In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Separate your egg whites and egg yolks. Reserve the egg whites for your icing.

Add the butter and sugar to a separate bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

Stir in the egg yolks and vanilla extract until fully combined.

Slowly mix in the flour mixture to the butter sugar mixture until just combined.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Sprinkle your clean countertop with flour, then turn the dough out onto your countertop.

Form the dough until a ball and press into a disk. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to 1/4″ thickness.

Using a 2 1/4″ biscuit cutter or similarly sized cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can.

Add the cookies to a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat.

Take your remaining dough and form it back into ball and then roll to 1/4″ thickness. Cut out more cookies and place on a cookie sheet. You should end up with 24 to 30 cookies.

When your oven is preheated, add your cookies to the oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies begin to brown ever so slightly.

Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

When your cookies are completely cooled, make your royal icing.

Add the egg whites to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until frothy.

Add in the almond extract and slowly mix in the confectioners’ sugar until fully combined. If the mixture feels too thin, add in more confectioners’ sugar one tablespoon at a time until it’s thick enough to spread on a cookie and not run.

Add the icing to a zip top bag and snip off the very zip of one of the bottom corners (you want it pretty small so you have control of how much comes out).

Squeeze some of the royal icing onto each cookie and use an offset spatula to fill in the cookie.

Set the cookies aside and let dry overnight (royal icing needs a good 8+ hours to fully dry).

The next day, pipe thin black lines onto your cookies – you can have them cris cross, swoop down, or however else you think a string of lights should look!

Press mini M&M’s onto the lines standing up so they resemble Christmas lights from above, then let dry. For more stability, feel free to press gently into the hardened royal icing to keep the M&M’s standing up.