Did you ever wish you had time to bake 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies? I was fortunate as a child in that my mother was able to be a homemaker, and she would make dozens of different kinds of Christmas cookies. She was also mother to seven children who all attended public school and church, so she always had plenty of places to share those cookies. If you have the time to make them, you would probably wonder where to store all those huge batches of cookies.
Have you ever considered how much money it would cost to buy all those different ingredients and decorations, some of which you’ll only need a little bit of? And what about those times when you find yourself having an oversupply of cookies you can’t possibly consume by yourself in a short period? A perfect and fun solution is a Cookie Exchange Party.
Recycle Cookies And Share Them In A Cookie Exchange
I attended one such party several years ago to meet with friends I’d met online. This was back when my Internet connection was dial up and I was involved with a local Freenet. There were monthly meetings in a public place and after a few of us had met enough times to ascertain that we were all safe (not one axe murderer in the bunch, thankfully!) we decided to meet for a Cookie Exchange. I have such fond memories of that little get together. I really enjoyed getting together with friends, and it was really fun taking home so many different kinds of cookies! It was also great fun to give away more cookies than I took back and felt that others were able to enjoy what I had to provide.
Here’s how it works:
- Decide on how many people you want to invite, let’s say you’ve decided to invite twelve friends.
- Choose twelve cookie recipes, keeping in mind that you want a nice assortment of various types of cookies.
- Ask your friends to choose the recipe they want to make, or simply assign them a recipe. This can be simple to coordinate if you all have email.
- Each person makes 12 dozen cookies of their recipe.
- Decide on an evening to meet together to divide up the cookies. With spouses and children welcome, this can be a fun event where everyone can relax and visit.
- Ask everyone to bring a pot luck dish, while you provide the paper plates, napkins and utensils. Make a big bowl of warm cider or hot chocolate, and of course you’ll need coffee for the adults.
Some cookie favorites: gingerbread men, chocolate chip, sugar cookies, Snicker-doodles, peanut butter cookies, brownies, M&M cookies, bar cookies, Rice Krispie treats, chocolate covered pretzels, and oatmeal cookies. Now if you want to be a little different and try something interesting this Thanksgiving, you can make some Turkey Pops!
This is a really fun way for a group of people to socialize and get together in a relaxed and informal atmosphere to visit and enjoy each others’ company. You can also decide to walk away with twelve dozen different kinds of cookies!
Treating The Troops With A Cookie Exchange
Here is another idea for a Cookie Exchange, but for this one you will need to do a little bit of research, and be willing to ship the cookies instead of taking them home to eat! Your waistline will surely thank you if you choose this route.
Check out Operation Gratitude and Treat the Troups to learn more about shipping care packages to our military troups. This Cookie Exchange is the same idea as the first one, but instead, you’ll be shipping the cookies on to our men and women serving our country. Imagine how delighted they will be to receive a huge box filled with dozens of cookies! They are also in need of other items as seen on their wish list.
Have you ever attended a cookie exchange? What are your favorite holiday parties?
Guest Contributor: Mrs. Accountability writes about personal finance and how her family is getting out of debt at her blog, Out of Debt Again.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi SVB, thank you for including my post at The Digerati Life today! 🙂 BTW, how adorable are those turkey pops!? Those are cute!
Hi Mrs A.!
Keen eye on those Turkey Pops! Yes, they’re truly cute. Would love to try and make them some day. Thanksgiving is coming up so it could be a timely treat! But watch out for the sugar load! 🙂
Thanks for the wonderful guest post.
What a great idea! I particularly like the idea of the cookie exchange for the troops. I think I will suggest this to some friends. Thanks for the post and for providing the information about shipping.
I went to a cookie decorating party once. It was so fun. There were plain cookies and we decorated them any way we wanted. YUM!
I have attended a couple. They were fun!! Prizes were handed out for various categories. I did this one year as a Cub Scout Den leader as the boys had to do a cooking activity to earn a badge/rank advancement and it was during the Nov/Dec holiday season. I also had prizes and certificates made for categories– Best Use of Chocolate, Most Original Cookie, Prettiest Cookie, etc. The boys loved this activity and were thrilled with their awards! I am planning to do one this year for my daughter and some of her friends. I really like your idea of assigning cookies in order to avoid all chocolate chip or those peanut butter/hershey kiss cookies which seem to be what most people make anymore!!