Cookie table
A cookie table is a wedding tradition where, in addition to a wedding cake, a large table with various kinds of 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 tradition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[2], Youngstown, Ohio[3] and Port Stanley, Ontario.
Cookie tables are included in primarily Italian, Polish, and Catholic wedding receptions. Other cultural groups that also have cookie tables or cookie platters include: British, Deaf, French, Greeks, Pennsylvania Dutch, Slovaks, Serbian Orthodox, Austrian/Hungarian, and Scandinavians. The inclusion of a cookie table is more widely utilized where those of Italian ancestry settled. 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 Coast of the United States and Eastern Canada than in the Midwestern, Southern, Southwestern or West Coast regions of the United States[4] and Western Canada.
Research by the Arms Family Museum of Local History in Youngstown indicates that the dominant areas for cookie tables are northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, including New Castle, Pennsylvania. Cookie tables were also well known in West Virginia, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Delaware.[1]
The world record for the largest cookie table was set on August 11, 2019, in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, with 88,425 cookies.[5]
The cookie table is also used by Girl Guides to sell Girl Scout Cookies (in the United States) and Girl Guide Cookies (in Canada). However, the Girl Guides' cookie tables are called a "cookie booth" and are usually different as they are intended for the cookies to be sold to customers in order to raise funds and are temporally located at any public places.[6][7][8]
References
[edit]- ^ Lieber, Ron (December 15, 2009). "The Wedding? I'm Here for the Cookies". The New York Times. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
- ^ McKay, Gretchen (September 6, 2012). "Pittsburgh Food: On the cookie tables". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
- ^ "Wedding soup and cookies". Miami University. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
- ^ "88,425 cookies helped local cookie table break world record". August 19, 2019 – via www.wtae.com.
- ^ "This A-Hole Stole $300 from a Girl Scouts' Cookie Table". Foodbeast. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
- ^ "COOKIES RISING: CRAZY FOR COOKIES" (PDF). Girl Guides of Canada. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
- ^ "Cookie Booth Essentials" (PDF). Girl Scouts.
