Martha Bear® loves a cookie party

You'll need

8 to 12 neighbors, co-workers, or family members (any more and you'll be stuck in the kitchen baking for too long a time).

Enough copies of your chosen cookie recipe to pass out to all participants. 

A weekend afternoon might be a good time for your cookie exchange since you can bake in the morning and enjoy the festivities the same day. 

Have everyone bring one dozen of one kind of cookie per participant to the party.  It's much less expensive to buy ingredients for one type of cookie than 8 to 12 kinds.  Also, you'll save time not having to switch ingredients from one recipe to another.  And don't forget, you'll only have to wash one mixing bowl! 

Example:  8 guests x 12 (you bake one dozen per participant) = 96 cookies.  Therefore, each person will need to bake and bring 96 of one kind of cookie.  Put them in a pretty tin or on a platter to make a spectacular presentation of the myriad of cookies. 

Take a large empty container in which to take home your new cookies.  (It's easier to come with the empty container than to try and give and receive cookies at the same time.)

Once everyone has switched cookies, feel free to munch from your own stash.  Over tea or punch, discuss the season, the time you've saved, and the wonders of your last handbell performance.  That's what the Amelia Island Ringers, myself included, did at our holiday cookie exchange.  I hope we do it again next year! 

You don't always have to exchange cookies.  Try our Chocolate Pretzel Logs or Easy Ritz® Bits® Treats for a yummy alternative.