Christmas Cookie Exchange Printables

How to run a cookie exchange with these printables

1. Send the invitation three to four weeks ahead. December weekends fill up. Put the swap rule in the details line (“bake 6 dozen of one kind, go home with 6 dozen”) so nobody arrives with a single plate. Ask people to tell you their cookie when they reply.
2. Set the numbers. Type how many bakers and how many dozen each. The page works out each guest’s share and writes it into the rules and the swap sheet.
3. Print the rules card (two to a sheet: one to send or post in the group chat as the PNG, one for the table). Every line can be edited before it prints.
4. Type each baker and their cookie, and tick the allergens. You get a label for every tin, eight to a sheet, plus blank ones for latecomers to fill in by pen.
5. Recipe cards: type your own recipe and print a sheet of copies to hand out, or print blank cards for each baker to fill in.
6. On the night, set the tins out with their labels and work down the swap sheet: each guest takes their share from each tin and ticks a box.

The sums: how many cookies to bake

Everyone bakes one kind, and everyone goes home with the same number they brought, in a mix. With 8 bakers each bringing 6 dozen (72), each guest takes 72 ÷ 8 = 9 of each kind: 72 cookies home, eight kinds. Many hosts ask for one dozen per guest instead; that is simpler to say but means 8 dozen (96) each for eight people, which is two or three evenings of baking. Six dozen is a lot easier to reach with one or two batches of a typical drop-cookie recipe (most make 3 to 5 dozen). When the batch does not divide evenly, the swap sheet rounds down to whole cookies and the few left over go on the tasting plate. If people bring different amounts, change “Dozens each” to the smallest batch so nobody runs out.

Crisp and soft cookies swap moisture in a shared tin: gingersnaps go soft next to chewy ones within a day. Ask for one kind per tin (the rules say so), and take them home in separate bags.

The allergen lists on the labels, and where they come from

Each tin label carries a tick-list. Choose the list your guests know; both are the official lists, copied from the law and read on 2 November 2026:

Those laws bind food businesses, not friends swapping cookies, and the lists differ: the US law says “tree nuts” with almonds, pecans and walnuts as its examples, while the EU names eight nuts and adds celery, mustard, sulphites, lupin and molluscs. For cookies the ones that matter most are wheat or gluten, milk (butter), eggs, nuts, peanuts, soy (in most chocolate) and sesame. Bought ingredients carry their own allergen statement on the packet; copy it rather than guess. If you are not sure, leave the box empty: the label then says “Allergens: none ticked, ask the baker”. It never prints “allergen-free”, because a home kitchen that bakes with flour and nuts cannot promise that.

Questions

What should a cookie exchange invitation say?

Five things beyond the date and place: how many dozen to bring, that it is one kind each, to bring a container to take cookies home, to reply with the cookie they are making, and the RSVP date. The example card fits all of it: “You’re invited to a Christmas Cookie Exchange”, then the swap rule in the details line. Choose 5 × 7 in (two per sheet), A6, or four smaller A6 cards per sheet; the PNG is good for sending by message.

Is there a cookie exchange rules template?

Yes: choose Rules. It writes rules from your choices (how many dozen, wrapped in one tin, pre-packed in a bag per guest or on a plate, labels with allergens, recipes, a tasting half dozen), and each line can be rewritten or deleted. With pre-packed bags it tells everyone how many bags and how many cookies in each (8 bakers, 6 dozen: 8 bags of 9). The card prints two to a sheet, about 194 × 140 mm on A4 or 200 × 132 mm on Letter.

Can I print cookie exchange labels, tags or stickers?

The tin labels print eight to a sheet, 95 × 67 mm on A4 and 98 × 63 mm on Letter, with cut lines through the gaps. Print them on plain paper and tape them to the lid, punch a hole and tie them on as a tag, or print on full-page sticker paper and cut them out. They are not sized to pre-cut label sheets. Each has the cookie’s name, “baked by” and the baker’s name, the allergen tick-list and one line saying what is in it.

What is the swap sheet for?

It is the host’s table for the night: each baker, their cookie, what it contains, how many they brought, how many each guest takes, and a tick box per guest (up to 16 boxes; with more guests, tally in the column). It stops the first people at the table from taking too many of the favourite.

Which cookies are best for a cookie exchange?

Ones that keep for a week and survive a car ride: shortbread, crinkle cookies, snowballs, gingerbread, biscotti, peanut butter cookies and iced sugar cookies once the icing has set (leave them overnight). Avoid cream fillings and anything that needs the fridge. The recipe card example is snowball cookies, a classic that makes 3 dozen from one batch and keeps two weeks in a tin.

How do I print them, and what about ink?

Print at 100% (“Actual size”), not “Fit to page”. Everything stays 8 mm or more from the paper’s edge (6 mm for the invitations), so home printers do not clip it. Browsers set to US English start on Letter; everyone else on A4. The Ink saver design prints black lines on white with no filled areas. The recipe cards come from our recipe card maker as a sharp vector PDF; the other printables are 300 dpi pictures inside the PDF with their words also stored as text, so the PDF can be searched. Whole kit PDF puts all five in one file.

Is it free, and does anything get uploaded?

It is free with no sign-up and no watermark. Names, recipes and addresses stay in your browser: the files are made on your own device.