Cookie exchanges are a beloved holiday tradition because they represent all the best things about the season: the joys of giving and receiving, gathering together with family and friends, and eating delicious treats. Plus, cookies are somehow even more delectable during the holidays. You get to bake and eat all kinds of cookies that only come around once a year, and they’re often delightfully decorated to add even more cheer.
If you participate in an annual cookie exchange, celebrate the tradition by making a custom recipe book with Mixbook. After all the cookies are eaten and the last crumbs cleaned away, the festive memories of the exchange will be preserved forever in your beautiful keepsake photo book. So will the recipes, meaning you can bake a batch of Helen’s famous eggnog cookies anytime you crave them, even in the middle of summer!
Tip: Your custom holiday cookie exchange recipe book makes an excellent gift idea. Order enough copies so all the bakers get one, plus extras for gifting.
Step 1: Cookie bakers, assemble!
A holiday cookie exchange recipe book is naturally a collaborative project. Every baker who participates in the exchange should be invited to contribute at least one recipe of their choice.
Get together with your group of bakers to discuss content and design ideas, whether it’s in person or virtually. At a minimum, each baker needs to write down their recipe—ingredients, steps, tips, and other key info—and take some photos for the book. Other tasks that might be assigned include:
- Writing, editing, and proofreading the recipe book
- Choosing a recipe book theme you all like
- Customizing the book’s design
- Reviewing and ordering copies of the printed book
You might also recruit friends and family members who aren’t bakers to help with photography and content ideas. Glowing reviews from tasters are a fun thing to include in your book. So are anecdotes or memories behind the recipes. Plan an exchange party that’s also a photo shoot and capture plates of cookies—plus bakers and tasters—with festive decorations all around.
Step 2: Choose a cookbook theme
Mixbook’s collection of professionally designed cookbook themes makes it super easy to create your own custom recipe book. These themes feature templates for ingredients, steps, and other text, plus beautiful photo layouts, that you can make your own in Mixbook Studio™.
These cookbook themes are ideal for a holiday recipe book:
It’s easy to make any photo book theme more festive by selecting a new color palette, choosing holiday-themed backgrounds, and decorating the pages with seasonal stickers.
Tip: If you prefer to design your holiday cookie exchange recipe book totally from scratch, start with a Blank Canvas instead of a theme.
Step 3: Create your Mixbook recipe book
Launch your chosen holiday recipe book theme in Mixbook Studio™. Follow these steps to create the first draft of your book. Remember you can make any changes you like, at any time before ordering.
- Add the text: Click and type to replace the placeholder text in the photo book theme, or add new text boxes using tools in the Text panel to the left of the design space. At this stage, aim to just get the recipe titles, ingredients, and instruction steps written.
- Add photos: Upload the cookie exchange photos to Mixbook Studio™, then drag and drop the pics from the Photos panel on the left into the book. You can edit the photos using tools in the pop-up toolbar.
- Customize the design: Make any desired changes to the design of the recipe book using the tools in the Layouts, Backgrounds, Stickers, and Text panels. Examples include switching fonts or text sizes, picking new background patterns, and adding holiday-themed stickers.
Continue editing, customizing, and experimenting with different design features until you feel like the holiday recipe book is perfect.
Tip: Don’t forget to attribute each recipe to its contributor e.g. “Beverly’s Brown Butter Blondies,” or “Peppermint Brittle by Ray Ortega.”
Step 4: Collaborate directly on Mixbook
Mixbook’s built-in collaboration features make it easy for more than one person to edit a photo book, view it, and/or order their own copies. Figure out ways to collaborate that work best for your group of bakers. This might mean creating a draft and inviting everyone else to review it and suggest changes before approving. Or, each baker might want to be fully in charge of their own recipe page(s).
To collaborate with others on Mixbook, you only need the email addresses of contributors. Here’s how to invite them to your cookie exchange recipe book project:
- Launch the holiday recipe book project in Mixbook Studio™ and click the “Share” button at the top-right.
- Select one of the three options:
- Share your project: This invites others to view, but not edit, the book
- Invite to edit: Others will be able to work on the book in their own Mixbook accounts. (Note: Only one Mixbooker can edit the project at a time.)
- Invite to order: They will be invited to order their own copies of the finished book
- Enter the email addresses of your collaborators and add an optional note. You can alternatively copy a link to send via email outside of the Mixbook platform. Your collaborators will receive an email with a link to the project.
For more, read our full guide: How to Collaborate on Photo Projects
Step 5: Preview & order
Once your book is complete, preview it and thoroughly check for typos or other errors. After clicking the “Order” button, select your preferred size, cover type, paper type, and cover finish. Adjust the quantity, if needed, then finish the order by clicking “add to cart.”
If you or any collaborators want to order additional copies later, that’s totally doable—the project will always be saved in your Mixbook account.
How will you collaborate this holiday season?
Mixbook’s collaboration features make it easier to create together this year. Maybe even easier than baking a batch of exchange-worthy cookies!
For the holiday season, there are many other types of photo books you could create in collaboration with others. Instead of a cookie exchange recipe book, you could make a cookbook for all kinds of family recipes. Team up to make a year-in-review photo book, or create a family history book and give copies as gifts to everyone in the family.
