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This out-of-the-box Jack Skellington Cookies are sugar cookie decorated to look like Jack from the Nightmare Before Christmas movie! A round sugar cookie that is baked to golden brown perfection and then decorated with white icing.

Simply use black icing to create the face for the Jack Skellington Cookies and serve them up for a Halloween party or a Christmas party. 

 

Jack Skellington Cookies are fun for both Halloween cookies and Christmas cookies!

Which is great, you can make these for several events over the holiday season.

Jack Skellington sugar cookies are pretty easy to whip up, and Jack’s face will light up the room when your family or guests see his face on the cookies.

The perfect cookie to get the party started. For the base of these cookies, I typically use my favorite sugar cookie recipe. They are buttery, soft, and melt in your mouth with each bite.

Today, I’ve gone the quick route and simply used my favorite store bought sugar cookies. Sometimes, quick and easy is just the way to go!

If you need more treats to complete your Nightmare Before Christmas theme, try these colorful and fun Nightmare Before Christmas Cookies with a Sally Stitch theme, or these Jack Skellington Hot Chocolate Bombs for another Jack Skellington themed recipe

Why You’ll Love These Jack Skellington Cookies

• You can use homemade sugar cookie dough or opt for store-bought sugar cookies or box mix. If you want to make them from scratch, follow my Sally Nightmare Before Christmas Cookies (just skip the food coloring steps)
• A delicious sugar cookies recipe that’s a perfect treat for movie night with Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Fun and creative, yet easy to decorate so these Jack Skellington Cookies are done in just a few minutes. 
• Kid-friendly and fun for grown-ups too.
• These Halloween cookies are great this time of the year because you can make them for more than one holiday.

Craving More Halloween Recipes?

Sally Stitch Nightmare Before Christmas Cookies

Chewy Maple Cinnamon Mummy Cookies

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies with the candy corn baked in!

Hocus Pocus Cookies

Monster Rice Krispie Treats

I’ve been sharing all my fun Halloween recipes this month! You can find all these awesome recipes here: Halloween Treats.

Don’t forget these are great for two holidays! You can make Jack Skellington Christmas Cookies too.

Kitchen Equipment Needed

• Wire Rack 
• Parchment Paper 
• Piping Bag with a round tip (pastry bag) 
• Butter knife or icing knife for spreading on icing
• Rolling Pin (if you make homemade cookies) 

Ingredients

This is as easy as it gets! Here are the simple ingredients:

SUGAR COOKIES:  You can make homemade sugar cookie dough, buy pre-made sugar cookies or a box mix . It is up to you what you choose. If you want to make them homemade, use my favorite sugar cookie recipe!

BLACK ICING: I used black icing for piping on the face. I grabbed a pre-made cookie icing in a squeeze bag on the bakery isle in my grocery store.

WHITE FROSTING:  You can make homemade frosting or buy your favorite container of vanilla frosting to spread for icing these Christmas cookies. 

 

How to Decorate Jack Skellington Cookies

STEP 1: Purchase pre-made sugar cookies. To make homemade sugar cookies follow this recipe first before diving into the following step-by-step instructions:

STEP 2: Coat each cookie with white frosting.

 

STEP 3: Draw two ovals for eyes onto the cookies using the black icing. Then fill them in.

STEP 4: Add two dots for a nose.

STEP 5: Draw a smile for a mouth and then add small lines to create a skeleton mouth. There you have it! Easy Jack Skellington Cookies in a flash!

Tip: For best results take your time and don’t rush. If you don’t have a piping bag add the icing to a plastic resealable bag. Cut a small end of a tip and use it to pipe on the black icing.

 

Tips for Making Homemade Sugar Cookies 

Instead of retyping how to make homemade sugar cookies in all my recipes, it’s easier to point you to this delicious recipe for my favorite sugar cookies. 

Follow the step-by-step directions for a soft and chewy sugar cookie. 

You’ll need all the typical ingredients such as all purpose flour, vanilla extract, eggs, unslated butter and sugar. Combine the ingredients in a large bowl (in order of the steps) using a standing mixer or an electric mixer on low speed. 

Here are a few tips to remember if you’re making them from scratch:

• Place cookie dough on a floured surface to prevent sticking when you roll out the dough. 
• Use a round cookie cutter or even the bottom side of a cup. 
• Place parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on an ungreased cookie sheet. This will prevent the cookies from sticking. 
• Place cookies an inch or two apart as they will spread a bit as they bake up. 
• Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature before you go to frost the cookies. 

 

Tips

• Make sure to get a fairly smooth layer of white frosting on the cookies. That way when you go to add the face it is a smooth surface. But – it doesn’t have to be perfect!
• Make sure the tip you are piping the face with is small, as the Jack Skellington cookies are smaller in size so you have a small workspace to fit the whole Jack face on. 
• It’s okay if the look of the cookies isn’t perfect, these are a whimsical cookie!

Variations

• Dust the Jack Skellington cookies with icing sugar before piping on the face for a bit of sparkle and sweetness.
• Change up the flavor of the frosting you use. A cream cheese frosting would be very delicious on these sugar cookies. 
• You are welcome to melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and then add black food coloring and use yummy chocolate for decorating these sugar cookies.
• You can use black frosting for piping instead of an icing. Or simply add black food coloring to 1/2 cup of the royal icing to pipe on the top of the cookies. 

Is it Hard to Decorate these Jack Skillington Cookies? 

Since the design of these cookies is pretty easy you will find you don’t need to have great piping skills!

Just take your time and I recommend starting with the eyes and then work around making the rest of the smiling face. 

 Can I Make Jack Skellington Cookies a Day in Advance? 

Go right ahead and make the cookies the day before when you want to serve them up.

Just keep them in an airtight container to help prevent the cookies from drying out. Then serve them up and enjoy the fun design as you stream your favorite Halloween movies this holiday. 

How to Store Leftovers

If you don’t eat all the cookies right away, simply store them in an airtight container. Jack Skellington cookies can be stored at room temperature for 4-5 days. They are best eaten within the first couple days, just like all sugar cookies, they will dry out. 

You can also freeze the cookies for 3-4 months easily. Place in a freezer bag or freezer container. Then thaw the cookies on the counter to room temperature when you want them. 

I hope you enjoy these easy Jack Skellington Cookies. Super fun and whimsical with the well-known design of Jack on them. These are tasty treats for the whole family to nibble on and if you have little kids they will love helping decorate these festive cookies! 

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