These easy Christmas Brownies are a festive holiday treat that anyone can make! Start with your favorite boxed brownie mix and our creamy vanilla frosting. Then make any of these 4 Christmas brownie ideas, including a simple wreath, a Christmas present, holiday lights, or Christmas tree brownies!
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There is nothing as fun as transforming a simple dessert into a party-worthy festive treat to celebrate the holiday season. These easy Christmas Brownies have a classic but super cute look that the whole family can make, even beginner bakers. They’re the perfect addition to your Christmas dessert table, holiday party, or even cookie exchange!
If you’re looking for another Christmas party dessert, I highly recommend these Christmas Crumbl Sugar Cookies or this orange cinnamon Christmas Bundt Cake. For chocolate lovers, these Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes are another sweet treat!
🏅 Why this recipe is great
- It uses a box brownie mix, or you can use your favorite homemade brownies.
- The perfect combo of fudgy brownies and creamy frosting.
- Easy recipe with simple decorating ideas.
🍫 Ingredients
Ingredient quantities for Christmas brownies are in the recipe card below, but here are a few noteworthy tips:
- Brownies: Use a boxed mix or your favorite brownie recipe. Our hands-down favorite are Ghirardelli Brownies (affiliate). You can get them at most grocery stores, or in bulk at Costco for cheaper. Whatever you use, I suggest something without chocolate chips so that you can cut clean squares easily.
- Butter: I use salted, but unsalted is fine too.
- Cream cheese: Just a touch for an extra delicious frosting.
- Powdered sugar: Sift or whisk it if it is clumpy.
- Vanilla extract: Gives the frosting extra flavor.
- Heavy cream: Also goes by heavy whipping cream in the store.
Decorating materials
You can really use whatever you like to decorate Christmas brownies. Here are the items we used, but feel free to get creative and make these your own.
- Sparkling sugar sprinkles (affiliate): These cover the frosting for a sparkly white base.
- Green food coloring: The shade you choose completely depends on the look you are going for. AmeriColor is a great brand and has a variety of green shades. Their Forest Green Food Coloring (affiliate) may be a good place to start.
- Chocolate covered sunflower seeds (affiliate): We used these as our Christmas lights.
- Sprinkles: You can use whatever you like here. We used a mix of pearl sprinkles (affiliate) like these. This holiday sprinkle mix (affiliate) with candy canes and red pearls would also be great.
- Pretzel sticks: We used these for the Christmas tree trunks. You could also make a candy cane trunk.
- Black icing and red icing (affiliates): You can make your own, but it is much easier to buy it.
- Green or red m&m candy: We used these to make the bow on the Christmas present.
- Piping bag: You can use disposable piping bags (affiliate), a pastry bag, or a sturdy Ziplock bag.
- Piping tips: We used Wilton Tip 22, Wilton Tip 2A, and Wilton Tip 32 (affiliates).
- Cookie cutters: We used a 1.75 inch circle cookie cutter to outline the wreath.
🔪 How to make Christmas brownies
Start by making the boxed brownies according to the package directions, combining the wet ingredients and dry ingredients. Bake the brownie batter in a 9x9 baking pan that has been sprayed with baking spray (affiliate) and lined with a parchment sling. If you're out of baking spray, you can grease it with butter and cocoa powder.
Once the brownies are cool, remove them from the pan and chill in the freezer until partially frozen, 1-2 hours. This will help them cut cleanly. Remove from the freezer and use a long, sharp knife to trim off a thin layer on each edge so that they are flat all the way across. Then cut them into 9 even squares.
When ready to decorate, whip up the frosting in a large bowl or stand mixer. Once fluffy, remove ⅓ of it and place in a small bowl for the green frosting. Add a small amount of green food coloring and stir thoroughly, adding more coloring until it is the desired color. Time to decorate!
Step 1: Using the Wilton Tip 2A (affiliate), pipe frosting evenly across the brownie, starting with the outside edge and moving inwards.
Step 2: Using a small offset spatula (affiliate), gently spread the frosting until mostly smooth. Be careful to keep the edges straight.
Step 3: Place the sparkling sugar sprinkles (affiliate) on a flat plate. Dip the frosted brownie into the sprinkles, pressing gently to help them adhere. Don't press too hard or the frosting will squish past the edges.
Step 4: This is your base. Repeat with all the remaining brownies.
🎄 Christmas brownie ideas
Once your base is ready, you can decorate your Christmas brownies with any of these ideas. Or design your own!
Christmas trees: Using Wilton Tip 32 (affiliate), pipe a green star where you want the top of your tree. Add three rows beneath it to make a tree shape, then add a small pretzel stick as the tree trunk. Finish with sprinkles.
Christmas lights: Using black icing, pipe a squiggly line across the brownie. You can use a toothpick to make a rough outline first. Then add sprinkles or chocolate covered sunflower seeds as the lights.
Christmas presents: Using red or green icing, pipe two perpendicular lines across the brownie. Then place red or green m&m candies upright in a circle to form the bow. Finish with small colored sprinkles.
Christmas wreath: Using a small circle cookie cutter, place a small indent into the frosting to form an outline. Then use a Wilton Tip 22 (affiliate) to pipe 1 row of stars outside the outlines and 1 row of stars inside the outline. Finish with sprinkles.
