Updated on January 4, 2023
For the past five years, I have hosted a cookie exchange party with some of my girlfriends. We have a great time getting together, sharing some delicious treats and drinks, and catching up during the busy holiday season.
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Supplies needed:
- Mod & Merry Dinner Plates
- Mod & Merry Dessert Plates
- Mod & Merry Beverage Napkins
- Lime Green Forks
- Light Blue Cups
- Red Plastic Tablecloth
- Red Pleated Tablecloth
- Mod & Merry Table Runner
- Mod & Merry Garland
- Mod & Merry Hanging Ornaments
Note: I will be sharing all the free printables I used in this post on Wednesday.
How it works:
- I normally create a Facebook event to invite everyone to the party. This is the easiest way to coordinate around the holidays.
- About a week and a half before the party, I make sure everyone has RSVP’d and we have a final headcount.
- Once I know the total number of people coming, we can decide exactly how many treats to make per person. Usually, we do about 50 – 60 cookies total. This year since we had 10 people attending, we did a total of fifty cookies (5 cookies each).
- Each guest brings a wrapped package of treats for each person attending. We also bring an unwrapped platter of sample treats to share and taste at the party. We don’t limit it to just cookies, though – any sweet treat will do!
- We vote on different categories and the winners get a prize.
I found the most adorable Mod & Merry party supplies at Oriental Trading. I designed all my printables to match the party decor. I purchased plates, forks, napkins, and cups that all coordinated.
To make the cups extra special, I added a little cookie exchange sticker to each one. There was a blank space on the sticker for people to write their names on the cups.
I printed them out on blank sticker paper and punched them out using a 1 1/2″ punch.
We eat a lot of sweet things at the party, so I always like to have some savory food for people to eat. I made a vegetable tray with ranch, fiesta cream cheese dip, crackers, spinach dip, and Hawaiian rolls, along with some chips and salsa. I also serve water, soda and wine to drink.
To decorate the food table, I started with a plain red tablecloth. I added a ruffled table skirt around the whole table. These are great and so easy to use. They have a little strip of adhesive, so you simply wrap it around the edge of the table and attach it to your plain tablecloth.
I added a coordinating table runner and these festive ornament hangers. They are so cute and could easily be used again for a birthday party. These ornaments are very easy to assemble. Once I had them all ready to go, I hung them from the ceiling using clear fishing line and thumbtacks.
The Mod & Merry banner came as one long piece that said Merry Christmas. I trimmed the string right after the large pink ornament and attached it to the front of the table using washi tape.
For the favors for the party, I created some pretty cookie cutter charm necklaces. I wrapped them up and placed them in these little red favor boxes. I added a thank you for coming sticker onto the top of the box.
Note: I will be sharing the full tutorial on how to make these necklaces later this week.
I printed the stickers on white sticker paper and cut them out using a 1 1/2″ punch.
I used my white cupcake stand and added some candy cane garland around the trays. This was the perfect way to display the favor boxes.
As each guest arrives, we put the cookie packages on display on the counter. So we each know who made what, I added name tag table tents in front of each person’s packages. I love these snow globe cookie boxes I found to package up my treats.
Once everyone arrives and has a chance to socialize for a bit, we take a vote on the cookies. This year we had categories for best packaging, most creative treat, and best-tasting treat. I have some very crafty friends that are excellent bakers, so it can be so hard to choose. I think the packaging gets better and better every year we do this!
I printed out voting cards to make it easy for each person to make their selection.
Each person that wins gets a prize. I wrapped each of the prizes in these red and white snowflake bags.
I had three prizes available – a coloring gift set, holiday craft gift set, and a sweet treat gift set.
We all had such a great time. It is so nice to bake just one or two things and go home with so many different delicious things to eat. And since the holidays can be so busy, it is great to be able to connect with so many of my friends.
Be sure to check out all the Christmas decor, crafts, candy, party supplies and more at the Oriental Trading Christmas store.
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