A holiday cookie swap is all about accessible abundance: For the price of entry (i.e., an afternoon spent baking one type of cookie to share), guests leave with full cookie tins erupting with biscuits, wafers, and bars, an assortment of treats displaying different colors, flavors, and provenances. It’s that promise of variety — and the suspense of what else you’ll find at the treat table — that makes a cookie-swap invitation so exciting.

And for the party host, a cookie swap provides an easy-to-achieve framework for what’s essentially a dessert-only potluck. Let the guests bring their cookies and focus mostly on savory appetizers and snacks to counterbalance all that sugar — then roll out the butcher paper, put on the pot of coffee, and let the swapping begin.