Holiday entertaining is one of my most favorite things EVER and we love finding any excuse to celebrate all season long!! I put together a festive tray of goodies (who needs meat & cheese?!) for a holiday happy hour and decided it’s going to be a staple for all the holiday parties this year! I was inspired by these mini waffle cookies & gingerbread men, they were both too cute & needed to be together on a pretty tray. I added some candy canes & dipped pretzels, some fruit & nutella for dipping. We will definitely be remaking this for our Christmas Eve brunch!!
I thought it would be fun to round up a few of my favorite holiday party ideas, I think we do almost all of these every year and I get SO excited for each of them! Some are more elaborate than others, you can host any of these with just a few close friends or with your whole neighborhood!!
1. Christmas Characters, Cards & Cocktails // We did this last year but didn’t actually give it a name until we started talking about it again this year. Everyone comes dressed as their favorite Christmas movie character, Clark Griswold or the Grinch, himself! Turn the record player on, play a good old fashioned game of cards & serve up some festive cocktails!
2. Favorite Things Party // This is so fun to do with a group of girlfriends. Everyone brings a gift for each person at the party valued at $5 or $10, and it must be all the same, and one of their favorite things. So if there are 6 people at the party, one would bring 5 tubes of mascara, 5 pair of fuzzy slippers, hot chocolate mix, etc. and give to the other five people and then would take home five other presents themselves. Everyone goes home with a handful of new “favorite things” and it is always so much fun!!
3. Holiday Brunch // Pancakes & pajamas is a must. We have done this for a few years with friends and it is always something our girls look so forward to! Friends come over in the morning in their holiday pajamas & slippers, and we make rudolph pancakes. Serve up a coffee (or mimosa) bar and watch something fun with the kids, like Elf or Home Alone!
4. Gingerbread House Making // Perfect for kids (buy premade houses so it’s easier for them to just decorate) or for Adults (and vote at the end for the best one to win a prize).
5. Gift Wrapping Party // Everyone comes with bags of gifts they need to wrap, with all the ribbons and wrappings, sip some eggnog & watch a classic like It’s a Wonderful Life or The Holiday!
Would love to hear any fun or creative party themes you have! There are just not enough days in December to do all the things! Cheers, friends!!
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I love these party ideas!! I can’t wait to try each one ??? like I love them so much I can’t even pick a favorite ??
I loveeee these ideas! I’m hosting a party this weekend and we are doing plain old white elephant.
I’m gonna come up with an excuse to do a favorite things party now though ?
These are such fun ideas! Love any excuse to get together with friends!
Your party platters are always the best! I’m always inspired. Definitely riffing on your amazing spread for our holiday celebration. xo
Such great ideas! I love 2 & 5!!
Love your holiday posts! Thank you for the inspiration!
No wonder you are the HOLIDAY FRIGGEN QUEEN. These are all such amazing ideas! Planning our favorite things party as we speak!
We always do a Christmas Vacation viewing party for our friends. My husband busts out his shortie robe and trapper hat and everyone else wears their tacky Christmas sweaters. Boozy eggnog in moose mugs is a necessity.
Love these!! Always so good! PS it. might be on purpose but the hover to Pinterest option is gone! Saving these adorable ideas!
Love these ideas! The spread at the top is perfect. <3
This year we decided to do an elf party. Dress in elf garb or you best ugly sweater and we are making a fully Buddy the elf dinner speghetti with syrup pop tarts and all! Enjoy any new ideas, happy holidays!
Your charcuterie boards are the best! I need to get a version of your round one here. Thanks for always posting all the festive things!
Is it too late to plan all of these for this weekend? LOL! They sound so fun and festive. We do your classic ugly Christmas sweater party but we all bring a ridiculous Christmas ornament, put them in festively decorated brown paper bags with numbers. We all draw a number and that’s the ornament we get. We have so much fun opening them and dying laughing at the hysterical ornaments our very mature friends have chosen. Haha!
These are so fun! I want to do all of them!
Love the waffle cookies and gingerbread men! Where did you find them? I love seeing all your party ideas! Thanks for the inspiration!
Where did you find the fun little cookies?
We are doing the favorite things party this week. A tip, if you have a lot of girls like 10 or 15 it can get expensive to buy that many gifts. We just decide on a price which we chose $10 per item then everyone just buys 3 of that same thing. You then go around the room and show your favorite thing then draw three names those three people get your gift. Each name goes in the hat 3 times so you bring 3 and leave with 3. *so fun*
nice blog keep up the good work.
I’m so sad those plates are sold out