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BUT I HAD NO IDEA the phenomenon that would surround me. Since The Christmas Cookie Club hit the stands, I have felt like I’ve been at the forefront of a movement I did not even know existed. Across the country I’ve been swarmed with people excited to tell me about their cookie exchanges. And I’ve been amazed by the number, the variety, and, of course, the importance of them to the participants.

In Greenville, South Carolina, I met an independent bookstore owner whose cookie party has been meeting for thirty years. Now, there are three generations in that club! In St. Joseph, Michigan, I met a group of women who had read my book for their book club and happened to be away on a girlfriends’ weekend. They had no idea I’d be at a bookstore in the area. I signed books for them, and then all of us signed one for the hostess of their cookie exchange. At another reading, a woman sent her daughter to get a book signed for her. Her mom had been in an exchange, the highlight of her winter season, for decades. Unfortunately, she was now in a walker, but her daughter retrieved a book for her.

There are cookie parties where all the cookies are eaten by the end of the party. (Of course the attendees don’t each bring 13 dozen cookies!) Some are co-ed, some are all men, some are extended family parties. In several, a group gets together to bake or exchange kitchen gadgets in drawings and white elephant games. And cookie clubs spring up from social groups, work groups, church groups, neighborhoods, and families.

I’VE HEARD FROM A LOT of people how a Christmas cookie club has helped them through hard times. Peggy, a teacher, e-mailed me that the holiday season was difficult because her husband had died right after Thanksgiving the year before. Joannie, a new teacher from China, joined her school’s staff and mentioned that there was a muffin tin left in the apartment she rented. She had no idea what to do with it and didn’t understand American baking. Peggy offered to help, and taught her how to make orange-ginger muffins and peanut butter cookies. The next time they got together, they made pumpkin banana muffins and gingerbread boys. And then right before Christmas, Joannie brought two friends recently arrived from China and Peggy taught them how to make and decorate Christmas cutout cookies for the first time. Most unusual cross-cultural cookie virgins! It was just the experience Peggy needed to put her in the holiday mood!

And then right after Christmas of last year a special connection was made that was close to home. It’s about Daphne, one of my friends and one of the original cookie sisters. I had folded parts of her life—the circumstances regarding the tragedy of her son’s death—in the chapter about Charlene. Unfortunately, at this year’s cookie club, Daphne announced that she was moving to Texas to be closer to two of her children, both quarterhorse trainers, and to accept a huge promotion. Car loaded, she was driving when she got a call from her sister-in-law.

“Do you know a Melody Mead Parker?”

Before Daphne could answer, her sister-in-law said, “She says she’s your sister and has been looking for you for years. Here’s her telephone number.”

Daphne immediately dialed it.

Melody and her two brothers were from Daphne’s father’s second marriage. She remembers Melody as her cute little shadow, following her around. Every morning she and her two brothers jumped on Daphne’s bed and snuggled up with her. But her father’s new wife never liked Daphne; after all, she was the off-spring of a previous marriage, the proof of a previous love. So when visitation stopped, they drifted apart.

The last time Daphne saw Melody was twenty-five years earlier, when Melody was a young teen.

Years passed and Daphne tried to find her siblings, but she finally gave up. Hers was a military family and they moved often. She went through life as if an only child, but aware she had siblings somewhere, siblings she had lost.

Meanwhile, Melody and her brothers struggled to find Daphne, but Daphne had married and divorced and remarried, changing her name and moving so that she was impossible to find. Melody did an online search in 1995 to find Daphne, but came up with 30 people with the same name. Daphne did the same, but she also hit a wall of too many names, too many places, and changed names.

So the two separated sisters attempted to find each other, and gave up. The years marched on. A quarter of a century passed.

And then Melody ran Daphne’s name through the Internet one more time, and there was an article on The Christmas Cookie Club mentioning Daphne, her son’s death, and her location.

Melody was also driving when her cell phone rang. She immediately recognized Daphne’s voice. Within minutes the two pulled over to the side of their respective highways, stretched across half the United States, and started bawling. Melody described losing Daphne, and how she always knew she was out there and how she lived with an ache in her heart. And Daphne told Melody about life lived as an only child when she had three siblings in the world.

“My girlfriend wrote that book,” Daphne said.

“I know, that’s how I found you. I hope the story about your son wasn’t true.”

“It is. But because of that, I found you again.”

When I talked to Daphne she said, “So your book reunited a family. Amazing how things work. It’s the mystery of life that’s so wonderful and oftentimes overlooked. This is a Christmas miracle that came from a lovely Christmas book.”

We love our party so much that Marybeth and I wrote this workbook to help you start your own. The possibilities for parties are endless: there could be Chanukah, Ramadan, and Valentine’s Day cookie parties. We want you to develop a new ritual to have with your friends, family, or community. Cookie parties are an inexpensive way to contribute and give to those we care about. And each one, no matter its form, is anticipated merriment! Bonds are built by sharing fun and stories, both of which inevitably touch our lives. We wrote this together and so there are stories from both of our families and friends. These are our tips, ideas, and recipes for throwing your own great cookie party and cultivating a new holiday tradition. Enjoy!

© 2010 Ann Pearlman, LLC