In order to have a nice variety of cookies, though, it can sometimes become expensive buying all of the various ingredients needed to make each recipe.  Instead of trying to make a large variety of cookies, you could host a holiday cookie swap, following this simple “recipe”:

What You’ll Need:

• 12 Willing Friends
• Ingredients and recipe to make 12 dozen of a single type of cookie
• Cellophane bags and paperplates;  OR disposable ziplock containers (one for each participant)

What You’ll Do:

Each participant in the cookie swap will bake 12 dozen cookies, all of the same kind.  This way, you’re only buying ingredients for one type of cookie, which makes it less expensive and quicker to make than if you made one dozen of twelve different types of cookies!

Agree on a day to get together for the cookie exchange.  You can simply collect everyone’s cookies and re-distribute them, but it’s much more fun and “in the holiday spirit” if you hold a little get together.  You can keep it simple – have everyone bring their cookies and serve some drinks.

Set up a cellophane bag, paper plate or a ziplock container for each person participating in the cookie swap.  Have each participant add one dozen of their cookies into everyone’s container (keeping one dozen of the cookies they made for themselves, too).  The end result?  Each participant goes home with 12 dozen cookies, a dozen of each variety!

What the participant does with their cookies is up to them – some people keep them and enjoy them over the holiday season.  Some people will make smaller plates or containers of their cookies to give to friends, family and neighbors as a special “thinking of you” gift.

How to Host a Holiday Cookie Swap was created by and is property of American Consumer News.