Ideas For Hosting A Themed Party This Christmas
‘Real Simple’ has some excellent suggestions for hosting a holiday party, easily, yet beautifully!
They provide ideas such as displaying store-bought food in your own dishes to make it look nicer and making the drinks in one, large batch, to allow you more time with your guests, and they even give you a party timeline!
*Check it all out here:
https://www....aker-required
Party Themes:
(1) Elegant Theme-
‘Masquerade Ball’
*For the fancy holiday celebrators, this formal theme incorporates decorative masks to adorn the faces of all guests.
Colors: Though the holidays are typically a red-and-green or silver-and-gold time of year, a true masquerade usually incorporates a lot of purple and gold.
Masks: The masks are some of the most important components to a successful masquerade holiday party. Be sure to specify to guests what kind of event this is well in advance, and encourage guests to buy their own masks so that they can coordinate with their dates’ masks and their own formalwear. Do not be surprised if some show up without a mask, which is why we suggest having a few extras to hand out to those unable to get one in time.
Menu: Your menu should include appetizers, passed hors d’oeuvres and light finger foods. Think extravagant when planning this menu, but also realistic. This is the kind of occasion for which you should hire a serving staff to take care of walking the food around, making sure that guests aren’t hovering over a buffet table or sitting down the entire evening.
Drinks: The bar will be an extremely important part of this experience. Start the evening off with champagne cocktails, setting the right mood for the rest of the evening. Once guests have been welcomed with a drink by a professionally dressed server, let those choosing to continue indulging in beverages approach one of the bars at their own discretion to order premium or top shelf drinks.
Entertainment: Consider a string quartet, small orchestra or singing group to entertain for this type of holiday celebration. You will want an array of holiday music on the repertoire, of course, but also ask the band to play some of the more eerie, classical music pieces, including numbers from Phantom. Expect (and encourage) some dancing at this event.
(2) International Theme-
‘Christmas Around The World’
*The holidays are celebrated across the globe. Take a trip around the world with an international food-themed holiday party.
Menu: For this theme, the best way to incorporate multiple countries is by creating a series of food stations based on different cuisine served around the world. For example, you could set up a Spanish station, serving dishes like tapas and paella, a Moroccan station, serving tagines, a Thai station, serving Pad Thai and spring rolls, and a German station, serving bratwurst, sauerkraut and roasted chicken.
Drinks: You can also incorporate the around-the-word theme into the beverages. Make the wine selection an international affair with wines from Italy, France, Australia and Argentina. Serve spirits famous for their countries of origin, such as whiskey, vodka and rum.
Décor: Every country that celebrates Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza has its own traditional decorations. Do a little research on the background of your guests and incorporate their nationalities’ traditional holiday décor into the décor around your house.
Tablescapes: We suggest naming each table after a country, for example, a Swedish table, a Japanese table, an Indian table, a Brazilian table, etc. Along with the nametag displaying the table’s country name, consider incorporating some elements of that country into the decorations.
Music: Nothing puts people in the holiday spirit like carols! Build a playlist that features songs from all over the globe, spanning four continents and a dozen different cultures. Guests will be delighted by the cheery music and you’ll have fun guessing which country each carol comes from.
(3)Fun & Interactive-
‘Christmas Carole Karaoke’
*A music-themed party meets budget concerns while also adding entertainment value.
Entertainment: You must have a karaoke machine for this event, and it must be filled with holiday music. Ask guests to sign up to sing their favorite holiday songs solo or in groups. Incorporate some kind of musical competition into the evening as well, either in the form of karaoke, music lyrics competitions, Rock Band or Guitar Hero tournaments or another music-related competition. Also, consider limiting the karaoke to certain portions of the event, depending on how many guests you are expecting.
Music: Once the karaoke is over and the evening has moved on, a playlist of Christmas carols without the lead vocals allows guests to keep singing if they’d like, or just to simply listen and enjoy the evening.
Décor: On the table, you can wrap small boxes (with or without presents inside) in sheet paper and on paper with Christmas-themed lyrics printed out. Music notes and general holiday décor can also adorn the rest of your venue.
Menu: Any kind of menu in which you’re interested will work for this theme. You can go with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres only, a buffet dinner or even a full plated meal.
(4) Tacky and Laid Back
‘Ugly Sweater Party’
*This tried and true theme will always be a winner in our eyes! It’s fun to see the outrageous outfits and sweaters that friends come up with!
The great thing about a tacky party theme is that you can go super tacky on the decorations! Stop by the dollar store and buy everything shiny they have! Throw gaudy tinsel everywhere and hang some giant, cheap snowmen and reindeer around.
Buy a roll of ugly sweater print-looking wrapping paper and use it as a backdrop. Busy some dollar store hats and other items for a fun holiday photo wall for your guests to take photos in front of!
Have everyone bring a tacky gift for a white elephant style gift exchange and see who gets which tacky gift! (Thrift stores make the perfect place to find random, out of the ordinary gifts!)
More ideas HERE-
*50 Ideas for an ugly sweater party:
https://www....-party-ideas/
(5) Painting and Wine Party!
(At Pinot’s Palette, of course!!)
*Check us out for a fun way to celebrate, free of planning, cooking, and cleaning, for a holiday party! You can book a private party and have everyone come together to rent our the studio for your party, or gather the whole gang together for a public class!
Information about booking a private party for friends and family:
https://www....ivate-parties
Information about booking a private party for your annual office party:
https://www....porate-events
Come in to our studio for an evening (or day class) and paint your stress away this hectic time of year! Bring all of your friends and family to join in while you drink wine, listen to music, and get creative, making a masterpiece you’ll treasure forever! ((We have some SERIOUSLY amazing paintings coming up on the calendar!!!))
If you’re looking for a fun night out idea with friends and family, a date night event, or a girls’ night out experience, Pinot’s Palette is the place to be! We have our 2-3 hour public classes where you’ll be guided, step by step, through a specific painting, and we also have gift certificates available for purchase online or in the studio! You can check a bunch of people off your list with the gift of an experience, by giving a wine and painting class to your loved ones this year!
**We have tons of studios across the Nation, so the gift of Pinot’s Palette is available to many of your loved ones, both near and far!
Party tips and ideas, #1-3, provided by tasty catering
Image, Redbook
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