"The Rules of the Cookie Exchange"
by Robin Olson ©1997
All cookies should be homemade, baked and main ingredient must be flour.
No plain chocolate chip cookies, cookie mixes, no-bakes, meringues or bars.
Please bring 6 dozen total cookies.
The theme is "Christmas Cookies" (You can make any theme you like.)
Arrange cookies in a basket or platter and be creative! Bring a large container to carry away your cookie, or the hostess can provide a take away container.
Email a copy of your recipe before the party (or bring recipe to the party)
Christmas attire is encouraged!
RSVP as soon as you can and let me know what type of cookies you are planning on baking - no duplicate recipes are allowed.
There's a prize for the best Christmas outfit. (Give prizes!)
If you don't have time to bake, or have burnt your cookies, but still want to attend, you must go to a real bakery and buy 6 dozen yummy cookies.
Go here for a simple text version of the rules to copy and paste. Include with your invitation.
:::IMPORTANT NOTE:::
Even though I post all these rules on my website and in my invitation, people don't always pay attention and bring items that they shouldn't. I NEVER say anything to them. It's never my intention to make people feel bad. People are the reason for the party... we're here to have fun and get together.
I just make available the guidelines, so that the majority will hopefully follow the rules and a few bad cookies can get lost in the shuffle without major consequences. It becomes a problem if people go home and throw away all the cookies due to an overall lack of quality. Also, the stories at the swap are not nearly as interesting as with the "real" cookies anyway.
The Rules of the Cookie Exchange - Explained
There's reason for everything
1 & 2. All cookies should be homemade, baked and main ingredient must be flour. No "no-bake" cookies.
The "must be baked and use flour" rule was started when three participants brought no-bake cookies to one exchange. Most of them were terrible and were just thrown away. The main ingredient in one of them was saltine crackers. Another mom proudly proclaimed; "My kids (ages 3 & 5) helped roll these cookies"... With that in mind, another attendee spent three days making cookies which were a multi-layered, apricot filled, delicacy. They were a work of art that she spent a lot of time on.Another pet peeve is "Forgotten Cookies", aptly named. While I enjoy eating a meringue every now and then, I don't care for meringues at a cookie exchange, because they're too simple. Heat oven, beat egg whites, add sugar, plop on baking sheet, turn oven off and leave overnight.
It was an exchange that I remember getting negative comments back on. I decided that if I was going to continue to spend the time to create this party, I needed to create some rules so that everyone would feel like they went home with good quality, baked cookies.
The party is about "the people" but when people go home to their families, you don't want to hear that the families thought the cookie were awful and that they got tossed. You'll lose people forever if they get the idea that the cookies at your party are burnt, boring, cheap, low quality or just plain bad. Christmas is a busy time for everyone and people have to make choices about what they want to do. Make your party something they want to do.
Lastly, if you decide to have no-bakes at your party, no-bakes are not really cookies, they're more of a candy. Call your party a "Cookie and Treat Exchange". This gives everyone a heads up that there will be non-baked items.
3. Please bring 6 dozen total.
Question: "Why 6 dozen? I went to an exchange where we only had to bring 1 dozen."
Answer: My primary reason? I knock myself out for this party. Not only is my house completely decorated by the first week-end of December, but on top of baking cookies for the exchange I also make hot and cold hors de oeuvres and usually spend about $200.00 on the food and drinks. I'd rather not go to all of this effort for only 12 cookies ! I really don't think my attendees would be so excited about making childcare arrangements, getting all dressed up and driving to my house for 12 cookies either.
The table would look so sparse with only one dozen, the party is a feast for the eyes --as well as taste! (We don't eat the cookies at my party, we only swap.) Six dozen is only one batch of a large yield recipe, or two batches of a smaller one.
The only time I would suggest one dozen is if:
You were doing an office cookie exchange and the cookies were only going to be eaten by the attendees.
A Children's Cookie Exchange
The attendees do not have children or others to share their cookies with.
4. The theme is "Christmas Cookies" - no chocolate chip cookies allowed - unless they are really different!
I wouldn't want 7 types of chocolate chips showing up, as much I love them! Story time would be pretty boring, don't you agree?
5. Arrange cookies in a basket or platter (be creative!) and bring a large container (i.e., Tupperware, basket, tin, box) to carry away cookies.
Think "portability" when deciding what cookies to bake. Have you used gooey icing? Cookies with icing need to air dry and harden before a Cookie Swap.Hostesses can can provide baggies to separate cookies or tell guests to separate the cookies as soon as they get home, so the flavors don't mix. Hostesses that do pre-packaged swaps don't have to worry about this. However, I love the open platter method, it's the highlight of the party!
6. Email a copy of your recipe before the party or bring recipe to the party. Decide how to handle recipes. Some hostesses have everyone bring hard copies and leave next to the cookies and people can take what they want. Or you could request to gather the recipes by email and print and bind little cookie recipe cookbooks as a parting gift.
7. Christmas attire is encouraged!
This helps sets the mood. Or the dress theme of your choice.
8. RSVP as soon as you can and let me know what type of cookies you are planning on baking - no duplicate recipes are allowed.
No duplicates are allowed because invariably one person baked a better version of a cookie and then another person feels bad. No one wants to find out that their cherished family recipe is being done better by another family somewhere else.
9. There's a prize for the best (most outrageous) Christmas outfit.
This encourages people to dress festively. The person with the light up earrings usually wins!
10. If you don't have time to bake, or have ruined your recipe, but still want to attend, you must go to a real bakery and buy 6 dozen really yummy cookies.
What you lack in time spent baking --you must make up for in expense!
To see a lot more
Cookie Exchange ideas,
log on to the
Cookie
Exchange Message Board
The Invitation and Rules for our Cookie Swap
was invented by:
Holly Murphy and Robin Olson ©1989
You may use our sample invitation
and rules for your party.
If you are using these rules for your online
invitation,
please link back to this page and give credit where credit is due:
Cookie Exchange Rules
and Invitation Courtesy of
Robin's Cookie Exchange
http://www.robinsweb.com/cookies/cookie-invite.html
Permission required for reprint for reasons
other than hosting your own party.
(Example: sites using this copyrighted
information without permission.)
See Legal page.
Thank you for respecting copyrights.
Copyright©1997 Robin L. Olson, Robin's Web, All Rights Reserved.