👨👩👧👦 For a crowd
You can easily double or triple this recipe to make more Christmas brownies. You can bake separate batches in multiple 9x9 pans, or make a larger pan all at once. Note that if you use a different size pan, the size of the brownie squares may be a little bit different than pictured in this post.
🙋 Questions and Answers
I find that Ghirardelli brownie mix needs absolutely no embellishment. They are always amazing! If you are using a different brand, you can try using two egg yolks instead of 1 egg to keep them extra fudgy. You can also use milk or brewed coffee instead of the water.
I do not ever substitute butter simply because oil is fast and easy. However, you can substitute the oil with melted butter in your brownie mix. Because the fat content in oil and butter is different, you will want to increase the butter slightly. I suggest reading this Butter vs Oil post to guide this substitution.
Yes! You can bake the brownies ahead, cut them as directed, then freeze them wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. You can also freeze them uncut, just be sure to thaw them about halfway before you cut them. Then make the frosting and decorate.
You can also freeze these fully decorated or store them in the fridge for 2-3 days. However, the frosting will lose some of its fluffy texture. You will also need to store them in a flat layer, which can take a lot of space.
Store leftover Christmas brownies in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-5 days.
👨🏼🍳 Tips & Tricks
- Make brownies without chocolate chips for easier cutting.
- Use a parchment sling in the pan for easy removal and clean up.
- Partially freeze the brownies before cutting to get clean, straight lines. Room temperature brownies tend to clump.
👋🏻 Connect with us!
If you try this recipe, please leave a comment and star rating to let us know how it is! We’d also love to connect with you on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. Tag @borrowedbites or hashtag #borrowedbites to show us your food!
📋 Recipe
Festive Christmas Brownies (4 Decorating Ideas)
Equipment
- Green food coloring
- Piping bag or Ziplock bags
- Wilton piping tips #2A, #22, and #32
- Cookie cutters optional
Ingredients
- 1 box brownies I use Ghirardelli Chocolate Supreme
- ¾ cup butter softened
- 1½ oz cream cheese softened
- 3¾ cups powdered sugar
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾-1½ tablespoon heavy cream or more as needed
Decorating Ingredients
- Sparkling sugar sprinkles
- Christmas sprinkles See post for more suggestions
- Pretzels
- Chocolate covered sunflower seeds
- Red or green m&ms
- Black and red icing
Instructions
Brownies
- Bake the brownies according to the box instructions in a 9x9 pan that has been sprayed with baking spray and lined with a parchment paper sling. Set aside to cool fully.1 box brownies
- Once cool, remove the brownies from the pan and partially freeze for 1-2 hours. Remove from freezer and use a sharp knife to trim a thin layer off of each edge, making them flat all the way across. Then cut them into 9 even squares.
Frosting
- Beat the softened butter and cream cheese on medium speed until fluffy.¾ cup butter, 1½ oz cream cheese
- Reduce speed to low and add half the powdered sugar. Mix until just combined, then add the remaining powdered sugar. Beat on medium for 1 minute.3¾ cups powdered sugar
- Add vanilla and ½ tablespoon of cream. Beat for 2 more minutes or until light and fluffy. Add additional cream if needed until the frosting is loose enough to pipe, but stiff enough to hold its shape.1½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¾-1½ tablespoon heavy cream
- Place ⅓ of the frosting in a small bowl. Add a small amount of green food coloring and stir thoroughly. Continue adding coloring and stirring until the desired color is reached.
Decorating
- Using the Wilton Tip 2A pipe frosting evenly across the brownie, starting with the outside edge and moving inwards.
- Using a small offset spatulasmall offset spatula, gently spread the frosting until mostly smooth. Be careful to keep the edges straight.
- Place the sparkling sugar sprinklesSparkling sugar sprinkles on a flat plate. Dip the frosted brownie into the sprinkles, pressing gently to help them adhere. Don't press too hard or the frosting will squish past the edges.Sparkling sugar sprinkles
- Repeat with the remaining brownies. Then add decorations as desired.
- Christmas Trees: Using Wilton Tip #32, pipe a green star where you want the top of your tree. Add 3 rows of stars beneath it (see picture in post), then add a small pretzel stick as the tree trunk. Finish with sprinkles.
- Christmas Lights: Using black icing, pipe a squiggly line across the brownie. You can use a toothpick to make a rough outline first. Then add sprinkles or chocolate covered sunflower seeds as the lights.
- Christmas Presents: Using red or green icing, pipe two perpendicular lines across the brownie. Then place red or green m&m candies upright in a circle to form the bow. Finish with small colored sprinkles.
- Christmas Wreaths: Using a small circle cookie cutter, place a small indent into the frosting to form an outline. Then use a Wilton Tip #22Wilton Tip 22 to pipe 1 row of stars outside the outlines and 1 row of stars inside the outline. Finish with sprinkles.
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Notes
- Make brownies without chocolate chips for easier cutting.
- Use a parchment sling in the pan for easy removal and clean up.
- Partially freeze the brownies before cutting to get clean, straight lines. Room temperature brownies tend to clump.
Add Your Own Notes
Nutrition
All nutrition information is provided by a third party and is an estimate only. Use your own nutritional calculator for more specific measurements.
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