12 Days of Christmas Ideas – Day 10

Home baking is a lovely treat to offer family and friends when they pop in for a visit over the Christmas period.  It is also a great and inexpensive gift idea.  Having a variety available for both instances can be a lot of work which is why (as promised on Day 2 – Planning Tips for Christmas) I would like to share with you the second of the two party ideas that will help you prepare for Christmas. It’s the Cookie Swap Party.

The Cookie Swap Party is somewhat of a new concept to us here in New Zealand, but I think it is a fantastic idea for getting friends together to achieve a common goal.  Here’s how it works.

1. The Planning

Invite a few of your friends to participate.  I think 5 – 8 people is a nice number.  Each person bakes one dozen of cookies per person attending, plus 1 extra dozen for tasting during the party.  So if you have 5 people coming, each person would need to bake 6 dozen cookies.  That may seem a little scary at first but if you choose a recipe that yields a large quantity to start with and has a short baking time then all you need to do is double the recipe once and within an hour or so you should have all the cookies you need.  Another planning tip is when your guests confirm their participation, ask them what type of cookie they plan to bring.  This way you can be sure to have a good variety on the day.

2. The Cookies

A couple of points to consider when choosing your cookie recipe:

• Make sure that they are a cookie that will handle being transported – you don’t want the cookies crumbling to pieces before they reach their intended recipients.
• If the recipe calls for the cookie to be kept in the fridge then it is not a good recipe to choose – you don’t want them to spoil before they reach their intended recipients.
• You might also like to find out if any of your friends would like a gluten and dairy free option in which case I found the most amazing recipe for Coconut Flour Snickerdoodles. Yum, Yum!

When everyone arrives for the party layout the cookies for swapping on the table.  Label the cookies so everyone knows what they are getting.  If there are gluten and dairy free options make sure everyone knows which ones these are.  Before the swapping begins remind everyone that they can take one dozen of each type of cookie, including one dozen of their own.  If people are gift wrapping their cookies then they probably won’t want to take all their cookies at once, so offer paper and pens for people to keep track of what they take.

3. The Tasting

Set up the cookies for tasting in a space separate from the swapping cookies.  Be the polite hostess and offer your guests a beverage when the arrive, but also set up a little refill station so they can help themselves later if they would like another one – this way you can concentrate on wrapping your cookies and enjoying their company.

Tasting the cookies is my favourite part.  It’s great that the refreshments for the party are provided without any extra effort, but I think it is even better that everyone then knows exactly what it is they are wrapping as gifts or taking home.  It’s also a great opportunity to swap recipes if something really takes your fancy.

4. The Wrapping

The last thing you’ll need to set up is a wrapping station.  Gather together a range of wrapping supplies.  You can choose whether you supply these yourself or if you ask your friends to contribute.  Things you could include are ribbons; favour boxes; disposable plates; recycled cans, boxes and jars that could be decorated and Christmas paper for making boxes or gifts bags.  Cellophane and lunch wrap paper are also handy to have. One idea a friend of mine suggested was to buy little glass dishes from the second hand shop and wrap the cookies up in these.  You’ll also need things like scissors, glue stick, rulers, sticky tape etc. along with anything else you might want in order to achieve your desired results.

Once everything is set all that is left to do is start swapping, wrapping, eating and chatting.

The photos in this post were taken at a Cookie Swap Party I had with my friends over the weekend.  It was a lot of fun, catching up, eating cookies and being creative.  I wish you just as much fun, should you try this idea with your friends.