What's your favorite Christmas color combo? Typically, I'm torn between red and white or a very colorful Christmas theme with allllll of the colors. (Please see the construction paper paperchain that is on every one of our Christmas trees.)

BUT. I am always a sucker for the combination of pink and red. So is my friend Teresa. We're all about pink and red. If only she didn't live half the country away, I'd package these up, and we'd have a pink and red tea party IN PERSON! 

These pink and red Christmas cookies are easy to make because using the same cookies and icing, you can make so many variations! Striped ornament cookies! Marbled ornament cookies! Polka dot ornament cookies! Sparkly ornament cookies! Etc, etc! 

What will you need to decorate pink and red Christmas cookies? 

• A great cut-out cookie recipe. One that is sturdy enough for decorating and transporting but still is tender and tastes delicious. I recommend my Perfect Every Time Cut-Out Cookie Recipe. Why this recipe? Because I've been using it for 24 years! TRUST. I first posted the recipe on the blog in 2008, but developed in in 1999! 
• Royal Icing. You'll want a tried and true, no-fail icing and my Royal Icing 102 recipe is just that. Plus, this post has FAQs about royal icing and tips and tricks!

• Pink and Red Gel Paste Food Coloring. For red, I swear by Super Red, either by Americolor or Chefmaster. For pink, I love Deep Pink or Neon Pink. (You'll also want to tint the tops of the ornament silver, with a little black food coloring, or gold, with yellow gold food coloring.
• Disposable Icing Bags. Wilton and Ateco icing bags are my go-to bags. 
• Icing Tips. Now, some people like tipless bags. They're thinner bags that you can cut the tip off of and use without icing tips. Tipless bags are not my journey. I will use them in a pinch, but I prefer traditional bags (above) and tips. You'll need a #2 tip here and a coupler.
• Squeeze Bottles. These are for adding thinned icing. No, you cannot use a washed-out hair color bottle. (Yes, someone actually asked me that.) The SugarBelle bottles are my absolute favorite. 
• Toothpicks. For popping air bubbles and guiding icing around the cookies. (And for scraping off mistakes.) Be sure to buy the round, not flat ones. 
• Sanding Sugar. For these, you could go with red, silver, gold, or clear sanding sugar. 

How to Decorate EASY Pink + Red Christmas Ornament Cookies

First, you'll use a #2 tip to pipe the top of the ornament in grey royal icing, made with a touch of black food coloring. Don't worry about making it perfect; you'll be covering it in sanding sugar.

Next, use another #2 tip to outline the cookies with the red icing. Also, section off areas you'd like to fill with different colors.

Now, you'll thin the red and pink icings with water. You'll want it to be the consistency of a thick syrup. A ribbon of icing dropped back into the bowl should disappear in a count of "one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand-three." Add water a bit at a time and stir gently with a rubber spatula. Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula, popping any large air bubbles that have formed on top. Pour the icings into squeeze bottles.

Fill (or flood) the outlines with the thinned icing. Use a toothpick to guide icing to the edges and to pop large air bubbles.

Use the wet-on-wet technique to decorate.

Want to get dotty? Fill an area in one color, wait a few minutes (I usually work about 6 cookies at a time, then go back to the first cookie), then drop dots of the other color on top of the wet icing.

How about marbling? Instead of dots, like above, pipe horizontal lines of the other color. Then, run a toothpick up and down through the icing.

Let the cookies dry, uncovered, for 6-8 hours or overnight.

I like to add sprinkles and sanding sugar after the cookies are dry. That way, your "add-ons" will go precisely where you want them, and you won't worry about smudging the icing or having it run off the cookie.

Set up a sanding sugar station. You'll need meringue powder mixed with water (I start with 1/4 teaspoon of each), sanding sugar, a small paintbrush, and a coffee filter.

Paint the meringue powder mixture onto the cookie where you want the sanding sugar to stick. Over the coffee filter, sprinkle on the sugar. Shake off the excess; use the filter as a funnel to put back into the container.   

In the end, you'll have a pile of toothpicks that looks like this:

And a pile of cookies that looks like this: