These Festive Christmas-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls are too cute and so yummy! Get the family together and make some sweet holiday memories with a creative twist on a classic breakfast treat.
Y’all know how I feel about cinnamon rolls, and these festive-shaped rolls are just ridiculously adorable and so much fun (if the tiniest bit indulgent). We had such a great time decorating and eating them together. Holiday memories at their best!
These rolls are such an easy way to turn a holiday breakfast into an activity that everyone will enjoy. What’s not to love about shaping and decorating cinnamon rolls into jolly characters?!
WATCH THIS VIDEO TO SEE HOW WE SHAPED AND DECORATED THEM:
Before you can bust out your decorating skills, you need to form the cinnamon roll dough into the different shapes and bake them. We use the jumbo canned cinnamon rolls from Trader Joe’s or Pillsbury, but you could certainly make your own cinnamon roll dough.
We shaped our rolls into Christmas trees, snowmen and reindeer:
- To make a Christmas tree: zig-zag the dough starting from the bottom weaving back and forth as you make your way to the top of the tree, making each zig zag just a bit shorter than the last to form the tree shape.
- To make a snowman: start unrolling the cinnamon roll and re-rolling it tighter about 5 times for the base “snowball” then cut it, continue rolling about 4 times for the middle “snowball” and use the final piece of the cinnamon roll for the head of the snowman, rolling it a little bit tighter, if need be. Press the three “snowballs” tightly together in a row to build a snowman before baking it.
- To make the reindeer: just bake the jumbo cinnamon roll as is. Creating the reindeer will come after they are baked!
Trim The Tree
Deck Out That Snowman
To get Frosty ready for his close-up, cover the cinnamon roll with the icing that came with the canned cinnamon rolls and sprinkle with white sparkling sugar. His eyes are two halves of a mini marshmallow, and his nose, an orange gumdrop. Place three chocolate chips down his midsection for the buttons and jab pretzel stick halves into the sides for his arms. Take two strips of a Pull-N-Peel Twizzler, cut it in half lengthwise and twist the two pieces together to make his scarf. Finally, cap him off with a Reese’s miniature peanut butter cup for his top hat. Oh hello, you!
Butter Up Rudolph
Well, that was fun! It’s now time to enjoy them. What better way to start the day!
I hope your family loves this cinnamon-y delightful experience as much as we did. It’s such a great way to spend time together laughing and making memories!
If you’re inspired to re-create these Festive Christmas-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls, be sure to snap a picture and share it with me @thebakermama on Instagram so we can see. I love seeing how inspired and creative y’all get with the ideas and recipes I share.
Happy holidays and enjoy!
xoxo,
Festive Christmas-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 15 min
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 5+
Description
These Festive Christmas-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls are too cute and so yummy! Get the family together and make some sweet holiday memories with a creative twist on a classic breakfast treat.
Ingredients
- canned jumbo cinnamon rolls with icing
- creamy peanut butter
- red & green cookie icing
- holiday M&M minis
- holiday sprinkles
- white sparkling sugar
- star-shaped cookies
- Reese’s miniature peanut butter cups
- Pull & Peel Twizzlers
- orange gumdrops
- chocolate chips
- mini marshmallows
- pretzel sticks
- pretzel twists
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Shape each cinnamon roll into a Christmas tree, snowman or reindeer.
- To make a Christmas tree: zig-zag the dough starting from the bottom weaving back and forth as you make your way to the top of the tree, making each zig zag just a bit shorter than the last to form the tree shape.
- To make a snowman: start unrolling the cinnamon roll and re-rolling it tighter about 5 times for the base “snowball” then cut it, continue rolling about 4 times for the middle “snowball” and use the final piece of the cinnamon roll for the head of the snowman, rolling it a little bit tighter if need be. Press the three “snowballs” tightly together to build a snowman.
- To make a reindeer, just bake the jumbo cinnamon roll as is. Creating the reindeer will come after it is baked.
- Place the shaped cinnamon roll dough onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time.
- With the Christmas tree shapes and snowman shapes, you might need to pull them out halfway through the baking time to reinforce the shape, if necessary. Be sure to use oven mitts to hold the pan while using the handle of a spoon or your hand to tighten and adjust the desired shape.
- While the cinnamon rolls bake, fill bowls with peanut butter, chocolate chips, holiday sprinkles, orange gumdrops, red and green M&Ms, Reese’s miniature peanut butter cups, mini marshmallows, pretzel sticks, pretzel twists and star-shaped cookies. Set out the cinnamon roll icing as well as some red and green colored cookie icing.
- If decorating immediately, transfer the cinnamon rolls to individual plates or another work surface with the decorations nearby.
- To trim the Christmas trees, break a pretzel stick in half and press both halves into the bottom of the cinnamon roll for the trunk. Cover the cinnamon roll with green and red icing and decorate with red and green M&Ms and holiday sprinkles. Place a star cookie at the top of the cinnamon roll as the tree topper.
- To decorate the snowmen, cover the cinnamon roll with the icing that came with the canned cinnamon rolls and sprinkle with white sparkling sugar. His eyes are two halves of a mini marshmallow, and his nose, an orange gumdrop. Place three chocolate chips down his midsection for the buttons and jab pretzel stick halves into the sides for his arms. Take two strips of a Pull-N-Peel Twizzler, cut it in half lengthwise and twist the two pieces together to make his scarf. Finally, cap him off with a Reese’s miniature peanut butter cup for his top hat.
- To make the reindeer, frost the cinnamon roll with peanut butter, add two chocolate chips for the eyes, a red M&M for the nose and two pretzel twists for the antlers.
Anything for Hanukkah??? Love to see an idea
Hi Rochelle! I tried, but I couldn’t get a great Hanukkah shape out of a single cinnamon roll. You could try shaping several cinnamon rolls together to form a menorah. I’ll keep trying and will definitely share if I come up with something festive and doable. Happy Hanukkah!