Holiday Cookie Swap

The Holidays have come and gone & I feel like my life is finally getting back to order. In December I hosted my first ever Cookie Swap. The party was so much fun and everyone was excited to exchange cookies. I found so many great ideas for the swap at a website devoted strictly to cookie swap parties: Cookie-Exchange.com.

After reading the forums over at Cookie-Exchange.com, I decided to include a few of the suggested "rules" in my invitation. I asked that everyone bring 6 dozen homemade cookies with flour as the main ingredient (I didn't want someone spending hours making a yummy cookie while another person dipped Nutter Butters in melted chocolate).

I'll post a picture of the invitations later in the week. The invitation was worded like a recipe and was printed on a recipe card. The recipe card was then inserted into an apron I made from cardstock and eyelets.

Before the party I asked everyone to email their cookie recipe to me. Getting the recipes in advance allowed me to make sure we didn't have duplicates and to prepare a recipe book favor with all of the cookies recipes. Actually, my intention was to give out recipe books, but I procrastinated and didn't have them finished in time for the party! Just think what a nice surprise it will be when the girls receive their books in the middle of January LOL!
As each guest arrived, they put their platter of cookies on the cookie table. Then we socialized and munched on an appetizer buffet that I had prepared. About an hour into the party, I handed everyone a Christmas coat box lined with wax paper and we lined up. Everyone walked around the table and took 4 cookies from each platter (we had 19 different cookies in all!). After everyone went through the line once, they went back and picked 4 more cookies to equal the 6 dozen cookies they brought to swap.

Here's a picture of the swap:

Some of my lovely guests:

Here's Ronda (in the blue) from Ronda's Rants:

This is a party that definitely become an annual event!