Monday, December 10, 2012

Christmas Cookie Exchange Party (photo heavy)

Went to my first ever Christmas Cookie Exchange party at "K's" (dd best friend) house and we had the best time ever.  There were eight of us and it was a great mix of people.  "K" of course went above and beyond with her preparation of the party and she deserves a big pat on her back for all the hard work she put in and as dd says it's all in the details!!!

This is the food table with  "snacks" on it to nibble on, there was more added to it later on!!!  The banner was made using a Cricut.

In the above photo you can see something at the top on the wall and are wondering what it is?  Well "K" wrapped her picture up to look like a present, so it looked more Christmassy.  I rolled my eyes at that one!

Who thought that was a great idea?

This was the hot chocolate station.  It included chocolate dipped marshmallows, mini marshmallows, and chocolate dipped spoons, all to go in the mug of hot chocolate.  I forgot to ask how she made the hot chocolate, it was so good.
"K" even made little tags with our initials on it, to go on our mugs/glasses:
She had a beautiful bunch of flowers, and the cranberries in the water was a lovely touch I thought:
"K" made these cake pops which looked like reindeer and they were really yummy.  Underneath them you can see some of the iced sugar and gingerbread cookies she made as well, they were so good.

This is a photo of dd and "R" wrapping up everyone's cookies:
These are the boxes of cookies we were presented with:
This is what was in the boxes of cookies:
Attached to the top of the cookie tins was a recipe book with all the cookie recipes in it:
We also got a take home gift of a cookie cutter with this label on it:
and this gorgeous tea towel, which you can find at Crate and Barrel:
The cookies that were made were:

Shortbread Cookies

Reindeer Cookies

Almond Chai Cookies

Christmas Cherry Chews

Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Snickerdoodles

Cranberry Vanilla Chip Cookies

Big Soft Ginger Cookies (recipe on prior day's post)

100 Good Cookies (recipe on prior day's post)

If there is no direct link to the recipe, I will add that recipe in the next day or two.  Those Christmas Cherry Chews are to die for!!

So hand's up who wants an invite to next years cookie exchange?   Dd, "R" and I have offered to host it at our house next year.  Same folks just different venue!!!  I told dd and "R" that they can do the Martha Stewart stuff and I'll do the food!!!

If "K" is reading this post you deserve all the praise from all the comments as you put a lot of effort into this and it showed.

*** We each made 3 dozen cookies and we didn't bring any of the ones home that we actually made.***

10 comments:

Fishcake_random said...


That is such a good idea!!
I'm tempted to organise one a some point. I know several bakers!
x x x

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

I don't know where these girls get all the extra time for the "details", but they certainly do a lovely job with them. Sounds like you did have fun. How many cookies did each person bring and give to each of the 7 others? Nice selection for everyone.

Fran said...

What a great idea and such fun. I am now thinking of something along those lines.....xxx

Mysti said...

I love cookie swaps, but my friend who hosts them tends to have so many people....she asked people to bring 8 dozen!!!!

Rebel Blossom @ Studio 2sixty said...

I have never taken part in a cookie exchange, it looks like alot of fun!
Wondering if the art your hostess wrapped up was innapropriate for guests to see? Odd to wrap it up...

Karine said...

What a great party idea, I've never heard of a Christmas Cookie party before!

Stella Jones said...

Never heard of that before! Sounds like a lovely idea but very hard work!
Speaking as someone who has just had a disaster trying to erect a gingerbread house, I am in awe!
and .... they must have taken ages to do. It took me two afternoons to make a batch of cookies last week. It was very fiddly and time consuming.
Congratulations on your part. You didn't take any photos of your cookies?

tlcukjourney said...

Okay that just looks like a good time! I would have loved to go! And the picture wrapped...well I have seen people wrap just about anything at Christmas time!!

Cheapchick said...

Wow, such presentation! All the cookies look fabulous and those reindeer pops were really cute

Rose said...

Now this is a good idea! It would be a way to get a variety of cookies for Christmas without baking them all. Will look at the recipes later.

Hotel Stay - Dinner

As part of our hotel stay the kids had booked us dinner, breakfast and afternoon tea. Here is what we ate at dinner.  Everything was spot on...