83,427 cookies baked in world record attempt

Nearly 600 bakers took part in the effort by the Wedding Cookie Table Community.

The Baking Spirits Bright group was among 30-plus teams who gathered at the Washington County Fairgrounds to establish the record for the world’s largest cookie exchange. Via Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook page

Western Pennsylvania’s cookie queen Laura Magone and several Christmas cookie connoisseurs gathered outside the Monongahela Area Historical Society Tuesday morning to announce the cookie count from its recent event that made headlines around country.

On Nov. 30, hundreds of bakers from Magone’s Wedding Cookie Table Community Facebook page attempted to establish a record for the World’s Largest Christmas Cookie Exchange at the Washington County Fairgrounds.

“We have never done this event, so this is our first time,” Magone said. “We really had no idea what to expect.”

Participants at the cookie exchange were invited to walk around an indoor facility and see dozens of Christmas cookie tables and vote for their favorite table. The event was sponsored by the Monongahela Area Historical Society, the Wedding Cookie Table Community and the Washington County Chamber of Commerce.

“We are very proud to be able to maintain the tradition of the cookie table, and it took two organizations coming together to make this happen,” Magone said. “This is a very exciting day for us. The cookie table tradition is born of our blue-collar roots and our immigrant backgrounds. Monongahela typifies the roots and the origins of the wedding cookie table and the cookie table tradition.”

The final cookie count revealed Tuesday was 83,427 total cookies, 73,835 cookies exchanged with fellow bakers and visitors, 67 baking teams and 583 total bakers. The bakers came from 14 states along with New Zealand.

Several members of the Wedding Cookie Table Community, including the “nonnas and bubbas” or local grandmas, participated in the cookie exchange and Tuesday’s announcement along with historical society members. There were also appearance Tuesday from Santa Claus and Monongahela Mayor Greg Garry.

“This is really serious business,” Magone said. “The best cookies are going to come from the bubbas in southwestern Pennsylvania. There’s no doubt about it. We try to teach other people, but we do our best.”

Since starting The Wedding Cookie Table Community 10 years ago, Magone, a Monongahela native and historical society president, has made it her mission to celebrate and spread the gospel of Pittsburgh’s cookie table tradition while also using the Facebook group as a sweet and tasty vehicle for doing good.

She has inspired local bakers to make and share with others over the years. She also wanted to break records with the amount of cookies made and shared.

Along with cookie fundraisers for community organizations and events, the organizational development consultant has inspired the group’s 390,000-plus members to bake for cancer survivors, nursing home residents, firefighters, first responders in the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Squirrel Hill and the 20th anniversary of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash near Shanksville in Somerset County.

Magone stated a lot of the baking groups met for the first time at the event, with a lot meeting every week on Zoom to discuss what they were baking for the event. The teams were formed through Facebook and their cookie exchange page.

“There’s some serious talent in this group, and if you ask them if they are professionals, they are always going to say no,” she said. “These bakers are beyond professional. Their cookies are exquisite.”

Ronica Fronzaglio and Elissa Stein said they were on the same team, and they met over Zoom every Monday evening. They had 10 people in their group, and they each made 10 dozen cookies to exchange and two dozen for the historical society to sell at the event.

“It took three months to get up to Nov. 30,” Stein said. “Three months to get your team together, the table to decorate, what cookies you are going to make. That’s all we did for three months.”

“We met new friends, and we are still friends with them,” Fronzaglio added. “We talk daily.”

Pat Weaver said everyone did a good job, and that anything that was left over was donated to nursing homes, churches and more. Magone said it was fun to see when tables were assembled with cookies decorated with Santa Claus, reindeer and more.

Magone had hoped to set a Guinness record for the event, but getting an official adjudicator on site would have cost about $15,000. Instead, they set to establish a record for free with Record Setter, a community-driven platform established in 2011 that allows people to set their own unique world records with proper evidence.

“I could not have organized this event and been on a team baking,” Magone said. “What I liked was seeing the bakers shine because they emerged as leaders, our bakers emerged as decorators. If you were to walk around and see this event and these tables, one was more beautiful than the next. It far exceeded anything I could have imagined.”