🔔5 of 12 cookie kinds are still open: claim yours  ·  RSVP by Friday 4 December
🍪 The Great Cookie SwapDec 12 · Alder Falls ✉️ Save my spot
Recipe card no. 12from the kitchen of Nell & Abe

You’re invited to

The GreatCookie Swap

Bake one kind. Leave with twelve. Ugly sweaters strongly encouraged.

  • 📅
    WhenSaturday, December 12, 2026
  • 🕓
    Time4 to 8 pm. Cookies on the table by 4:30
  • 🏠
    WhereNell & Abe’s, 55 Spruce Hollow Road, Alder Falls
  • 🍪
    Bring3½ dozen of one kind, a tin, and a sweater
✉️ Save my spot
⏲️

Oven timer

62 days to go

Doors open Saturday, December 12 at 4:00 pm

Iced gingerbread cookies on a white plate beside a lit candle and dark fir branches, on a table in a dim, cosy room.
test batch no. 3 (passed)Photo: Miguel González
on Pexels
☃️ 🍬

👩‍🍳 The method

How a cookie swap works

Three steps and a little arithmetic. Everybody bakes one kind, everybody leaves with twelve.

  1. 1 👩‍🍳

    Bake 3½ dozen of one kind

    Claim your cookie on the sign-up sheet first, so we get twelve different kinds and not five gingerbreads. Bake 42: 36 for the swap, 6 for the tasting table. Let them cool all the way.

    Nell’s rule: cool means cool.

  2. 2 📦

    Bring them boxed, with 12 recipe cards

    Layer them in a lidded tin or box with parchment between. Write your recipe on twelve cards (index cards, napkins, whatever you have) and flag nuts or gluten on the lid. Cookies go on the sorting table by 4:30.

    Messy handwriting is part of the charm.

  3. 3 🔄

    Walk the line, fill your box

    At 5:45 we all walk the long table together. Take three of every kind into your own tin (twelve kinds, thirty-six cookies), grab the recipe cards, then go back for cocoa.

    Sampling is allowed. The whole row is not.

Two women in a warm, softly lit home kitchen kneading and rolling cookie dough on a counter, with a candle and fir branches behind them.
Baking together in a warm kitchen

⏰ Oven schedule

Four hours, start to finish

Doors at four. The swap itself happens at 5:45 sharp, because the cocoa waits for no one.

  1. 🕓
    4:00 pm

    Doors and cocoa

    Sweaters on, name tags on, cocoa bar open. The kids’ table is stocked with felt-tip pens.

  2. 🕟
    4:30 pm

    Cookies to the sorting table

    Open your tin, set out your recipe cards and your nut or gluten flag. Abe counts. Twice.

  3. 🕔
    5:00 pm

    The decorating table

    Nell’s pre-baked sugar cookies, a rainbow of icing bags and one very serious jar of edible glitter.

  4. 🕠
    5:45 pm · the main event

    The Swap

    Walk the line, take three of every kind. Please queue clockwise; Nell has opinions.

  5. 🕡
    6:30 pm

    Sweater parade and vote

    Everyone gets a turn on the hallway runway. Ballots close at the bell.

  6. 🕖
    7:00 pm

    Winners, a toast, and the leftovers

    Prizes, a toast (cocoa or otherwise), then every leftover cookie is boxed for the Pantry.

  7. 🕗
    8:00 pm

    Last call

    Doors close. Please take your tin home; a name label on the lid helps us hand it back.

A hand piping white icing onto a gingerbread cookie, with other iced reindeer and star cookies on a pale table.
5:00, the decorating table
👕

Dress code: knitwear

Ugly Christmas sweaters strongly encouraged. Wear a t-shirt underneath: Nell keeps the house at 72°F.

❄️

Weather: usually snow

The average high on December 12th is 31°F. Boots live on the mat by the door.

👨‍👩‍👧

Kids and plus-ones

Up to four people per RSVP. Only the baker has to bake; the rest taste, decorate and vote.

⚠️

Allergies, labelled

Every tin gets a flag: nuts, gluten-free or vegan. Separate tongs, always.

