This is one of the easiest and most versatile parties to throw. (After all, who doesn't have Christmas decorations?) You can spice up your traditional Christmas celebration by putting a new twist on it - Christmas Around the World,
Christmas cookie swap or a gag gift Christmas celebration...the possibilities are endless and people are already in a celebratory mood.
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I've done a number of Christmas parties - some for family, some were corporate events and my favorite was a low cost Christmas wedding that was held right after I'd done a Winter Wonderland party. I'll show you elements of each of them here.
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A word of advice: If your Christmas party is for more than just family then hold your party AFTER Christmas Day when most families will have already celebrated Christmas. People's calendars then to be pretty full around the actual holiday.
Invitations
Your invitation is the first impression your guests will get of your party. For that reason, I usually spend a fair bit of time on handmade invitations that I either mail or deliver personally. I go for a WOW factor right out of the starting gate and try to make my invitations as unique as possible. I want to grab their attention before the actual party even starts.
This is my favorite Christmas party invitation I ever made. The party was for a woman with pretty high standards so I knew I had to do something over the top to impress her. Luckily her guest list was small.
For me, scrapbooking is therapy and the best de-stressor there is.
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I bought some blank kraft scrapbook journals with pockets for holding cards, photos, momentos.
I covered them in Christmas scrapbook paper and embellishments and decorated the inside pages and pockets.
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The party information was written on the inside front page.
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Not only did my client love them, apparently her guests did as well as several of them asked me if I could make more for them that they could give as Christmas gifts.
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If you're not into scrapbooking that's perfectly ok!
You simply want to do something with your invitations that grabs your potential guests attention.
Photo credit: Scrapbooking.com
Say you're having a Christmas cookie exchange party.
The invitation at left is simple to make even if you're not an artist and can fold paper.
You can get mini rolling pins here.
One year I rolled my invitations and stuffed them in mini Christmas stockings from the dollar store, along with a couple of candy canes.
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Even something as simple as some adhesive stars and some ribbon can jazz up an invitation.
For a kids Christmas party I bought some mini boxes that I decorated like Christmas toy boxes. I affixed the party invitation to the inside of the lid with glue dots so they could be removed and the kids still use to box in other ways after Christmas.
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Inside was a mini Santa and trinket toys from the dollar store and a few pieces of Christmas candy.
Staging
Staging a Christmas party is so much fun! It gets the creative juices flowing and gets you in the Christmas spirit. This is one of my favorite parties to stage because the possibilities are endless and it's so easy and inexpensive to stage. I used much of my Winter Wonderland party staging.
Winter Wonderland Party staging
If you make your staging items flexible, it's so easy to change them up for a different party. For a more Christmasy look, I simply swapped out the undecorated trees for decorated trees and added faux gifts beneath them, I no longer had the animated polar bear so substituted one of my yard deer decorations, I swapped out the Eskimo ice fisherman for Santa ice fishing and added some Christmas hats and a red scarf to my penguins.
The only polystyrene item was the penguin pool, the rest was made out of corrugated. The igloo was made out of styrofoam restaurant to-go containers, the fish were from a food staging company, Santa was a mannequin from my party stash. I reused the snow blankets I'd used previously in front of the backdrop.
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This backdrop covered the longest venue wall.
My client had hired someone to play Santa so I had to stage an area where the kids would visit Santa.
Photo credit: Pinterest
I built a false front Santa's North Pole house out of corrugated cardboard and painted it. The house pillars I made out of carpet roll tubes. I used more snow blankets for the snow, the garland came from my Christmas decorations. The window panes were wood furring strips glued to the backside of the cardboard false front. I hung an old white curtain I had over the furring strips.
I have 3 white light deer yard decorations, I used one of them in front of Santa's house.
My client had some Christmas elves we placed next to Santa's chair.
I made an inexpensive scarf wreath for Santa's front door.
I made Santa's mailbox out of another corrugated shipping box and painted it.
I added one more thing to the staging. My late husband had been an HO model railroader and had built a display tree like the one at left to put his HO trains and my Christmas village on.
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I set that up for the kids, complete with a metal toy ferris wheel I'd had as a kid.
Photo credit: Pinterest
Here's a tutorial if you want to make the Christmas tree display stand.
Food/Menu
Of course, you want your food to represent your party theme. I always think of my food presentation to be part of staging. Presentation is EVERYTHING - from the food itself to your tablescapes.
I've always found Around the World Christmas parties to be my favorite. There are a couple of ways you can do this party. You can choose one country to center your celebration around and have guests bring a Christmas sweet treat for a dessert table from the country of their choice...or you can make your party a potluck affair with everyone contributing a dish from their ancestral homes/countries.
My dad's side of the family is from Sweden so one Christmas I laid out a traditional Swedish Julbord buffet and had guests bring a dessert treat from their countries of heritage which were all put on a nicely decorated table.
I used a combination of Christmas and items from my Around the World parties to decorate that table.
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My Julbord featured all of the traditional Swedish Christmas foods.
After dinner guests did a Christmas gift exchange, guests bringing a gift from their country of heritage and each guest gave a mini history of that gift and the significance it played in their culture. It was really interesting hearing about all of the different cultures.
To do the actual gift exchange, I simply put all the gifts under the Christmas tree and each guest picked out a gift for themselves from under the tree. As each guest opened their gift, the gift giver would give their mini history on that gift. My guests said they loved the idea and their gift.
