Looking for some simple but cute cookies for the holidays that don’t require a lot of effort? Well, once again, inspired by my husband’s aversion to royal icing, I give you these icing-free Christmas trees.

Start with cookie dough that has been dyed the colors you are going to use. To make my cookies, I used Wilton’s Kelly Green and Christmas Red. Then I added some Americolor White to my dough to keep it from looking really yellow after baking. Kneading the color into the dough will make it almost too soft to work with so I suggest putting it in the refrigerator for a few minutes (10-15). If you leave it in the refrigerator for too long, it will be too hard so try not to forget about it.

Take a small piece about the size of a golf ball of each color that you are going to use for your tree and roll it out into a log.

Don’t worry about them being perfect, it won’t make a difference in the final product. Once you have your logs, line them up right next to each other and apply a little pressure to make them stick.

Now comes the fun part, twist your pieces together so they form a spiral of color.

Then gently, form the tree by folding the spiral shape so that each level is slightly smaller than the one before it. When you get to the top of the tree you can tear off any excess and tighten the dough into a point.

Then because this just isn’t cute enough, add the paper straw by gently inserting it into the center of the cookie. The straw has the added benefit of also helping keep the cookie together while it bakes.

Be sure to give your cookie pops plenty of space so they don’t run into each other and ruin the shape. Because these cookies are thicker than my cut-out cookies, I baked them at 350 degrees instead of 400 degrees and also added an extra 8 minutes to my usual 9-10 minute baking time. You should adjust yours accordingly.

The great thing about these cookies is that when you are all done baking, you are also done decorating! That makes these cookies great for last minute gifts, parties, or whatever has you making cookies in a time crunch. Enjoy!