This time of year is so hectic for me. My birthday is the end of the month and then 2 weeks later it’s O’s birthday. It feels like the day after is Christmas lol. My grandma always loved her Christmas cards. I remember she use to hang them over her bay window and it was always exciting to be the one around when she opened them because since she was a short little thing we were able to hang the cards for her. This year I’m going to stay on top of Christmas cards and I want to send out our Storkie Christmas Cards earlier this year so I can let them know about a fun holiday get together O wants to do for his friends. This got me thinking about what would be my top 10 holiday Planning Tips that I’ve adapted from my grandparents over the years:
#10: Relax and have fun! This was one my grandma always said and her reason was not only because you’d miss the memories but because when you stress out you’re likely to forget something. Also it’s no fun to be at a get together over the holidays and have a stressed out host. I like to spend about a week or two planning . I’m taking week 1 to plan who he wants to invite. Week 2 will be a meal and activities plan. This will be fun because I can get creative and make fun holiday treats. Plus I get to play my favorite holiday movies …. Like Rudolph lol.
#9: Have fun activities: I remember we had so much fun getting together and doing Christmas cookies as a family. This is something I want to continue with O and I think it’d be fun to not only have his friends decorate some cool cookies that they can eat while here, but I want to freeze some cookie shapes and send them home with a little zip bag of the cookie shapes and let them do them together as a family.
#8: Have cool prizes: O wants to do some fun games so we’re going to hit the dollar store to not only find little fun holiday trinkets for prizes but to also make some fun crafts. I was thinking cotton ball snowmen. O loves those. Not only do I get to let the kids have fun, I don’t have to worry about breaking the bank with it either!
#7: Get lots of photos: This is of course a big one for me. My grandpa was my inspiration for my camera love. I remember how he use to do wedding photos and I found a small box once of beautiful photos he took of my grandma and me. I just loved how they looked and ever since I’ve had my camera glued to my hand. I want to create moments O can remember and even use these photos as ‘cheap’ decoration for his room.
#6: Don’t plan last minute! This is an obvious one. I don’t want to plan it too early but then I don’t want to wait til last minute. Nothing stinks worse than your kid getting excited … okay and you too* but then to be sad when 90% are out of town. It can be real tricky getting the date just*right.
#5: Don’t forget to mingle! If there are parents staying don’t forget to interact with them. Also you’d be wise to at least check on the kids if they are in one area for more than a few minutes … if O is being too quiet for too long I know it’s not something good.
#4: Have a theme! Some families may not do Christmas so to make them feel welcome why not have a wintery theme? That leaves you open to so many neat ideas. A Winter wonderland for example sounds SO fun!
#3 Have lots of snacks – Not only will any adult guests that stay appreciate this … if you’re having a house full of boys you’ll hear a million times “I’m hungry” no matter if they just ate or not … unless this is just my house. Have a bunch of ready to go and healthy snacks on hand for just these moments.
#2: Create Standout moments! Don’t do out of the box ideas. Create invites and such that stand out and make your guests want to come. It’s a lot easier and cheaper than you may think to be original with your initiations and decoration.
#1: Don’t serve cold food! One thing that my grandma K was notorious for would be that the food on Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter would be cold. She was so nervous about it not being ready in time she started cooking WAY too early. That was something we grew to love and now that she’s gone I really do miss sadly lol. I don’t want to get the food cooked too early but with a bunch of hungry boys I do want to start prepping earlier lol.
So there you have it. My top 10 party tips. What are some of yours that you’ve inherited over the years?
I wrote this blog post while participating in the Storkie holiday blogging program. I received compensation for my participation. All opinions are 100% mine.
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