Christmas Cookie Exchange

Growing up, my mom attended an annual Christmas Cookie Exchange with her friends. Now that I am all grown up too, I thought it would be a fun tradition to start with my friends in my new home. Last year I hosted my first Christmas Cookie Exchange. It was so much fun to have a mom’s night in with my friends and celebrate the Christmas season.

Here is how I hosted my party:   

As always, keep it simple. This keeps things organized and keeps the focus on the fun and fellowship of the party.

1. Put your Pinterest account to good use and get yourself a fabulous cookie recipe!

2. Invite your friends. Set an RSVP deadline because you will need to know how many people will be attending.

3. Once you have a number of guests you can decide how many cookies everyone should bring. The way the exchange works is you bring one type of cookie to share and go home with a variety of cookies that others have brought! 4 is a great number. So if you have 12 guests, each person makes 4 dozen cookies. You will go home with 4 dozen new cookies – an assortment of cookies your friends have brought to the party.

4. Ask each person to bring enough copies of their recipe to share with each guest. This part is fun because each person now have a stack of new holiday cookie recipes to add to their recipe book, and if someone likes a particular cookie they don’t have to hunt down the baker to get the recipe – they already have it!

5. Remind each person to bring their own serving tray. This cuts down on set up and clean up for you.

6. Ask each person to bring their own container to take the cookies home in. This can easy be the same container they used to bring the cookies. Have Freezer zip lock bags on hand because people will forget!

7. Have the party after you have already decorated for the holidays. There will be no need to add more decorations for the party.

8. Have a few snacks and a hot chocolate bar. This gives people something to do while you visit before the exchange.

9. Ask everyone to bring a few extra cookies for sampling during the party.

10. Add a dress up or theme element: dress up, little black dress, tacky sweater, holiday colors, etc.

This year I will be hosting my second cookie exchange party. I am so excited to spend time with my friends and continue this tradition. Oh yes, and eat cookies!!

Have you ever been to a Cookie Exchange Party? What was your favorite party about the party?