Community Chat

[151949]

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@Noel7 wrote:

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I've never seen them presented like this - they are always placed in an attractive manner on trays or dishes, not just dumped in piles on the tables.At my wedding we kept about half the cookies back - put the rest out on trays, As those on the trays got low they were refilled. Toward the end of the reception , the caterers put the leftover cookies into decorated plastic bages for anyone who wanted to take some home.

[151949]

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@Nataliesgramma wrote:

Cookie tables are very popular here. The good bakers in the family make the cookies......you figure 5-6 cookies per person to decide how many to make. We even got little treat bags printed up for guests to take a few home..

I think the reason some venues won't allow them is NUT ALLERGIES.

Here is a similar picture of what the cookie table looked like at my daughters wedding....

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This is how they are always presented, not in piles on the table. i especially like the lights under the tablecloths here - very cool.

[151949]

Cookie tables are not just for weddings either - my cousin had a huge one for her 50th anniversary last year.  I had one for DH & I's retirement party, since the catered part was only hor'dorves(sp?) and i wanted to provide more food, I chose to have a cookie table. Also at our farewell party our neighbors gave us when we moved to Florida there was one . So, basically, any large party you can have one , but I think unless it is a wedding the hostess would have to bake the cookies or buy them.

[Irshgrl31201]

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@justmyopinion wrote:

It's not an "Italian" thing and It didn't originate in Italy. 

Acookie table is a wedding tradition said to originate in Southwestern Pennsylvania, where in place of or in addition to a wedding cake, a large table with different cookies is presented to guests at the wedding reception.[1] Cookies are generally prepared by family members in advance of the reception. It is typically a Pittsburgh tradition.[2]

Research has shown that the cookie table appears to have stronger ethnic or religious ties, although in some regions of the United States it is becoming more of a regional practice, primarily East Coast and industrial centers. Cookie tables are included in primarily Italian orCatholic wedding receptions. Other groups that also have cookie tables or cookie platters are the Greeks, Slovaks, Serbian Orthodox, Austrian/Hungarian, and Scandinavians. The inclusion of a cookie table is more widely known where those of Italian ancestry settled, and also in some cases, of the other groups mentioned above. Where a settlement did not consist of sizable numbers of Italian or Eastern European groups, the number of those who were familiar with cookie tables decreased. Cookie tables were better known in the east than in the mid-west, south, southwest or west.[3]

Research by the Arms Family Museum of Local History in Youngstown, Ohio discovered the dominant areas for cookie tables were northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Cookie tables were also well known in West Virginia, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. States where they were unknown or not present included Washington, California, Texas and Nevada.[4]

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Lots of cultures in America aren't necessarily from their home country but things that their immigrants started once they got here. Spaghetti and Meatballs is an Italian American thing, Corned Beef and Cabbage is an Irish American thing. It is things that Irish or Italian immigrants started here. Doesn't mean it is any less Italian or Irish because they are the ones who started it in their new countries. 

[justmyopinion]

Started by Italians in their new country America, doesn't make it an "Italian" thing. It makes it an Italian-American tradition and a regional one at that.

It is not done in Italy and if anyone can call themselves "Italian" it would be people living in Italy. Italian Americans living in certain areas of the US have made this a custom/tradition but I stand by what I said. It's not an Italian thing.