The Twelve Days of Christmas Baking - Day 2: Cookie Exchanges

Some of the cookies from my cookie exchange.  Cute bags, huh?

 I just finished a weekend filled with cookies, two cookie exchanges to be exact.  They were both extremely fun, and now I have enough cookies to feed an army!  My sister wasn't able to come to my cookie exchange this year because she just had a baby girl three weeks ago (I wouldn't have had any desire to bake cookies with a newborn either!), so I'm planning on packing up quite a few of the goodies for her and her family to enjoy.  When I told Hubby I was planning on doing this, he said, "We're not giving her all of our cookies are we?"  As if 200 cookies aren't enough for our family!

I'm sure many people have already taken part in cookies exchanges this past weekend, but in case you're hosting one this weekend or thinking a cookie exchange would be a fun thing to do any time of the year, here are a few things to remember in order to make your exchange a great event.

1.  Keep your guest count to between 7-14.  You can obviously have more or less people, but I think the perfect number of attendees is 10.  You end up with just enough cookies to make it worth your while having a great variety!

2.  Remember that you can adjust your cookie count.  If you end up having a lot of people, have each person only make 5 or 6 cookies per person.  If you have a small group, up your cookies count to 10 or so. 

3.  Don't forget to have your guests include one recipe for each guest.  It's not fun finding a great cookie and then realizing you have no idea how to make it!

4.  Create some friendly competition!  Have a few categories for judging: presentation and taste are two great ones to include.  If you choose to have your guests vote for the best tasting cookie, make sure you have them include additional cookies for tasting testing.

5.  Make sure you have a small prize for the winners of your competitions.  Ornaments or baking kits make good Christmas cookie exchange prizes. 

6.  Make sure to remind your guests to bring a container that's big enough for storing all of their newly acquired treasures.  It doesn't have to be fancy; a laundry basket or shopping bag will be fine.

7.  Have fun!

The Twelve Days of Christmas Baking - Day 3: Walnut Tea Cookies