Well since my house was not torn apart by my twenty five first graders, I am ready for the cookie exchange. By the way, I was SO happy my shower was clean. Gathering my homemade almond joy bars, cellophane bags, recipes, and extra special santa oven mitts for distribution.
We had nine bakers exchanging, but about fifteen here to enjoy. This really is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas!
In honor of some Italian guests I served San Pellegrino and Blood Orange Italian Soda. YUM!*How to Arrange Your Very Own Cookie Exchange*
- Stress that only serious bakers should commit! Do not guilt your friends into participating. This is the first year where I have not had someone bail out at the last minute. It can be overwhelming for someone who does not LOVE to bake and very stressful when people are expecting a certain amount of goodies to take home.
- Send out an invite six weeks before and give them a definate date to reply. Hold to that date.
- After the reply date has come, send out information to each participant. They will need to bake a dozen (or half dozen) of the same cookie for each participant.
- They will also need to bring a dozen to sample and a recipe attached to each batch.
- For added fun I make it a little competitive with voting for the most interesting ingredients, tastiest cookie and most creative wrapping. This year I handed out homemade soaps for prizes. At the event, I hand out voting ballots where each person votes.
- Each guest should bring a bag or basket to take home their goodies. This could be a favor from the hostess too.
- Last year we had almost 20 participants. I do not like to split dozens so we had two different groups exchange. We had a snowflake group and a candy cane group. Thanks Laura for that great idea!
2 comments:
Jen,
Everything looked lovely. You're such an amazing hostess. I always loved going to anything held at your house.
If only I had the number to Martha Stewart to bake for me!!!!
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