Two Awesome Gift Exchange Gift Ideas

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These two gift exchange ideas are truly awesome. I mean Coke Candy Stained Glass Cookies and a Polar Bear shaped 24-pack of coke Awesome is so the best word for this ever.

So, every year, we have this awesome gift exchange party for the family and I have to come up with something cool to bring. Usually, I end-up with something lame because I can’t think of anything. But this year, inspiration struck hard and fast. I am making Coke Candy Stained Glass Cookies and a Polar Bear 24-Pack of Coke de Mexico Coca-Cola. With these Two Awesome Gift Exchange Gift Ideas, I can’t mess this up. I shall rule the gift exchange party!

Holiday Gift Exchange Gift Ideas hero

What You Need to Make Coke Candy Stained Glass Cookies

  • 1 batch of your favorite no-spread sugar cookie dough (I used my Vegan Sugar Cookie recipe)
  • 1 batch of Coca-Cola Candy (made with a 2-liter of Coca-Cola–which I totally got a 4-pack of for $3.98 at Sam’s on their holiday special–LOVE!)
  • Some cool LARGE Christmas cookie cutters, or if you don’t have the ones you want, you can improvise (I’ll make a tutorial soon of how I did this for the polar bears).
  • Some TINY cookie cutters that fit well inside of your large cookie cutters. These can be tiny hearts, leaves, whatever. I couldn’t find mine and was already improvising, so I just went with hearts.

The instructions are below in the recipe card (which is totally printable).

cool stained glass cookies sq

The Polar Bear Gift Exchange Idea

This is where it’s going to get crazy. It’s totally one thing to bring a batch of cookies to a gift exchange. It’s entirely another to bring a polar bear. Yeah, a polar bear. Hold onto your seats. Why, you might ask? Well, a couple of years ago, I brought an elephant to a White Elephant Gift Exchange for work and everyone loved it (actually, I couldn’t stop laughing to see if anybody else thought it was amusing, but whatever). So, this year, I’m bringing a polar bear. And it’s so easy. Best part though, a 24-pack of Coca-Cola is actually a pretty awesome gift (everybody loves it)–and if you shop at Sam’s Club, you can get it for under $25, the typical spending limit for all my gift exchange parties. That just makes it perfect for gift-giving or parties or even cooking. Also, the 24-packs at Sam’s Club with the glass bottles are made with real sugar and don’t have any high fructose corn syrup, so that’s cool, too.

funny gift for white elephant gift exchange ra

What you need to Make the Polar Bear Gift Exchange Idea

  • About 100 sheets of white tissue paper
  • 1 sheet of black tissue paper – or construction paper, whatever
  • 1 sheet off-white or grey tissue paper – or construction paper, again, whatever
  • 24 Pack of Coca-Cola
  • Invisible tape
  • Double-sided tape or glue

crazy idea for white elephant gift exchange feature

How to Make the Polar Bear

  1. Remove the 4 bottles of Coca Cola from the 4 corners. Set aside.
  2. Stuff the spots missing a bottle with tissue paper to keep the remaining bottles from banging around.
  3. Set the loose bottles beside the case of Cokes like legs. I used double-sided tape to tape them in place, but if you are planning on moving your polar bear, you might glue them in place or construct your bear in such a way that you can lay them next to the bear when you get him where you’re going.
  4. Now, go crazy with the tissue paper and tape.
  5. Make a head and tuck it in the front. Tape it in place.
  6. Make a butt and tuck it in the rear of the case. Tape it in place
  7. Add a ridge across the back to give it definition. Tape.
  8. Wrap the Cokes that are your legs and make sure the paws are kind of flat and fluffy. Tape.
  9. Wrap the body a couple of times. Tape.
  10. Add a tail. Tape, tape, tape, tape, tape.
  11. Fluff-up the face. Tape.
  12. Add ears. Tape.
  13. Now, cut eyes from the black tissue paper and tape onto the face.
  14. Add a nose by crumbling up a piece of the black tissue paper and tape it in place (mine does not have a nose because my dad didn’t mention that I should have one until I was writing this and no longer had the bear handy to take photos–lol!).
  15. Cut claws from the black tissue paper and tape them onto the paws.
  16. Cut strips from the off-white or grey tissue paper to tuck between the legs and the body to give an illusion of definition on the stomach.
  17. Aaaaaand, DONE!

Want to see that in picture-tutorial? I got your back:

tutorial for building the polar bear gift

When we hit-up Sam’s Club to get our Coca-Cola de Mexico, we maybe had a little fun…Here’s us wishing you a Happy Holiday!

in-club photo for coke stained glass cookie recipe

cool stained glass cookies sq
Yield: 15

Two Awesome Gift Exchange Gift Ideas

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Coke Candy Stained Glass Cookies are actually pretty easy--and very pretty! LOL!

Ingredients

  • 1 batch of your favorite no-spread sugar cookie dough, I used my Vegan Sugar Cookie recipe
  • 1 batch of Coke Candy
  • Some cool LARGE Christmas cookie cutters, or if you don’t have the ones you want, you can improvise (I have an easy No Cookie Cutter, No Problem tutorial). I had to improvise and went with a cute polar bear theme.
  • Some TINY cookie cutters that fit well inside of your large cookie cutters. These can be tiny hearts, leaves, whatever. I couldn’t find mine and was already improvising, so I just went with hearts.

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Do not oil. Set aside.
  3. Roll-out the cookie dough into a 1/4-inch thick shape.
  4. Using your LARGE cookie cutters, cut out all of your large shapes and place on your lined cookie sheets.
  5. Using your TINY cookie cutters, cut out ONE shape out of the center-ish of the large cookie shape. Now, you need to make certain that there is a good bit of cookie dough all around the edge or your candy will leak out when it melts.
  6. Fill the hole with tiny bits of the Coke Candy. You want to really fill the hole, but not overfill. I know that sounds confusing, but you need to basically cover the bottom of the hole so you can’t see it and still have about half again that amount of candy stuffed in there.
  7. Place in the oven for 10 minutes.
  8. Immediately remove and allow to cool completely (COMPLETELY) before moving off the baking sheet. If you move them early, the candy will not stay in the cookie.
  9. Now you can eat them. But, remember, you’re supposed to be giving these away at a gift exchange, so, keep that in mind and don’t eat ALL of them…just a few. You know, to taste-test.

Did you make this recipe?

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