Give a Cookie Exchange This Year

A cookie exchange is a great holiday party. Guests get to mingle and sample each other’s delicious cookies and even get to take cookies and recipes home for their own entertaining. Here’s how a cookie exchange works:

Each guest bakes one dozen of his/her favorite cookies for each of the other guests. They sort the cookies into packages of one dozen and include the recipe in each package. In addition, each guest brings a dozen cookies to be served at the party. As the hostess, you should keep track of the kind of cookie each guest is bringing so that you don’t end up with duplicates.

On the day of the party, guests sample all of the cookies brought because you serve them as part of your menu. Then at the end of the party, the packages of cookies are divided up so that each guest goes home with a package of cookies from each of the other guests.

I give this party every year on a Saturday afternoon in mid December for about ten girlfriends. We exchange cookies and spend a couple of hours just talking and relaxing. It’s a welcome change from the stress of the season. Not only do we get a respite from the demands of the holiday season, but also we each go home with ten different kinds of cookies that we didn’t have to make ourselves. I can pop some of the cookies I receive into the freezer and pull them out whenever I need them for other entertaining.

There are many ways you can make this party more personal or change it from year to year. One year try a candy exchange, where guests each make some sort of homemade candy like fudge or pralines. Or, have this party at Easter – you get a whole different group of cookie recipes for this time of year.

Invitations & Announcements

Your invitation is an important part of your cookie exchange. The invitation should give an explanation of how the cookie exchange works for any guests who are unfamiliar with it. So, you’ll need to have an invitation with a lot of white space, or include a separate piece of paper explaining the process. I like the “Holiday Cookies” invitation at MyExpression.com for my cookie exchange because it explains to all of my guests know how the party works. If you need more white space, the “Holiday Paisley” or “Red Border Luxe” invitations give you lots of room for printing.

An important part of your cookie exchange is the relaxing atmosphere. Each guest will spend the day before the party making large quantities of the cookie he/she is bringing, so make your party a great chance to sit back and enjoy friends. Keep your menu simple and casual. After all, you should be able to relax, too!

A cookie exchange is a fun and functional holiday tradition. Your friends will love the chance to relax together and they’ll love only having to bake one kind of cookie for the entire holiday season, too!