Winter Wonderland Holiday Party

Even though I decorate the house for nearly EVERY holiday, Christmas is by far my favorite one of the year. It’s the time of year for special family traditions; where friends & neighbors come together to decorate the yards, and when all just seems a little more cheery and bright.

We host our annual holiday party with friends, neighbors and family where I display my beloved collection of Department 56 Original Snow Village homes for all to enjoy.  Over the years, I’ve collected over 100 ceramic homes and create a miniature village scene. Everyone really enjoys this tradition we've had and looks forward to it each year--and it’s just so much fun for my husband and I to put this together every year. 

Since our house is usually decked out in “all things holiday”, I don’t usually have a theme but this year decided on having a Winter Wonderland Holiday Party which decorations would included a 20' flower wall, 200+ 4-5’ mirror garlands hanging from the ceiling, over-sized snowflakes—and so much more.

Here are some pictures from our Winter Wonderland Party:

Since we had over 100 people in attendance, we had the hot chocolate bar, chili bar and the kids cookie decorating table all in our garage and the miniature village (Shae's Snow Village) inside where it was protected and away from the high-traffic areas.

We look forward to next years event!

It's a Girl! Baby Shower

Anticipating the arrival of our niece was a special time for our family. It was the first Grandchild for my parents and our first niece.  So…of course, her baby shower had to be FABULOUS!

I come from a big family so it’s pretty typical that any holiday gathering or birthday party brings anywhere from 50-70 people and sometimes more depending on the occasion. It’s chaos at times but FUN! Since so many people are expected, most of the preparation for these parties are in the food so all hands are on deck preparing dinner and leaving no time for decorations.  Perhaps that’s why I became so determined to “dress things up” when I grew older started to throw my own parties. For my sisters baby shower, I knew this was going to be a much more intimate gathering and this time around, I wasn’t going to let the décor get lost in such a special occasion.

I had many ideas on themes and how I hoped to execute this event. I wanted it to be special and memorable for my sister and brother-in-law and also very personable.  With the assistance of the mom-to-be and my other two younger sisters, we went to work coming up with not necessarily a theme but a color scheme and specific details my sister would want at her shower. She wanted different shades of pink and a hint of lime green in the décor. And since she loved butterflies, we’d incorporate that subtly in the décor.

Here’s the final outcome of the party planning:

Food Menu

Pasta Salad

Cucumber Tea Sandwiches

Curried Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches

Egg Salad Tea Sandwiches

Mixed Fruit Salad

Crudités Platter: Celery, sugar plum tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli and cauliflower florets.

Drink Menu

Mango Iced Tea

Pink Lemonade

Table Decor

Chargers – Koyal Wholesale

Light Pink

Hot Pink 

 Table Runners – Linen Tablecloth

Fuchsia Satin Runner

Chair Sashes – Linen Tablecloth

Light Pink Satin Chair Sash

Fuchsia Satin Chair Sash  

Misc Decorations

Tissue Paper Flowers:
How-to Tutorial here.
Supplies Needed: Tissue, fishing line and scissors

Since I was planning to hang these from outdoor pop up tents, I used fishing line instead of the ribbon shown so it wasn't visible.

Note: I used 10 tissues per flower to make it look more full

Felt Circle Garland:
Supplies Needed: Felt Sheets, fishing line, glue gun and scissors.

1). Cut circles from felt sheets and line them up as shown below.

2). Take a glue gun and fishing line.  Place two felt pieces together with the fishing line sandwiched and centered in between and glue them all together. Be careful not to melt the fishing line with the hot glue.  I glued each felt piece 6 inches apart from eachother.  Note: Allow at least a foot at the beginning of the fishing line open for hanging.

3). Continue gluing pieces on the fishing line until you reach your desired length. Again, leave another foot open at the end of your garland for hanging.