This morning, our family hosted our first Christmas party of the season. Okay, Jaden and I hosted our first Christmas party of the season. The other three guys were at school and my husband had to go to the office for the first time in over a month. Hmmm... Well, I guess I don't blame him.
I love party planning. It's fun to think of all the possibilities and good planning allows you to sit back and enjoy the party without much effort. In this case, the before-party preparations also served as some great "mommy and me" time. From preparing crafts to making party favors, Jaden and I enjoyed every minute of it. All week I have heard him telling his own belly to "QUIT BEING SO BE-CITED!" - which was more than half the fun!!!
Here are some of ideas for your next little people Christmas party. We hope it helps you to create great memories with the ones you love!
Countdown To Christmas - This is a simple activity even the littlest can do. To prep, we cut strips of red and green paper that would be used to make a chain. We provided a bag of recycled ribbons from last Christmas and made toppers for the chain. My little guy and I worked on simple counting and patterns where Jaden sorted 10 strips, alternating red and green since 10 days till Chrismas. We paper clipped each set together so they were ready when his guests arrived.
Stained Glass Votives - Packs of votives and candles can be purchased cheaply at your local craft store in the bridal section. Lucky for me, I just happened to have a couple packs left from my sister's bridal shower. We cut red and green tissue paper into little squares and had paintbrushes and watered down glue ready (add just enough water to thin it out a bit). In sections, the kids painted glue on their votives and then covered it with tissue paper. When the entire votive was covered, they painted glue over all the tissue paper to create a shiny, hard coating. Be careful though, some brands of tissue papers will leak color, but I think it looks cool either way. By the time the party was over, their projects were dry and ready to take home.
Pin the Nose on Rudolph - No need to buy this game when you can turn making one into a family project. If you don't already have a big roll of white paper, get one! You will find so many uses: tablecloth under messy crafts, life size self portraits, homemade wrapping paper and of course to draw a big Rudolph on! And if you're not artistic (which you can see I'm not), check out DragoArt for instructions. After drawing Rudolph, I tacked it up on the wall and two of my guys enjoyed coloring away. We made red noses out of card stock (used a glue stick lid as the template to trace around) and used Glue Dots to stick. A recycled red ribbon for the starting line and bandanna for the blindfold and we had ourselves a game. This game was definitely the party favorite!
It's Snowing! - I had a special request for a game that included marshmallows. I had to come up with something that matched the skill level of three year olds through kindergartners. We ended up wrapping two small boxes (left open). The kids were each given two large marshmallows and divided into two 'equal' teams. After talking about all the reasons we love snow and all the things we want to do when it snows, and why the heck hasn't it snowed yet, we threw our 'snow' into the buckets. Whatever team had the most snow in their box won. Simple, yet they wanted to do it again.
Party Favors - We love making presents for our friends! Little People Favors - Jaden made his friends reindeer food to help guide Santa's reindeer to their house on Christmas Eve night - very important! Jaden measured out 1/2 a cup of old fashioned oatmeal into baggies and added some sprinkles to each bag. We then stapled labels with the reindeer food poem on it (which I made in Word and printed out on card stock). He loved walking around with his basket and handing them out as his friends got ready to leave. Big People Favors - My friends received mugs with hot chocolate packets, homemade marshmallows and cookies. I made an attempt at snowflake coasters, but they didn't turn out very well. Too much intricate cutting. I also tried dipping spoons in chocolate to include, but my chocolate jar (in a pot of boiling water) tipped over. Oh well.
Food - You know how you cook before a party and by the time your guests arrive, you are exhausted? This party, I GFS'd it. Why not? Yummy food and all I had to do was take the food out of the freezer that morning and put it on some nice serving trays. I did take 2 minutes to make some turkey and cheese sandwiches but I am a swift sandwich maker (with 5 guys you must be), so no big deal.
Jaden and I also baked some sugar cookies last week and froze them. We thawed them out this morning and and provided some do-it-yourself decorations for the little people. Yummy AND fun!
Music - What's a party without rockin' good music? My family loves to sing and dance and we love Pandora. The "Kids Christmas Favorites" station is perfect for a Little People party with Christmas songs by the Muppets, Kidz Bop Kids and many more favorites. I just hooked my droid up to one of my guy's boom boxes (or whatever it's called these days) and the atmosphere was set!
Party Time! - All that was left was to get ready for our guests to arrive. And to tell our bellies to "QUIT BEING SO BE-CITED!" =0)
Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year!
We hope your parties are filled with family and friends, love and laughter!