★★★★★

Last year, in their words

Rated 5 out of 5 by 28 guests

“I came for the shortbread and left with a tin of twelve things I would never have baked. Also a trophy, for a sweater with a lasagna on it.”

Wren T., 2025

“The recipe cards are the real prize. I have a whole drawer of them now, and I have actually made six.”

Priya R., 2025

“Cocoa bar, decorating table, a very patient dog in a reindeer jumper. Ten out of ten, would carry a tin again.”

Theo B., 2025

📋 The sign-up sheet

Claim a cup in the tin

Twelve cups, twelve kinds, one baker each. Tap an open cup to claim it. You can hold one at a time: claim another and we’ll slide you over.

7 of 12 claimed

⚠️NutsContains tree nuts or peanuts. Kept on the separate board by the window.

🌾GFMade without gluten ingredients. Baked at home, so ask the baker if you are coeliac.

🌱VeganNo eggs, dairy or honey. Every tin on the table also wears a flag card.

📦 Tins and packaging

Pack it like you mean it

Thirty-six cookies have to survive the drive, the doorway and the hug at the door. Tick things off as you go.

Overhead view of a red-rimmed oval tin lined with baking paper and packed with dark gingerbread cookies iced in white, beside a fir sprig with warm fairy lights glowing behind.
a tin worth carrying
0%

Your packing checklist

0 of 7 packed

Nothing packed yet. Cookies first, then the tin.

🏆 The Ugly Sweater Awards

Vote for the worst. The very worst.

Six sweaters are already entered. Mark your ballot (one vote per category, and never for your own, we’re watching), then see where the room stands. Winners are announced at 7:00 pm.

Friends in colourful ugly Christmas sweaters laughing and hugging in a doorway, one holding a small wrapped gift box, with a baubled garland on the door beside them.
the standard to beat

✨ Want in? Tick “Enter me in the Ugly Sweater Awards” when you RSVP and name your sweater. Late entries are accepted until the parade.

Official ballot · Cookie Swap 2026

Ugly Sweater Awards

Choose one sweater per category
The entriesUgliest overallMost lightsBest pun
#1
The Blinking RudolphColm D.Battery-powered nose. Humming not included.
#2
Llama NavidadSasha P.Fourteen llamas, one fringe, zero regrets.
#3
Tinsel TomTheo B.Sheds on every sofa in the county.
#4
Fa-La-La-LasagnaWren T.A pasta pun knitted by a grandmother in 1994.
#5
Snow BizBao T.A sequin snowman in a bow tie, corduroy trim.
#6
Two Hundred BulbsHank L.Plugs into the wall. Do not stand near the dimmer.

A white ceramic cup of hot chocolate piled with mini marshmallows on a wooden board, beside fir sprigs and a red ribbon, with soft fairy lights behind.
☕

The Fireside

Classic dark, nothing on top. Plain and perfect.

The Cocoa Bar

free refills from 4 pm until the pot runs dry

1. Pick a base

2. Pile on up to three

3. Grown-up corner

A gift wrapped in kraft paper with a red patterned band and ribbon, beside a candy cane, a gingerbread man and pine branches on a dark wooden table.
kraft paper, red ribbon, one gingerbread

🤝 Where the leftovers go

Every last cookie does some good

At 7:30 whatever is left on the long table is boxed in kraft paper, tied with red ribbon, and driven to the Alder Falls Community Pantry by Abe’s cousin Dara, in a van that plays carols at full volume.

🍪214cookies boxed last year
📦17care boxes delivered
🛷1very loud van

The Pantry is also glad of a few things if you can spare them (no pressure at all):

  • Cocoa mix
  • Flour and sugar
  • Canned soup
  • Size 4–6 diapers

📍 Getting here

Find the kitchen

Green door, a wreath the size of a bicycle wheel, and a smell you can follow from the corner.

Spruce Hollow Rd Birch Ln 9th St Alder Park Pine River Alder Ave 🧭 about 4 minutes on foot 📍 📍 📍
  • 🏠

    1. The house

    55 Spruce Hollow Road. Green door, big wreath. The step-free side gate is on Birch Lane, and there’s a rolling cart waiting there to wheel your tins in.

