It’s that time of year when we find any and all excuses to get together and enjoy delicious treats. This year, I thought it would be fun to gather some of my mommy friends and their kiddos for a little cookie exchange play date. I’ve never attended or hosted a party like this before, so it took a little bit of planning but the end result was a super fun, festive and tasty gathering.

The idea of a cookie exchange is get batches and recipes for new and tasty cookies to give out to friends and family for the holidays. Each guest bakes a large batch of their recipe and exchanges them with the rest of the guests. We decided to go with bringing a dozen cookies per guest, plus one extra dozen to sample on the day of the exchange. I had guests share their recipes in advance so that I could print off cute food labels and recipe cards for everyone to take home. Speaking of which, PicMonkey could make even the lamest goober like me look like a master graphic designer. I also picked up some adorable festive cookie tins from Hobby Lobby to transport the cookies back to my guests’ homes.

We had a lovely collection of delicious cookies, including chocolate chip pudding cookies, chocolate chip cookies, mochi with red bean filling and my addition, Mexican hot chocolate shortbread (here’s the recipe). Each recipe was so tasty and getting to enjoy the kids running around like lunatics was an absolute hoot. Cody, fittingly, learned a new favorite word as well: COOKIES!!! I swear, every morning since the party, she’s come downstairs for breakfast asking, “Cookies? Cookies??!” I guess that’s what I get for having a cookie party at 9 in the morning!

Getting these little goofballs to sit still for a photo was a bit of a challenge 🙂

If you’ve never attended a cookie exchange, I would highly recommend it!