Tablescapes
A tablescape doesn't need to be anything extravagant to be eye-catching. Often less is more - as long as it's done in a classy, put-together manner.
Nor does your color palette necessarily need to be red and green. White, silver, blue, gold...all can be used as a color palette.
Your table centerpiece can be something as simple as a floral arrangement with a couple of candles or a DIY Christmas project like the snowman at left made out of fishbowls.
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DINNERWARE
Unless it's a formal sit-down dinner, I'm a fan of disposable dinnerware. Who wants to spend hours cleaning up after a party?But for an occasion like Christmas dinner, go with regular dinnerware.
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I use the set below, that my parents gave me for Christmas one year.
Photo credit: Hip2Save
If you're interested in using themed dinnerware and don't have it, check with your area rental stores.
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When setting your table, pay attention to the little details, like napkin rings and party favors. Guests notice the little things.
Photo credit: christmas.snydle.com
I like to gather natural elements from the woods for my table centerpieces. It's inexpensive and so easy to do.
On occasion I've even hand made menus to place on each plate.
Here's a free printable Christmas dinner menu.
WOW! Factor Christmas DIY Projects
Slide #1 - Personalized Santa Placemats
From the Hallmark Channel Tutorial here
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Slide #2 - DIY Santa Sleigh
From In Her Tool Belt Pattern & tutorial here
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Slide #3 - DIY Reindeer (Goes with the above sleigh)
From In Her Tool Belt Pattern & tutorial here
Activities
Your party activities are the entertainment you provide your guests. If they don;t enjoy the activities, they likely won't enjoy the party.
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I tried to keep my party activities family friendly for the most part. If I do list adult only activities on this site I'll list them as such.
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Social media and Pinterest are decent sources of party activity ideas.
But I'll usually try to make up some of my own activities if I have the time.
I like to do the unexpected with guests while taking advantage of attractions my area had to offer.
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For example, for one Christmas party I bought tickets to a live theater production of a Christmas play for my guests and hired a limo to drive everyone to and from the theater.
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Another year I cleared an ice skating rink on the lake in front of my house and everyone went ice skating, followed by mint hot chocolate around a campfire.
After we warmed up and drank our hot chocolate, we had a gag gift exchange.
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If you can add an unexpected WOW! with your planned activities, it makes your party all that more memorable.
This is simple, inexpensive and fun.
This game can be played in teams or as individuals.
The object of the game: Guess the number of bells in each box. Be the team or
individual with the most correct guesses.
Supplies needed:
The number of boxes you use is up to you.
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Boxes in various sizes. You can repurpose empty food boxes such as instant oatmeal or cereal boxes or use gift boxes.
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Jingle bells, like these (also check Dollar Tree)
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Gift wrap (I just use the predecorated Christmas gift boxes and don't worry about different sizes)
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Labels
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Scotch tape if you used predecorated Christmas gift boxes
How To Set Up the Boxes
Place different quantities of bells into each box. Give each box a name or number and make a note of how many bells are in each. Don’t let anyone see your note with the answers!
As you wrap each box, add a large label on the top with the name of the box that matches your list of how many bells are in each.
Example
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Dasher, 13 bells
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Dancer, 11 bells
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Prancer, 9 bells
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Vixen, 7 bells
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Donder, 5 bells
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Comet, 4 bells
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Cupid, 3 bells
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Blitzen, 2 bells
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Rudolph, 1 bell
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If you're using predecorated gift boxes, Scotch tape them shut so they can't be opened.
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Hint
You can create a big difference in the number of bells in each box by adding three to a box and seven to a box or only one. You get the idea.
How To Play
Give each player a sheet of paper and a pencil to write down their secret guess. Have them shake each box and guess how many jingle bells are in each.
Collect all of the answers. Once everyone is finished guessing, shake each box for the crowd and read the answers out loud stating who the winner is for each box. The person (or team) with the most correct answers wins the game.
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JINGLE BELL TOSS
Jingle Bell Toss takes only a few minutes to create using simple supplies. Grab the easy tutorial at the link provided above.
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STOCKING GUESSING GAME
Surprise your guests with Christmas stockings full of odd objects and have them guess what is in the stocking. Players can feel the stocking but can’t look inside. After the game is over, let the winner with the most correct guesses keep the stocking and surprise all your party partygoers with a personalized stocking made just for them in honor of the holiday season.
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CHRISTMAS CARD SWAP
Ask all of your guests to bring 2 to 3 different photo Christmas cards of themselves from when they were a child for this fun icebreaker game. When guests arrive at the party, they’ll drop one of their cards into a basket. Once all of the guests have arrived and contributed Christmas cards, each guest will choose a card from the basket and try and match the card with a guest at the party. The first person to match their selected card with the guest who’s in the photo wins. Alternatively, you can ask guests to bring a photo of themselves as a child in general if they’re unable to find an old photo Christmas card. Since guests will be bringing 2 to 3 cards/photos, you can play this game more than once at your party.
I found a great Christmas party favor that my adult guests loved if you're interested. Buy some larger glass goblets from the dollar store. I lined the bottom of my glasses with red and green M7M's. On top of those
I put a 1 serving bottle of Sutter Home White Zinfandel (they came in a 4 bottle pack), some Advil, Babybell mini cheese in the red wrapper, an individual sized bag of Reindeer Poop candy and a candy cane.