  • 🅿️

    2. Parking

    The Birch Lane lot is a two-minute walk and always has space. The driveway fits three cars, so carpool if you can.

  • 🚌

    3. By bus

    Route 14 to Spruce & 9th, then three minutes uphill. The last bus home leaves at 9:40 pm.

📍
Nell & Abe’s
55 Spruce Hollow Road, Alder Falls
A dim, cosy living room with a softly lit Christmas tree glowing behind a sofa and a coffee table with a mug and a book.

Save me a spot

🍪5 cookie kinds still open

👥11 taster places left

🗓️RSVP by Friday, December 4

RSVP to the swap

Takes a minute. You’ll get one confirmation and one reminder, and that’s it.

I’m coming to
Only open kinds are listed. Choosing one claims it on the sign-up sheet.
1
Up to four per RSVP. Only bakers need to bake.
Anyone in my party needs

The Fireside: classic dark, nothing on top

Build a different mug at the cocoa bar

No account, no spam. This is a demo, so nothing leaves your browser.

❓ Good to know

Questions, answered

Iced Christmas-tree cookies in green, white and gold, dusted with flour and scattered with sugar snowflakes on a light wooden board and a dark slate surface.
flour on everything
Do I have to bake?▾

No. Bakers take home the full thirty-six, but tasters are very welcome: you’ll eat from the table, decorate, vote and pour cocoa. Choose “Taste and cheer” on the RSVP and, if you like, tell us which cocoa topping you’ll bring.

Can I bring store-bought cookies?▾

The swap itself is homemade only, because that is the whole point. A bakery box for the tasting table is always welcome, though.

What if the kind I want is already claimed?▾

Each kind can only be claimed once, first come first served. Check the sign-up sheet again on Sunday: bakers do cancel, and a cup frees up the moment they release it.

How do you handle allergies?▾

Every kind is flagged on the sheet and every tin on the table wears a flag card (nuts, gluten-free, vegan). Each kind has its own tongs, and nut cookies live on a separate board by the window. Please mention severe allergies in your RSVP and we’ll talk it through.

Are kids welcome?▾

Very. They count toward your party of four. The kids’ table has felt-tips from 4:00 and icing from 5:00, and there is a quiet room upstairs with a blanket fort.

I don’t own an ugly sweater.▾

Nobody does until December. Abe keeps a basket of fourteen thrift-shop knits by the door: borrow one, or wear the most festive thing you own. A reindeer headband counts.

Where do I park, and is it step-free?▾

Use the Birch Lane lot (two minutes on foot) or take Route 14 to Spruce & 9th. The side gate on Birch Lane is step-free, and a rolling cart is waiting there for your tins.

What happens to the leftover cookies?▾

At 7:30 they are boxed in kraft paper and delivered to the Alder Falls Community Pantry the same evening. Last year that was 214 cookies in 17 boxes.

Can I change my mind after I RSVP?▾

Yes, until Friday, December 4. Edit your RSVP and switch to “Taste and cheer”, and your cup goes straight back on the sign-up sheet for someone else.

Red and green iced mitten and boot cookies on a wire cooling rack, with glowing orange tree lights out of focus above them.

See you on the twelfth

Warm kitchen, cold snow, twelve kinds of cookie.

We started this swap in 2019 with six bakers and one very full oven. It has grown, but the rule hasn’t: bring something you’re proud of, leave with something you’ve never tried.

With flour on our aprons, Nell & Abe

👩 🧔

📞 Questions? Call Nell on 555-0142

✉️ hello@cookieswap.example

Three stacked gingerbread Christmas-tree cookies with green and white icing and star toppers, among gold baubles and warm blurred tree lights.

Twelve kinds. One long table. Zero duplicate gingerbreads.

62 days until the oven timer dings. Save your spot, claim your cup and find your worst sweater.

✉️ Save my spot 🍪 Claim a cookie

Photo credits

Icons: with icons (withicons.com), MIT licence. Typefaces: Fraunces and Caveat from Google Fonts.