How to host a cookie exchange this Christmas: cookbook gathers easy and homey recipes for a holiday get together

T he Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook (1986) is a good place to start your Christmas baking, if you don’t mind cup and spoon measure­ments (which, although everyone agrees are less precise than avoirdupois or metric weights, are still the preferred measuring system in the United States). A “cookie exchange” might seem like a very American concept, but gathering together for communal cooking and eating is popular in many cultures. Author Susan Mahnke Peery writes in the...