For eight years the women in North Arlington have found a decadent way to de-stress during the holidays. A week before Christmas about 20 women meet at the home of Maribeth Kearney and come away with about 20 dozen different cookies from Biscotti and lemon drops to fudge thumb prints and candy cane butter cookies.

Envision a frenzied hot kitchen, flour everywhere and mixers buzzing? Don’t bet on it.

The house is dressed for Christmas, carols are playing on the stereo and the women are mingling over cups of coffee and cider and cheese and crackers and there’s a tricky tray in the living room. Kearney holds a cookie swap as a way for the girls to serve different kinds of cookies throughout the holiday season. Each baker bakes 20 dozen of one kind of cookie to bring to the party, along with a big Tupperware. In exchange, each woman takes home 20 different kinds of cookies. The theory is it’s much easier to make 20 dozen of one kind then it is to bake 20 of all different kinds.

"Because they only have to make one kind, each batch is really marvelous and a lot goes into them," says Kearney, who will gladly be serving Christine Meir-Campion’s fabulous Biscotti and Jane Mueller’s famous fudge, along with her own orange butter cookies dipped in chocolate on Christmas day.

Kearney’s grandmother Virginia Rineer started the tradition for the family when she was a young mother. This year, Kearney says four generations of cookie swap promoters - her grandmother, mother and 3½-year-old daughter - took part in the party.

There is a bit of competition among the girls, but according to Kearney’s mom, Louise LeClaire, that only makes the cookie stock in which to choose that much better. No one reveals what kind of cookies they’ll be bringing until the party. Rarely are there duplicates, but because each batch has the personality of the individual baker it really doesn’t matter, says Kearney.

"It’s a great way to a lot of different sweets into your home at a very stressful time of year," says LeClaire.

The cookie exchange dates back to the early 1960s. The Betty Crocker cookbook says it's the perfect way for the modern woman to keep her family and guests, along with herself, happy over the holidays.