With the holidays fast-approaching, you are probably already feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff to do. For many, this tradition-rich time of year is easily the best time of year—steeped with memories of cozy days and nights spent with loved ones. One beloved tradition in many families is baking cookies, but this can easily become an overwhelming task when you plan to bake multiple varieties in order to assemble beautiful cookie platters.

Happily, there is a very simple way to achieve cookie platter perfection, without spending too much time or money, all the while enjoying an informal get-together with your loved ones: host a cookie exchange!

If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of a cookie exchange, it’s a very simple concept: you bake a large batch of your favorite, most praise-worthy cookie, invite your friends and family to do the same, converge together around your dining room table, and exchange, exchange, exchange! Everyone ends up with many kinds of yummy cookies, while saving time and money on their own baking.

For those of you who need a little more direction, I’ve put together a few tips to help you plan your exchange… 

• Invite anywhere from 6-12 people to your party (the more people, the greater variety of cookies.) Send your invitations out well before the party date—remember this is a busy time of year!
• Ask each guest to bring with them a large batch of their favorite holiday cookies. Depending on how many people you’ve invited to your party, you can figure either a half dozen or a dozen cookies per guest. (For example, if you’ve invited 12 people and you want each guest to receive a half dozen of each variety of cookie, you’d ask each guest to bring 6 dozen of a single kind of cookie.)
• Request that your guests supply copies of their recipe, either sent over email before the party (which you could possibly then assemble into a recipe booklet for each guest) or written out in multiple copies and brought to the party to be offered with the cookies.
• Consider setting some guidelines (to be included in your invitations) as to whether homemade candies, bars, and  other treats are appropriate and welcome at your party, or if you’d rather simply stick to homemade cookies.
• Ask that your guests RSVP and let you know which variety of cookie they’ll be bringing, so you can be certain there will be no duplicates.
• Decide whether you’ll be sampling the cookies at the party, and take that into consideration when you tell your guests how many dozen to bring.
• Lay out a beautiful seasonal table for your guests to display their cookies on (request that they bring an attractive platter for display, or provide them yourself if you have them.)
• Ask your guests to bring a container to transport their cookies home—be sure to supply storage bags so guests can keep all the wonderful varieties separated. You also may want to have a few containers on hand, in case one of your guests forgets to bring one.
• Prepare a few refreshments in advance to be enjoyed as your guests exchange their cookies—don’t forget plenty of milk, especially if you’ll be sampling the cookies!
• Encourage your guests to share any special stories or memories they may have attached to the variety of cookies they brought.
• Check out the Holiday collection at BigDotOfHappiness.com. They have an amazing Holiday collection to use for your party and personalized favor boxes that can be used to put your cookies in as gifts to coworkers, friends, teachers, neighbors and family!
• Above all, have fun! This is a party, after all.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger