11 tips for a holly jolly christmas party...

So I'm planning a holiday party extravaganza and I'm super excited about it. I want to share with you some of the ideas I've had and the things that I think make an excellent party.

1. Make your own party favors. I'll be sending each guest home with a jar of homemade cranberry sauce.

2. Papercraft an awesome centrepiece for your table. Here is some eye candy to inspire you. Just make sure you keep your candles far away from you beautiful paper centrepiece!

3. Make a skating rink in the yard. Make sure all your guests know so that they can bring skates if they'd like. Have hot cocoa with marshmallows waiting for guests as they come back inside!

4. Have an open house party...make it last all day long so that guests can fit you in at such a busy time of year

5. Serve cosmopolitans and appletinis. The red and green drinks will look great together on a platter.

6. Put something christmassy in every room of the house. Don't leave the bathrooms and bedrooms undecorated.

7. Serve foods you can make ahead of time such as mini quiche, cheese and crackers, tortilla roll ups with salami and pickled asparagus spears, and a veggie platter. This way your kitchen will be clean when guests arrive and you'll be relaxed and ready to party. Serve all your food buffet style. Putting everything on white platters will help keep your buffet from looking cluttered.

8. Don't forget about the little guests. Have a child safe room dedicated to playing.

9. Make a Christmas scrapbook guestbook: make up a bunch of pages beforehand with a spot designated for a photo. Make the page title a christmassy question or journaling prompt and draw the guest some lines to write their response on. As each guest (or family) arrives, have them pick a page and hand write their response to the question on that page. Then snap a photo of them and put the pages aside. After the party you can print off the photos and stick them in the designated spots on their co-ordinating page. The best part is that next year you can put this scrapbook out on the coffee table for everyone to see...they'll get a kick out of their answers from the previous year!

10. Have tons of Christmas cookies. Next to Jesus, Christmas is practically about the cookies. If you need a great recipe, click here.

11. And of course...send everyone home with a handmade Christmas card. You can either make the yourself or buy them.

Please, leave a comment. I want to know what fabulous party ideas you have to share!