My Favorite Things Christmas Party

Warning: This post is completely personal and in no way teaching related! :)

 

Over the holidays, I decided I wanted to have my very first Christmas party. I've been to tons of great Christmas parties and I knew I could host my own with the help of Pinterest. I wanted to do something a little different than your typical Chinese Christmas gift exchange, so I browsed around for different ideas and decided on a 'My Favorite Things' party. The basis is Oprah's 'My Favorite Things' giveaway, just a little lot less extravagant.

 

I started out by sending these adorable invites:

I invited about 30 women (knowing that a lot of people would be going out of town for the holidays or have prior commitments).

That's when I got to planning all of the extra stuff: food, prizes, décor, etc.

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the food table! But I made sausage balls and quiche. I had never made something by myself before (other than premade cookie dough or brownie mix) and so doing the quiche was exciting! It turned out really well and I was quite proud of myself. I also bought some fabulous salted caramel cupcakes from a local baker. For drinks, I made strawberry mimosas. They were to die for! I blended orange juice and frozen strawberries to make the juice. It was so easy!

 

The décor was actually easy since it was Christmastime. I just left up all my holiday décor until after the party.

 

For prizes, I gave everyone 2 of my favorite food items. Cookie Butter from Trader Joe's (it's amazing!). It's the same consistency as peanut butter but it doesn't have any nuts in it. It's sweet and it goes well on crackers/bread/etc. or by itself! I also gave a popcorn trio from Target: caramel, cheese, and regular. It's so tasty!

The second party favor I handed out was a recipe book. I asked each guest for their favorite recipe and then I typed them all up, printed it out, and bound it with some baker's twine. So easy and they just loved it!

 

I ended up having 11 other women come and that was the perfect number! Everyone brought some amazing stuff.

I brought some cups with straws that change color when cold and drink mix packs. The cup doesn't sweat and I use mine everyday at school!!

Here is what other people brought: Eye shadow, mascara, Moroccan oil/conditioner, Cookie butter and shave cream, hand soap, peppermint lotion, shampoo for color treated hair, earrings, makeup brushes, and Starbucks gift cards.

It turned out to be cosmetic themed without even planning it to! :)

 

The way we chose was I put numbers 1-11 in a cup and everyone chose a number. Number 1 got to choose her first item, then number 2, etc. After 1 round of that, all the numbers went back in the cup and we chose again. We did that 4 times, that way 1 person didn't go first every time. I went last each time because I was the hostess, but if you have a party, you don't have to do that.

Every one was very pleased with what they got and I've already decided to do it again next year!

 

If you've ever had one of these parties or plan to have one, I'd love to hear about it!