Gifts for Co-Workers

A couple times a year a group of friends and I get together for a Pinterest party. We each bring something we made on Pinterest, making sure to pin the idea to a special board so that we can all get the recipe or see the instructions for the craft. Last year at a Christmas Pinterest Party, we realized we had enough sweets and goodies that we could've invited about 30 more people. We decided to get some Christmas containers and bows I had and package up some of the treats for co-workers, neighbors, and family. 

We quickly realized the benefits of this party. We had numerous containers of gifts to give to people as hostess gifts, Christmas gifts, or appreciation gifts for classroom volunteers. We didn't have to bake 500 batches of assorted desserts ourselves. We were able to socialize, sample new recipes, and check off things on our Christmas to-do list at the same time.

Thus the Christmas Bake and Take party was born. We decided to have the party the Sunday before the last week of school before Winter Break (mmmm...didja follow that?).  Having it on that Sunday would allow for baking to be done on Saturday and for us to have containers of treats ready to go for co-workers before departing for the holidays. Yesterday marked the second annual Bake and Take Party so I thought I'd share some pictures. 

To start off we had a "Get Your Drink On" table with water and a hot chocolate bar.  There we cups with Christmas tags on them for names and some yummy items to spruce up the hot cocoa with: whipped cream, candy canes, marshmallows, Heath toffee bits, french vanilla Pirouette cookies, and sprinkles.

For the packages I set up stations starting with "Contain Yourself." Here we grabbed a container of choice from the ridiculousness that I bought last year on clearance after Christmas or used ones brought from home.

Next we moved on to the "Bag It Up" station where we chose a Christmas Ziploc to put the goodies in so they'd stay fresh. Then we made our way to the table of yummies.

There were so many amazing sweet things (and some appetizers for nourishment as we bagged). We had sugar cookies, Oreo truffles, fudge, reindeer poop, reindeer cookies, reindeer trail mix (I didn't realize how many reindeer related items we had until just now), chocolate chip peppermint cookies and more!

After filling up a bag and container with treats we stopped off at the "Make It Sparkle" station. Here we added bows or ribbon to the containers or bags to make them pretty.

Finally we ended with the "Tag, You're It" station where we added a gift tag to our packages. Mercedes at Surfing to Success even whipped up some cute tags for the event! And...you can click on her blog to find one as a freebie!

Here is a pic or two of a final gift ready to go to a co-worker this week. Fun and productive!