A good holiday cookie exchange can leave you feeling cozy, content, and full of joy and sugar. A bad cookie exchange is disappointing, unexpectedly competitive, and might make you realize there is such a thing as too many cookies. Don’t let a terrible cookie exchange come to pass. Follow these tips to host a cookie jamboree that your guests lovingly reminisce about well into the new year.
1. Get organized
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
A cookie exchange, or swap, is a kind of holiday party where you ask each guest to bring one type of cookie. Everyone arrives with their offerings and you end up with a variety of festive colors, flavors, and combinations for everyone to taste and bring home. To keep it as simple as it sounds, it helps to stay organized. I know spreadsheets aren’t for everyone, but some sort of document will save you a lot of confusion. Even if it’s handwritten, you want some sort of register where you can keep track of who’s bringing what. This will prevent repeat cookies from showing up at your table too. Double or triple plates of peanut butter cookies might not sound so bad, but they’re the most likely to be the source of unspoken cookie competitions. Avoid cookie feuds, and tell invitees they can bring whatever they want but there will be no repeats. Odds are that they’ll get back to you ASAP with what they intend to bring, which means your guest list gets sorted that much quicker.
2. Ask about food allergies
While you’re out there inviting people, get a list of dietary restrictions. It’s pretty damn disappointing to go to a party and find that you can only eat one thing—the thing you brought. You don’t have to micromanage what other folks contribute, but it’s not a bad idea to provide a few options to ensure your gluten-sensitive guests have something delicious to munch on. Since you now have a list of who’s bringing what, you can make tags with each cookie’s name, and what common allergens it contains. If you’ve got a friend with mild nut allergies, consider having a nut-free cookie station.
3. Decide on quantity and quality
You know there’s a friend who’ll bring three dozen cookies, and someone who’ll bring seven single cookies. It’s a good idea to ask that everyone bring a particular number. Usually one or two dozen cookies per person is sufficient. Then consider quality. Not so much if everyone is using Plugra butter, but if purchased cookies are okay. You know your friends better than they do sometimes. If you’re sure hell needs to freeze over before they’ll ever bring a wooden spoon to butter, allow them to buy their contribution from a professional. Local bakeries make some fabulous holiday cookies, so why not sample their wares? I would stop there though. There’s something decidedly un-festive about two boxes of Entenmann’s showing up on your table.
4. Consider the layout
I’ve been to cookie exchanges where all of the cookies are laid out on one big table. Then the participants line up and do a quirky conga-line, snaking around the table. It gives me buffet-at-a-wedding vibes, and I don’t love it. I generally enjoy more informal roaming, so I’ve had three or four cookie areas for friends to wander over to. I’m sure this also has to do with apartment life and the lack of a dining room table, but I’ll have groups of cookies on a coffee table, TV console, desk, end table or kitchen counter. Not only does this prevent crowding and waiting, but it gives you easy separation for those dietary restrictions as well.
5. Supply takeout containers
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
Provide paper containers and paper bags (or reusable totes you hate). You can ask your guests to bring their own containers, but there will always be a few friends who forget theirs, or foolishly bring small ones. I prefer the long, rectangular, paper sort with the tab top. They’re affordable, disposable, and flexible so the top can bulge without crunching any cookies, but structured enough to give some protection. Have your guests load up their spoils straight into these containers.
6. Prevent tons of leftovers
Encourage guests to “exchange” first, and eat second. Guests can mill about with their take out containers and, depending on the amount of cookies you asked people to bring, take a few of each kind. Once everyone’s been through and filled their boxes, open up the floor to general face-stuffing. This is when the real eating and complementing begins. With the packing up out of the way, everything else is fair game. When all is winding down, invite everyone to take a few more for the road, and don’t forget to save some for yourself.
