{"id":194,"date":"2013-12-04T01:29:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-03T13:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/?p=194"},"modified":"2016-01-13T09:26:28","modified_gmt":"2016-01-12T20:26:28","slug":"the-cookie-swap-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/the-cookie-swap-party\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cookie Swap Party"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><em><span style=\"color: #888888;\">12 Days of Christmas Ideas &#8211; Day 10<\/span><\/em><\/h1>\n<p>Home baking is a lovely treat to offer family and friends when they pop in for a visit over the Christmas period.\u00a0 It is also a great\u00a0and inexpensive gift idea.\u00a0 Having a variety available for both instances can be a lot of work which is why (as promised on\u00a0<a title=\"Planning Tips for Christmas\" href=\"http:\/\/www.asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/?p=29\" target=\"_blank\">Day 2 &#8211; Planning Tips for Christmas<\/a>) I would like to share with you\u00a0the second of the two party ideas that will help you prepare for Christmas. It&#8217;s the Cookie Swap Party.<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s how it works.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #888888;\">1. The Planning<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Invite a few of your friends to participate.\u00a0 I think 5 &#8211; 8 people is a nice number.\u00a0 Each person bakes one dozen of cookies per person attending, plus 1 extra dozen for tasting during the party.\u00a0 So if you have 5 people coming, each person would need to bake 6 dozen cookies.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Another planning tip is when your guests confirm their participation, ask them\u00a0what type of cookie they plan to bring.\u00a0 This way\u00a0you can be sure to have a good variety on the day.<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #888888;\">2. The Cookies<\/span><\/h5>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">A couple of points to consider when choosing\u00a0your cookie\u00a0recipe:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">Make sure that they are a cookie that will handle being transported &#8211; you don&#8217;t want the cookies crumbling to pieces before they reach their intended recipients.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">If the recipe calls for the cookie to be\u00a0kept in the fridge then it is not a good recipe to choose &#8211; you don&#8217;t want them to spoil before they reach their intended recipients.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">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 <a title=\"Coconut Flour Snickerdoodles\" href=\"http:\/\/www.alisacooks.com\/2010\/12\/18\/grain-free-nut-free-snickerdoodles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coconut Flour Snickerdoodles<\/a>. Yum, Yum!<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-198\" title=\"The Cookies\" src=\"http:\/\/www.asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Cookies-791x1024.png\" alt=\"The Cookies - gingerbread\" width=\"693\" height=\"896\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When everyone arrives for the party layout the cookies for swapping on the table.\u00a0 Label the cookies so everyone knows what they are getting.\u00a0 If there\u00a0are gluten and dairy free options make sure everyone knows which ones these are.\u00a0 Before the swapping begins remind everyone that they can take one dozen of each type of cookie, including one dozen of their own.\u00a0 If people are gift wrapping their cookies then they probably won&#8217;t want to take\u00a0all their cookies at once, so\u00a0offer paper and pens for people to\u00a0keep track of what they take.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #888888;\">3. The Tasting<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Set up the cookies for tasting in a space separate from the swapping cookies.\u00a0 Be the polite hostess and offer your guests a beverage when the arrive, but also set up a\u00a0little refill station so they can help themselves later if they would like another one &#8211; this way you can concentrate on wrapping your cookies and enjoying their company.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-197 aligncenter\" title=\"The Tasting\" src=\"http:\/\/www.asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/dscf1974-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"The Tasting\" width=\"491\" height=\"655\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tasting the cookies is\u00a0my favourite part.\u00a0 It&#8217;s great that\u00a0the refreshments for\u00a0the 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\u00a0as gifts or taking home.\u00a0 It&#8217;s also a great opportunity to swap recipes if something really takes your fancy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #888888;\">4. The Wrapping<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>The last thing you&#8217;ll need to set up is a wrapping station.\u00a0 Gather together a range of wrapping supplies.\u00a0 You can choose whether you supply these yourself\u00a0or if you ask your friends to contribute.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0Cellophane and lunch wrap paper are also handy to have.\u00a0One idea a friend of mine suggested was to buy little glass dishes from the second hand shop and wrap the cookies up in these.\u00a0 You&#8217;ll also need things like scissors, glue stick, rulers, sticky tape etc. along with anything else you might want\u00a0in order\u00a0to achieve\u00a0your desired\u00a0results.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-199 aligncenter\" title=\"The Wrapping\" src=\"http:\/\/www.asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/The-Wrapping-1024x655.png\" alt=\"The Wrapping\" width=\"616\" height=\"394\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once\u00a0everything is set all that is left to do is start swapping, wrapping, eating\u00a0and chatting.<\/p>\n<p>The photos in this post were taken at a Cookie Swap Party I had with my friends over the weekend.\u00a0 It was a lot of fun, catching up, eating cookies and being creative.\u00a0 I wish\u00a0you just\u00a0as much fun, should you try this idea with your friends.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12 Days of Christmas Ideas &#8211; Day 10 Home baking is a lovely treat to offer family and friends when they pop in for a visit over the Christmas period.\u00a0 It is also a great\u00a0and inexpensive gift idea.\u00a0 Having a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,25,26,29,31,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-crafts-and-things","category-fabulous-food","category-holiday-parties","category-parties-for-adults","category-planning-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1594,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/1594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asyouwish.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}