Cookie Exchange and Hot Cocoa Bar

Now that the giveaway is over, I can go back to blogging about "normal" things! We were super busy during our giveaway, and I have lots to share/talk about!

One thing that I was busy with was Christmas Cookie Exchange/Hot Cocoa Bar Parties. I hosted two of these parties (one for just my girlfriends and their kiddos during the day and another for couples and their children on a Friday night). I also attended one more that a friend was hosting. I learned a lot of tips and "need to knows" for next year!

Let me share a few little tips with you.

1. Decide how structured you want your cookie exchange to be.

I made mine pretty low key. I didn't assign a set amount of cookies, and I let people email the recipes if they wanted. I had too many other things going on to really have the time to focus on lots of details. However, the cookie exchange that I attended was more structured; we were asked to RSVP with the type of cookie we were bringing, we were assigned a set amount to bring (6 dozen), we were asked to bring X amount of copies of our recipe and a container to bring home all our goods. Both ways worked great; it just depends on the kind of party you want to have.

2. Be prepared with extra paper plates to send home goodies on.

You will be left with lots of extra cookies. Unless you want to eat all those said cookies, be sure you hand them out. After the second party I hosted, we had so many leftover cookies that we gave away 4 plates to neighbors and still had a plate for us. And that was after all of our guests took home a few of every type of cookie.

3. Have a plan for any children attending

My first party this season, I had little crafts planned and ready to go. However, there were so many children (all under the age of 5) that all they wanted to do was play. And play they did. My nice clean house was destroyed in 5 minutes flat. It's okay...they had fun, entertained themselves and stayed out of trouble. For my second party, I still had some crafts available as back up, but we just started the evening with a Christmas movie playing. There was also a wide variety in the children's ages, and that was awesome. The older ones were totally into entertaining the little ones, and the adults were able to visit/play games without any issue.

4. Have a variety of hot chocolate, but keep it simple.

I offered two choices of homemade hot chocolate; just regular chocolate and then white chocolate. We did, however, have quite the selection of toppings available for our hot chocolate.

5. Have fun!!

All parties, as different as they all were, were so much fun!! Next year I am definitely turning it into a Hot Cocoa Mug exchange party too.

At our last party, we played this fun Christmas Carol Pictionary Game.
It was hilarious! You can buy it from My Computer is My Canvas.