holiday exchange

source: mukumbura

If you’ve been around here long you know I love me a good party. In fact, Lydia’s birthday party is less than a month away and I’ve got it all figured out. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it and had to get it up to write all my ideas down before I could fall asleep!

I get lots of comments and questions about how to plan parties and what’s the best stuff to do. So, I thought I’d give some of my best tips about party-planning. Then as I started to write them down, they didn’t seem that interesting. So instead, I’m going to make up 2 parties for you. And if you’ve got a Christmas party coming up, you can steal all these ideas and pretend they are yours!

Ready?

The Silver & Gold Peace on Earth Party

I got this idea from Plum Party. It is the cutest website full of printable tablescapes. I adore tablescapes and printable ones? SO COOL.  This tablescape includes a billion cute things like place cards, drink markers and menus. Plus some really cool extras like an advent calendar and a wreath. Yeah, like a PRINTABLE wreath. Look how awesome this is:

If that doesn’t inspire you to throw a party, I don’t know what will! I’d decorate with all the printable stuff, find some gold and silver candles and candlesticks (or make some myself) and make sure I had lots of twinkly lights stuck everywhere!

Then I’d probably do white food like my Snowflake Party…Cheeseball from Heaven, white chocolate fondue, wraps or sandwiches and maybe even some kind of cheesy dip (like an artichoke dip, maybe?). YUM. I’d definitely make my favorite stand-by punch: 1 thing (yes, that is a precise measurement) of apple juice, 1 Sprite or Ginger Ale and 1 frozen lemonade. It’s nice and gold and delicious.

Now, for a few activities. Hmmm…I don’t always like games for adults. (Can anyone say baby shower games?!) But I do think it’s fun to have some great ice-breaker stuff around. Once we did a go-at-your-own-pace scavenger hunt to locate all my mom’s collectible nativity scenes. You could do the same thing with different ornaments or decor in your house—just hand out a piece of paper with clues when people walk in. Then award a prize for everyone who finishes!

Then I’d send everyone home with a sparkly gold candle with a tag that says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2″. Or maybe “Thanks for making our Christmas sparkly and bright!”

Oooh, I’m so excited I want to do that now!

Kids’ Toy Party

The second party I’d love to do is some kind of kids’ party. Last year I did a Gingerbread Party with Lydia’s friends. I wanted to do an Operation Christmas Child party this year but couldn’t get it together in time for the packing week. Anyway, I love the idea of a Kids’ Toy Party.

Let’s see…first I’d decorate with white butcher paper (or brown paper, my fave) as table cloths. Then I’d spread out crayons (red and green, of course) so everyone could write Christmas greetings or draw their favorite Christmas pictures (I can draw some mean holly!) I’d put some old toys around–maybe some slinkies, vintage toys or some of my kids’ favorites.

Now the food has me stumped. You could do some typical kids’ food—pb&j cut into Christmas shapes, fruit and Christmas cookies. Or you could just do a red/green theme—red and green veggie kabobs, pizza fondue and lettuce wraps. Regardless, there would lots of fun desserts like those sleigh cookies I linked to the other day or those yummy pretzel-rolo-pecan turtles (& some other versions)  or Christmas cupcakes!

And activities? Well, you could make these fun homemade holiday napkins, play guess-that-toy-get-to-know-you game (write popular toys on nametags and when your guests arrive, put one on their back. They can ask yes and no questions to find out what their name tag says.) And as a thank-you-gift, I’d give everyone a peppermint-lollipop with a tag that says, “We’re MINT to be friends.” OK, maybe not, but aren’t those lollipops cute?!

So, whad’ya think? Do either of those sound fun? I think they do! I’m kinda bummed I’m not having a Christmas party now! What kind of party would you host? Or have you hosted in the past? Got a good idea to share? DO TELL! Leave me a comment about a fun Christmas party (or some other kinda party)–or even a link to a great party you’ve done and you’ll be entered to win a FABU Holiday Brunch package from Nestle–including a brunch menu, corresponding NESTLÉ products, and a $50 VISA gift card. Merry Christmas to you, huh?!

See you tomorrow for more fun Christmas fun, giveaways and Top Ten {Tuesday}!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Nestle. They sponsored. I wrote. That’s all.

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