Holidays
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Cookie Exchange ???
in Holidays
This year I would like to host a cookie exchange, but I have neither been to one or hosted one, so I have a few questions. I have always baked tons and tons and tons of cookies in the past and although I enjoy it, I think a cookie exchange could be more fun. 1. How did your cookie exchange work?2. How many ladies attended?3. What food did the hostess serve?4. How many cookies were you expected to bring?5. Did ladies communicate beforehand what cookie they were providing? 6. Was it an e-mail invite, evite, or mail invitation?7. Anything you would have changed? Thanks a bunch!
Re: Cookie Exchange ???
We do a cookie exchange at work every year and I love it!
1. How did your cookie exchange work? Each person bakes one type of cookie and brings in a dozen for each person in the exchange either in a tin or on a paper plater with plastic wrap. We have a sign up sheet so that no one brings the same type. We usually say no chocolate chip cookies as well. Each person brings a box to take the cookies home in.
2. How many ladies attended? Usually 8-10 people
3. What food did the hostess serve? We usually do it after work so we just have soda and chips. My mom does it with her card club and they have hot cocoa, coffee, beer, wine, and appetizer foods.
4. How many cookies were you expected to bring? 1 dozen per person at the exchange.
5. Did ladies communicate beforehand what cookie they were providing? Yes! this is very important so you don't end up with 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies.
6. Was it an e-mail invite, evite, or mail invitation? Ours is usually a sign up sheet and an e-mail.
7. Anything you would have changed? Nope I love ours-we exchange about a week before Christmas and it's perfect so that the cookies stay fresh for the holidays.
I invited about 10 women and asked they bring 6 cookies for each person to bring home -along with teh recipe
2. How many ladies attended? 8-10
3. What food did the hostess serve? soda, wine, cheese & crackers
4. How many cookies were you expected to bring? 6 per person
5. Did ladies communicate beforehand what cookie they were providing? no, but I did ask that they do not bring chocolate chips. We all know how to make those!!!
This post will be useful for you.
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/43137902.aspx
1. How did your cookie exchange work? I organize one every year with ladies from work. We each bake one dozen cookies for each person in the group plus one to sample at the get-together. Each person tells me what she is making so that there are no doubles. We got together at my house and ate and drank. All the cookies were individually packaged by the dozen with and had names on them.
2. How many ladies attended? Depending on the year 7-12 (if the numbers get too big, people won't want to be in it... however, I have once created it as two groups with people being allowed to be in both but they would have to make twice the amount of cookies)
3. What food did the hostess serve? Coffee, hot chocolate, tea and wine to drink, and appetizers like dips, canapes etc to eat. Each person also made an extra dozen and put them out to sample... we mostly ate the cookies
4. How many cookies were you expected to bring? Each person received a dozen of each cookie kind. So if there were five of you, you would make 60 cookies - the extra dozen for the samples.
5. Did ladies communicate beforehand what cookie they were providing? Yes and it helps. Some people do their baking right away whereas others do it later, so it is good to know what other people are making. I always wait until close to the deadline, look at the list and think of what type of flavour or cookie is missing and that is what I make.
6. Was it an e-mail invite, evite, or mail invitation? email
7. Anything you would have changed? Nope. Also, some people do it where they arent individually packaged and I am glad I didn't do it that way. If you leave all the cookies out and people grab their own, they will take more than their share of the ones they like and not take others. It hurts people's feelings if you do it that way - not to mention I hate the idea of 10 hands on my cookie.
Copying my response to a similar post further down the board...
I have hosted several Christmas cookie swaps, and it takes a few times to figure out what works best for your group. Here is what I have tried and what I find works best...
1. I ask that everyone bring 1-3 dozen cookies of their choosing, depending on the size of the guest list. That way, everyone gets to try some of each. Limiting it to less than 1-2 dozen is silly to me... no cookie recipe makes 6 cookies or 8, but 12, 18, or 26. If they are going to make a whole batch, they may as well bring them all and spread them around. I also don't ask (after the first year) that people RSVP with their cookie type to avoid repeats... few people have the same ideas about what a good Christmas cookie is, and even similar ones can taste totally different. And tracking down people to get them to commit to a certain cookie is even harder than getting RSVPs.
2. I provide a pretty, reusable way for guests to transport the cookies home. In the past is has been decorative platters from the party store, or plastic buckets painted with holiday themes. Last year I splurged on the Martha Stewart bakery boxes from Michael's (something like 6 for $13?! look for coupons). They are very pretty bakery boxes that come with matching parchment/tissue paper (for separating cookies), ribbon, and to/from stickers. They come in a variety of themes and look classy. I got enough so that each guest could take home a box for their family, and a second for a gift for the boss, neighbor, etc. I am doing the same this year. No sense in everyone taking 6-10 Ziploc bags to separate and tote cookies.
3. We no longer play games. The second year I did a "fill in the blank" song game with Christmas tunes, and gave out oven mitts and other small kitchen items with a snowflake theme. Games just don't fit well into the flow of our gathering, so I nixed them. If you want to do a game/contest of some sort, I would suggest you do a "best cookie" or "most festive attire" award that all guests vote on.
4. We also don't swap ornaments. Home decor styles and tastes vary more than cookie preferences, and there is no real fair way to do a swap for this... someone will always end up with the glittered pinecone while another person gets that collectible Swarvski. Yes, you can put a price limit on ornaments, but it still puts pressure on people to come with the righ ornament, and they have to make an extra trip to the store to find one. The only gifts my guests take home are from me, all identical, usually small candles or lotion.
5. Food depends on the time of day, as with every event. The first swap I had was a wine party, or atleast I planned it to be. For the second, I picked up a few pizzas. The third was sit down soup and salad. My group is content to have cheese and crackers, quiche, and lots of milk to go with the cookies, even though I would prefer to have more substance. This year's menu is very likely the last few year's favorite appetizers.
Hmm, I think I have covered all the bases. Oh! Make sure everyone knows to bring their cookies already baked. You won't have time or space for anyone to make theirs at your house, I promise. I tried (once). And don't ask for recipe cards. It's very likely only 1 or 2 people will bother.
You girls have inspired me to do a cookie exchange with my family!! My cousin wanted a family Christmas party, so now I'm making sure that happens. I have a large family, so this will make it interesting. I LOVE the ornament exchange idea as well. We also are thinking of doing evites since we're all on facebook. So much fun!! The only kind of cookies I know how to make are peanut butter cookies that my mom taught me how to bake. I told my mom that she had to make something else....lol. Should be fun, though!! Thanks girls!