How to throw a Christmas Party

One of my favorite things about Christmas is throwing our annual Christmas party. I love the planning, decorating, and dressing up...and of course love catching up with all of our good friends each year.

I feel like of every year, this year's party went the smoothest, despite that I am sooo much busier this year than I've every been before!

Here are a few tips that I've learned to make your party throwing a little bit easier:

1. Pick the day: Every other year I've done it on a Friday. A Friday that I've worked a few hours in the morning and had about 3 hours to prepare. Bad. Idea... This year I did it on a Saturday. I woke up around 7:30 and cleaned/cooked throughout the day. While I was busy the whole day I wasn't too busy. I was able to cook at my own pace and didn't feel at all rushed.

2. Pick good foods: This year I put a lot of thought into the food I made. I wanted a good variety but also wanted things that good be prepared ahead of time. In the past I have had to basically wait until about 4:00 to begin because everything I made was hot. This is so stressful. Below was my menu...most things could be prepared ahead of time. Basically I only had two things that I needed to wait to cook.

• Marinated Ham and Swiss Poppy Seed Buns
• Cream Cheese Pin Wheels
• Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies (From a 'Just Add Water' Package) Easier is Better
• Various Specialty Cheeses, served with Crackers and Grapes
• Hummus and Pita Chips
• Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods
• Broccoli and Red Pepper served with Ranch Dressing
• Mojitos

I felt like this provided a great spread with a little bit of everything.

3. Have fun games: We always do a white elephant gift exchange, as well as a cookie game where you try to get a Ginger Snap from their forehead to their mouth without using your hands (The Great American Cookie Race) By having these games every year it gives people something to look forward to and expect :)

Here are a few pictures of the night, we had a blast!

The Spread

Marinated Ham and Swiss Buns

Mojitos (love the straws)

Cream Cheese Pinwheels

Cheese Spread

The Great American Cookie Race

White Elephant Gift Exchange

For my favors, each person received a peanut butter kiss cookie packaged in a red CD case. This saved so much money, was super cute and who doesn't like cookies? I used a hole-punch to put two holes in the top corner and tied it with a lime green bow.