In ones and twos, cookie swappers stepped into Temple’s Birchwood Inn from the drizzling night, foil- covered trays and Tupperware containers in hand. Organizer Wendy Riman-Elsing recorded the number of cookies in each tray as each baker and connoisseur arranged their trays and joined the other swappers in the pub.
At exactly 7 p.m. Riman-Elsing announced the year’s total – 1,020 cookies, and set the number of cookies each swapper was allowed to take per round.
Eager participants queued in the doorway of the cookie room, empty containers in hand.
The cookie swap at the Birchwood Inn is a decades-old December tradition for the town of Temple.
Plates of chocolate cookies garnished with peppermint fragments, exquisitely decorated snowflakes, chocolate buckeyes, gingerbread bears and chocolate bark were quickly redistributed into swappers’ containers. Participants said they look forward to the decadent assortments and some particular perennial favorite cookies for their seasonal spreads. Some of the night’s bounty gets eaten on the spot while other cookies get frozen for later enjoyment.
“It’s a Temple tradition, it’s really awesome,” said Bill Smart, sitting with Lucy Jankowski in the dining room with other swappers after the second round concluded.
Jankowski said she was pleased with the year’s offerings, but said she missed the shortbread cookies that are usually a part of the spread. The two contributed twelve dozen tiny, brightly colored flower-shaped cookies to the event.
“I run the [cookie] gun,” Smart said.
A fragrant gingerbread replica of the inn held a place of honor in the cookie room, glowing with a light from within. It was made by manager Eileen Boyer, who said she’d previously constructed a gingerbread Baker’s Station building when she was a manager at the Waterhouse.
The event was initiated in 1980 by inn owners Bill and Judy Wolf, who ran the inn through 2005.
Peggy Cournoyer said she’s been participating in the cookie swap since the start, and said the Birchwood Inn has hosted the cookie swap every year save for two, when management changes forced a change in venue.
Cournoyer said that historically, women would make the cookies and their husbands would hang around in the pub during the event, although there are more participating nowadays.
“They usually sit at the bar,” Benotti said. Riman-Elsing said that frequently, unsuspecting visitors will come into the pub and go home with a lot of cookies.
The bar was open throughout the event, and the night’s tips would be donated to a charity, Riman-Elsing said. This year’s chosen charity was Milford’s Sato Heart Rescue.
“The original idea was Christmas cookies,” Sandra Benotti said.
In the past, every participant was expected to bring between five and seven cookies, all of the same kind, no chocolate chip cookies – in an effort to preserve the holiday-specific theme, Cournoyer said.
“There used to be a lot of rules until I got involved,” said Riman-Elsing, who has run the event for twelve years.
Today, she said participants can bring any number of cookies and there are no restrictions on cookie style, although she recommends three to five dozen and encourages participants to list the ingredients of their cookies for potential allergens.
There are inevitably leftover cookies at the end of the night, even after every participant fills assorted containers.
Benotti said the leftovers are packaged with the Christmas boxes the Temple Ladies Aid organization and distributed to seniors and residents who might be alone for the holidays.
The Birchwood Inn was built in 1775, and was purchased by Matthew and Amy Cabana in May.
“I love this place,” Matthew Cabana said, pointing out the 181 year-old mural by Rufus Porter that adorned the wall behind the cookie tables, and the recently restored hardwood floors underfoot.
He said he recognized their role as temporary keepers of the Inn in relation to the building’s centuries of use, which included a stint as the town hall, post office, and a dance hall.