National Cookie Exchange Day Date in the current year: December 22, 2024

National Cookie Exchange Day is one of the many quirky holidays created by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, nicknamed the Queen of Holidays. Shoemaker-Galloway has written thousands of articles about holidays while working as a freelance author, and all these holidays, ranging from serious and traditional to wacky and wild, inspired her to create a few holidays of her own.

Celebrated on December 22, National Cookie Exchange Day is the perfect day for a lighthearted Christmas party that you can host at the office or in your own home. A cookie swap party provides a great opportunity to show off your baking skills, try other people’s cookies, and get some new cookie recipes from your guests.

If you’ve never hosted a cookie exchange party before and are not sure how to proceed, here are a few tips from Jace Shoemaker-Galloway that might help. Start with choosing the date, time and location of the party (you don’t necessarily have to host it on December 22 if another date works better; we understand that it is a busy time of the year and it’s hard to choose a date that suits everyone) and making up the guest list.

The next step is creating the rules for your party, because while cookie exchanges are fun, they are a serious business too. One of the most common rules is that cookies should be homemade, not store-bought, because what fun is there in swapping cookies that you can easily buy at the nearest grocery store or supermarket? Make sure to specify how many cookies each guest should bring so that everyone gets a taste of everything and then can take some cookies home.

Asking your guests to inform you what kind of cookies they are going to bake is also a good idea because it helps to avoid duplicates. On the other hand, different people may use slightly different recipes for the same cookies, and it might be fun to compare the results! You should also ask your guests to bring recipe cards to share. Once you’ve written down the rules, make invitations with the rules and R.S.V.Ps and send them out.

On the day of the party, set everything up. You will need an area where your guests will sample cookies and an area where they will package them to take home (by the way, you can provide wrapping and packaging materials as the host or ask your guests to bring them along). Use festive tablecloths, decorations and Christmas music to set up the mood and don’t forget to provide beverages.

As your guests arrive, ask them to put their cookie platters and stacks of recipe cards in the sampling area. Use folding cards with the names of bakers and cookies to identify each batch. When everyone’s arrived and everything is set up, its time to enjoy the cookies, mingle, and have a good time! As the party is winding down, let the guest pack the cookies they liked the most and take them home.