The holiday season is here! Thanksgiving is next week and Milo is almost 2 months old, isn’t that wild!? Having a newborn, all the days pretty much run together and it definitely feels like this season has popped up out of nowhere (but I think it always feels like that, right?). While the “holiday season” is busy and sometimes chaotic, it’s also filled with some of my favorite things: a ridiculous amount of parties and food! Here are a few ideas for getting your friends together in this fun and festive season:
Friendsgiving:
Get all your friends together and have them each bring their favorite dish to share. So easy! The first Thanksgiving Chris and I spent together after we moved to NJ was kind of a disaster. It was just the two of us, but I figured we would just make our favorite things and it would be great. I had never made a turkey before…. But I found a really awesome recipe on pinterest that made it seem so easy. Well, I didn’t realize the turkey wasn’t already defrosted. The recipe called for putting it in the crockpot. The turkey didn’t fit in the crockpot so we chopped it up. Long story short: it was terrible and we ate a lot of potatoes for Thanksgiving. Friendsgiving is the way to go, for sure!
Favorite Things Party:
Have you heard of these? I’m definitely going to try and host one this year! There are a few different ways to do it, but basically you get your friends together and you share a must-have favorite item within a budget. You can do it with just a few friends or several. Example: If you have 5 friends over (not including yourself), everyone would buy 5 of the same item within the set budget (say, $5 each) and then everyone would receive that item. For a larger crowd, you could bring 5 of the same item and everyone puts their name in a cup 5 times, so you would still end up with 5 favorite items. Here are a couple examples with more details for a larger crowd, and for a smaller crowd (with free printables!).
Cookie Swap with Hot Cocoa Bar:
Christmas cookies are the best. I love to bake and I love sweets, so this kind of party checks all those boxes! Everyone brings their favorite cookies to share, and then you go home with a great assortment of cookies. Step it up a notch and create a hot cocoa bar to enjoy while sharing all those delicious cookies.
Gift-Wrapping Party:
I love wrapping presents, but I tend to get a little sloppy the more I have to wrap. Solution: Invite your friends over and make it a party! You can supply a bunch of wrapping paper (or have everyone bring some to share), a variety of fun tags, stickers, etc. It would be so much more fun to wrap all your gifts together!
Group Service Project:
In this season of giving, there are so many opportunities to share with others. Get a group of friends together to serve at a shelter, sponsor a family together for Christmas, write holiday cards for the homebound, or make care packages for our troops overseas. The possibilities are endless.
These parties or gatherings are simple and easy to host, but are certainly not confined to the holidays. Keep the fun going all year long and switch it up for different seasons. Share your own party traditions; I’d love to hear them!