Christmas Cookie Exchange

[Tammi67]

Has anyone ever hosted one? How did you do it? How far in advance did you hold it? What were your "rules"? I would love to do one but it sounds very confusing and time consuming.

 

[PetLoopers]

Oh they are so much fun! I try to host one every year. I make up my invites, usually for an early December date. I limit my guest list to around six people because each guest has to bring one dozen cookies for each person you invite.
Baking SIX DOZEN cookies!!! Yikes!! I know, BUT the great thing is that your guests will leave with six dozen DIFFERENT types of cookies. Very nice to have around the house all month long!
I also ask them to package each dozen separately and include a recipe card with each dozen.
Hope this helps...the holidays will be here before we know it!

 

[jedi_librarian]

I host one at work every year. One year we had 12 people, so everyone had to bake 12 dozen!! Well, you don't count yourself, but we add the extra dozen to share together. The rest are packaged and you leave with "x" dozen of different cookies. It sounds like a lot of work, but some people like to do this because then they only have to bake one kind for the season. Some of my friends freeze their cookies and serve them at their Christmas gatherings. Also, a good tip is to make a cookie that yields a lot of cookies, so you have less batches to make.

 

[Traveliz]

I do it differently - I invite however many people I want.

My invitations state that each person brings 8 packages of 6 cookies each PLUS one baggie for the "tasting" table if they want.

I make a selection of cookies for the table to dessert on as well as one speciality one that I don't give out the recipe to.

The party time is 7. The invite states the exchange will be at 7:45. People come in and place their baggies on tables - or I do. We visit, have some cookies etc and at 7;45 I ring a bell and people go around a collect 8 packages of cookies. So everyone doesn't get everything everyone made but they get a nice assortment. I end up with the leftovers.

This way I don't have to limite my exchange and not include someone just because the numbers aren't right.

I wish I have kept track of how many years I have done this - I think its around 15 but by September people start asking me when my date is.

I sort have "rule" for the invite list too. I have a medium size home so I can't have hundred...I do invite who I want and I don't have an rsvp BUT if someone doesn't come for two years in a row AND doesn't even mention it to me I take them off the list....now if they say can't come because of this or mentions it to me at any point during the year "looking forward to coming" I leave them on the list. I just don't want to keep people on the list who have no intention or interest in coming.

I also encourage non bakers to go ahead and come - they can come and not participate, or come and bring bakery cookies...people like those as well.

Liz

 

[LindaBabe]

There's a terrific website - of COURSE i can't remember the name but search for Robin's cookie exchange or something like that on yahoo.

After my neighborhood 'happy eaters' group assured me they'd LOVE to do it, I was unable to find a date when any three were available, and one woman had the nerve to say she doesn't bake any more but could she come and just not swap cookies. That was the end of that!

 

[kadaten]

My mom used to do one every year at work. They did not limit the number of people, and everyone had to bring 5 dozen of their cookies in a tin and an EMPTY tin. They took turns walking around the table taking 2 of every cookie on each pass. Years when there were lots of ladies they might only get 4 of each cookie, but there were TONS of different cookies. Years when there were less, they might get 8 or 10 of each cookie. The more elaborate and different the better!
Their main rules were
1) homemade cookies ONLY (that way everyone knew everyone else was putting in as much time/effort as they were)
2) absolutely NO chocolate chip (anybody can make chocolate chip cookies so they shouldn't be at the exchange)

Good luck with your exchange

 

[Tammi67]

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I like the unlimited number of guests suggestion and only getting a few of each cookie. We'll see what happens. I have been toying with this idea for years but just haven't gotten up the energy to follow through. I will search the net for other ideas too.

 

[sadiebell]

A friend of mine has had a cookie exchange for the past two years. It is a lot of fun. She has us bring about 3 dozen of our chosen cookie. She supplies large ziploc bags or you can bring a cookie tin of your own. You then make your trip around the dining room table getting 2-3 of each kind until they are all gone. By the end of the night you have a bag full of a wide assortment of cookies.
She usually invites 15-20 people and then we play "Dirty Santa". That is a game where each person brings a wrapped gift of a certain pre-determined dollar amount. Numbers are drawn to determine who goes first. The first person chooses a gift and unwraps it. The second person can either choose an unwrapped gift or steal the first person's gift. If a gift is stolen, it can change hands no more than 3 times and then it becomes frozen and the permanent gift of whoever chose it last. When someone's gift is stolen, she can choose to pick an unwrapped gift or steal someone else's gift. We have a lot of fun playing this game because people often try to hide the gift they have chosen if it is something they would like to keep so it does not get stolen away from them.

 

[Tammi67]

A friend of mine has had a cookie exchange for the past two years. It is a lot of fun. She has us bring about 3 dozen of our chosen cookie. She supplies large ziploc bags or you can bring a cookie tin of your own. You then make your trip around the dining room table getting 2-3 of each kind until they are all gone. By the end of the night you have a bag full of a wide assortment of cookies.
She usually invites 15-20 people and then we play "Dirty Santa". That is a game where each person brings a wrapped gift of a certain pre-determined dollar amount. Numbers are drawn to determine who goes first. The first person chooses a gift and unwraps it. The second person can either choose an unwrapped gift or steal the first person's gift. If a gift is stolen, it can change hands no more than 3 times and then it becomes frozen and the permanent gift of whoever chose it last. When someone's gift is stolen, she can choose to pick an unwrapped gift or steal someone else's gift. We have a lot of fun playing this game because people often try to hide the gift they have chosen if it is something they would like to keep so it does not get stolen away from them.

Hey, that sounds like fun. I was looking for other ideas of what to do other than eat/exchange cookies. Thanks!

 

[Traveliz]

Hey, that sounds like fun. I was looking for other ideas of what to do other than eat/exchange cookies. Thanks!

I also have a little thank you gift for each person to take home - one year it was a bayberry candle with the poem that goes with it, a few years ago it was a cookie cutter with a recipe attached (came from a closeout sell), one time it was the packages of Snowman's soup. I find a different idea each year and keep that a secret also til the exchange night.

Liz

 

[ksjayhawks]

For our neighborhood one, the hostess knows how many are invited and tells everyone the amount of cookies to bring (6 per person) plus a few extra. These are all put on a table. Hostess and helpers provide other snacks. Then everyone takes their tray and goes around and gets 6 cookies of each kind. If there are any left, we go around again and pick x number more.

It is a fun evening!