Before I dive into the cookie exchange I want to share some of my secret santa ideas with you! I am a teacher and at my job we do secret santa! Here is one of the cute ideas I did for my SS!
I took a can of soup and opened it up from the bottom. I cleaned it out and filled it with her favorite candies! I hot glued the bottom of the can back on and decorated the outside with a whisk that said "I whisk you a Merry Christmas!" attached to the tab on top of the can I put a note that said "pull me"! Super cute huh?
Here is a great blog called To Entertain! I am one of six of the contributors to the blog! It is a great blog with awesome ideas! Check out 100 simple and inexpensive ways to wish your neighbors, friends or family a Merry Christmas!
I can tell you I am now in full blown Christmas time festivities mode! Jack (my dog) was excited to celebrate as well!
Here are some of the fun decorations I used!
I got all my decoration ideas from Pinterest! Here are a few links where I got my ideas from:
Dimple Prints
Oh Meaghan
The Busy Budgeting Mama
The decorations I used were from Dimple Prints blog they were FREE with great graphics! I just printed them, laminated them and cut what needed to be cut and strong ribbon through the rest! Check it out!
Pretty cool huh? We also had to vote on our favorite cookies through five categories. I was able to not only print out the voting sheets (see above) but also the prize tags!
Everyone had to bring an appetizer, 3 dozen cookies, and an object to decorate sugar cookies with!
Once everyone arrived they received a number and placed their dishes down next to the number!
We had so many appetizers! They were all so good!
I made baked Brie!
Baked Brie:
Phyllo Dough
Brie
Blueberry Preserves
Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until it oozes out! Eat with Ritz Crackers or Water Crackers!
I made an awesome Mojito punch!
It called for the following:
Mojito Punch
Cranberry juice with lime
Rum
Cranberries
Mint
Seltzer
It was a HUGE hit!
I made sugar cookie dough for everyone the night before! I wrapped it up in parchment paper so it would be fresh for the next day! I put all the glitter, sprinkles and yummy candies in cupcake trays to make it easier for everyone when making their cookies!
Tip: My friend Kelly told me of this awesome idea... the best way to roll out cookie dough is with a cold bottle of beer! We weren't drinking it but we sure were using it for the cookie dough! It helped keep the cookie dough from sticking since the bottle was so cold!
I made favors for everyone too! Cute cookbooks that I bound with all the ladies cookie recipes in it! I also gave out green oven mitts with a red spatula attached with some pretty red and white ribbon and a "Thank You" card!
Everyone went home with their tummies full and a huge platter of cookies for the holidays!
All in all it was a great party!! I can't wait for next year!
It was as simple as 1-2-3!
