

Once the cookies are baked, transfer them to a cooling rack to fully cool before you decorate!

cookie stars

Make the vegan green buttercream

This is just like any other vegan buttercream we’ve made on the blog! The only difference is that we’re adding some color 🙂

vegan green buttercream

This is the best part!

Start with the largest cookie, and pipe a dot of frosting into the middle. Then stack with your second cookie of the largest type, and pipe another frosting dot.

Repeat with all of the cookies, stacking them largest to smallest and alternating the position of the cookies. Just make sure to save the smallest star cookie for the star topper!

  • hand piping buttercream onto cookie tree
  • cookie tree assembled

Then pipe the remaining vegan buttercream onto the tips of the cookie stars to create that Christmas tree look!

Top with the star topper cookie and sprinkle with powdered sugar!

powdered sugar being sprinkled onto christmas cookie tree
  • Allow the cookies to fully cool before assembling: this is crucial, as you don’t want the cookies to slip and slide onto the ground! If the cookies aren’t cooling fast enough, you can stick them into the freezer to chill.
  • Check out this guide on softened vegan butter: one of the most crucial tips for this recipe is softened vegan butter. This does not mean melted vegan butter. It simply means that your butter is easily indented when you touch it. It might still be a little bit cooler than room temperature, but it’s easy to cream with a hand mixer. While the guide I linked is for regular dairy butter, the same rules apply for vegan baking!
  • Use a spoon to measure your flour! Don’t simply scoop your measuring cup into the flour bag. This will result in way too much flour for your cookies. Instead, use a spoon to spoon the flour into the measuring cup, and a knife to carefully scrape off the top.
  • Bake the stars at varying times: the larger star cookies will bake longer than the medium and small ones. This is crucial to note so that you don’t burn the smaller star cookies and you don’t undertake the larger ones!
  • Decorate the tree topper of your Christmas cookie tree: I like to just pipe on some royal icing or a simple glaze to design the cookie star, but you can also use edible gold leaf, a different colored vegan buttercream, melted vegan white chocolate, or leave as is (though decorated is way more fun!).
star cookie tree

I hope you love this vegan Christmas cookie tree as much as I do! It’s seriously the perfect complement to a vegan gingerbread house, and so much fun to make from scratch with everyone.

If you make this recipe, let me know down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a rating so that others may know how it goes!

As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy Christmas cookie tree baking!

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Vegan Christmas Cookie Tree Recipe
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cookie tree with lights

Vegan Sugar Cookie Christmas Tree Recipe

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  • Author: thebananadiaries
  • Prep Time: 30
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 30 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan
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Description

This super fun and festive Christmas cookie tree is undetectably vegan, dairy free, and gluten free, yet makes the most elegant holiday centerpiece! Made with sugar cookies for the perfect complement to your vegan gingerbread house!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature 
  • 1 1/2 cup sugar or coconut sugar* 
  • 6 tbsp ground flaxseed with 1/3 cup water (set for 5 minutes) 
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract 
  • 1 1/2 tsp almond extract (optional, omit if nut-free) 
  • 6 cup all purpose flour or gluten free 1:1 baking flour* 
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 

Vegan buttercream:

  • 1/2 cup vegan butter, softened to room temperature
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • vegan food coloring

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
  2. Once the sugar is slightly dissolved into the vegan butter, add in the flaxseed “eggs,” vanilla extract and almond extract if desired. Beat again until incorporated.
  3. Sift in the almond flour, flour, and baking powder, and use a rubber spatula to gently fold the flours into the creamed butter. This will take about 3-4 minutes to fully incorporate.
  4. Once the dough is made, form the dough into two flat disks, wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. While the dough is chilling, prepare a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Once chilled, lightly flour a clean surface as well as a rolling pin. Place one disk of dough onto the floured surface. If the dough is not at all soft (i.e. it’s hard to touch), allow the dough to soften for 10 minutes. Then roll the dough out to be about 1/4″ thick.
  6. Use the star cookie cutter set to cut two of each cookie. You should have 20 cookies total. Roll out the second disk when you need more dough.
  7. Carefully place all cookies onto 3 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Try to place the larger cookies together on one baking sheet and the smaller ones on another. This is because the different sized cookies will bake at different times. Place them into the fridge or freezer to chill for 10-20 minutes (shorter for the freezer).
  8. While the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 375F. 
  9. Once the cookies have chilled, bake the cookies in the oven. The smaller cookies will need about 8-10 minutes (or until lightly golden on the edges) and the large cookies will need about 15 minutes (or until edges are lightly golden.
  10. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to fully cool before assembling. 
  11. Once ready to assemble, prepare the vegan buttercream. Beat together the vegan butter with a hand mixer or stand mixer until fluffy. Then, sift in the powdered sugar as you continue to cream the butter. Once the powdered sugar is fully incorporated (use the dairy free milk here if you need help achieving a creamy consistency), add in the vegan green food coloring and cream until the color is fully mixed.
  12. Spoon the frosting into a piping bag with a star tip (I used a Wilton #30). 
  13. Assembly: place the largest star on the bottom and pipe a dot into the middle. Place the second largest star on top, and place another dot. Repeat this process, going from largest to smallest stars, saving the smallest star for the star on top of the tree. With the remaining green frosting, pipe little dots on each star tip around the cookie tree.
  14. For the smallest star as the tree topper, you can make a simple glaze and pipe a design on top, then place the star on top. 
  15. Dust with powdered sugar and enjoy! Store in the fridge or freezer for a holiday centerpiece.

Notes

Recommended Equipment:

* coconut sugar will give these cookies a slightly tanner color. If you want traditional looking sugar cookies, use a vegan-friendly granulated sugar, such as Woodstock Organics

* If you’re nut-free or prefer not to use almond flour, you can simply swap in another cup of all purpose or gluten free 1:1 baking flour

* For completely Paleo vegan sugar cookies, please see these Paleo Vegan Sugar Cookies.