Cookie Exchange Ideas | Christmas cookie ideas

Author: sumansujata99
Cut down on holiday baking and have fun with your friends and family by hosting a Christmas cookie swap or exchange. The basic premise behind the swap is that you invite a group of people to bring dozens of their favorite home-baked Christmas cookie and then the participants exchange cookies (either 1/2 or full dozens) with each other. That way each participant ends up with a wide variety of cookies to enjoy during the holiday season. Here are some tips on how to host an exchange.

1. Decide How Many Guests To Invite - Choosing the right number of participants can be tricky. Too many and each person will have to bake dozens upon dozens of cookies which can be overwhelming. Too few and the participants won't end up with a good variety of cookies at the end of the swap. Therefore, I suggest somewhere between 10 and 14 people.

2. Decide on the Cookie Swap Rules - After hosting many exchanges over the years, I've found it best to layout the rules and expectations up front. Here are some rules that I suggest incorporating:

a. Cookies must be homemade! This avoids disappointment when many participants lovingly spend a day baking cookies only to end up swapping for a bag of store-bought cookies. If you want to be somewhat flexible on this rule, you could indicate that cookies from local bakeries or places like Cookies by Design are acceptable.

b. Christmas cookies only! While you may love your oatmeal scotchies, a Christmas cookie exchange is not the place to share them with friends. Ask that everyone bake and bring a Christmas themed cookie. It avoids dozens of chocolate chip cookies and will get the participants creative juices flowing.

c. Bring dozens of cookies! Decide up front if participants will be exchanging 1/2 or full dozens of cookies with each of the other participants. For example if you have 10 participants, each guest will either need to bake 5 or 10 dozen cookies depending on how many they will be exchanging with each of the other participants (although they won't need cookies for themselves, the extra 1/2 or full dozen in the tally can be shared at the party as a snack).

d. Pre-package the cookies! To make the swap easy and to avoid having everyone handling each others cookies, ask each participant to pre-package their cookies in either sets of 6 or 12 in cello bags, tins, holiday favor bags, or even a zip-loc bags. It is amazing how creative people can be with their presentation.

e. Include the cookie recipe. Ask the participants to include a copy of the recipe with each of the pre-packaged bags of cookies. That way the participants can bake up a batch if they love them.

3. Send Out The Invitations - Let your creativity shine by sending out fun and festive cookie swap invites. Be sure to send them out at least 3 weeks prior to the event since many folks can get quite busy during the holiday season. It is best to have the exchange a few weeks before Christmas to ensure that everyone will have plenty of cookies to enjoy throughout the season. Be sure to include the date and time of the exchange on the invitation and ask participants to RSVP at least 10 days prior to the event so that you have time to let each of them know how many dozens of cookies to bring to the exchange. Be sure to stress that they'll need to bring dozens of cookies. Most importantly include the rules so that everyone knows how the swap will work.

Cookie Decorating Ideas | Christmas cookie ideas

Author: bagegardil
As the Christmas season starts to step in, perhaps you start to get excited about setting up your Christmas tree. You begin thinking of a design that could give you a new looking tree. Did you know that the style of your Christmas tree reflects your family's personality?

Decorating the tree varies from casual traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. In our innovative world, where almost all things are changing, Christmas lights in faceted glass bulbs to make the tree appear brighter are already preferred than candles. You will see a bunch of Poinsettia at the top of a tree instead of the traditional angel, or a star that represents the host of angels, or the star of Bethlehem from the Nativity scene. No matter what tradition you wish for your tree, it should bring your family together and unites everyone around the Christmas tree in celebration.

Today, decorating Christmas trees with cookies and candies is a new way to give your tree a more personal touch. The homemade goodies could be an expression of a delightful expertise that results to the impact of creativity to the young mind and healthy alternative to the usual holiday sweets. Decorating your Christmas tree with baked goods is the best way to make it look incredibly homey. Imagine a Christmas tree that dazzles in wrapped candies and cookies with colors that dances with the snowy colored Christmas lights. There is truly nothing like sitting beside a glorious Christmas tree on the holidays.

Decorating Christmas trees with food go back to the old times before Christ was born. People would put offerings of food along sills and windows to feed the good spirits and protect from the evil ones. The first Christmas trees were said to be imitations of the pyramid shape real conifers where placing pickles and cedar foods on the steps of the cedar pyramids of wood became a norm. The upright tree lit with candles began to be brought indoors when Martin Luther came along. This was how we became familiar with the Christmas tree we have today.

Shortbread and ginger breads are among the most favorite cookie decorations today that children would adore for their Christmas trees. In fact, there are many kinds of cookie cutters that definitely can intrigue one's imagination in making cooked Christmas cookies. You will love fascinating novelty cookie cutters with the shapes from nativity scenes, Santa's stockings, reindeers, presents and stars for the holidays. Children will love adorning a large angel-shaped cookie with edible gold, glitter and ribbon for a brilliant Christmas angel on top of their tree.