ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How To Plan A Memorable Christmas Party

Updated on March 21, 2015

Planning A Christmas Party

Whether you're a teacher, a parent, or an employer, you'll need to get as many ideas as possible for how to plan a Christmas party.

The holidays can be a very stressful time of year, but if you have the right planning strategies in place, you can organize a party for your students, coworkers, or loved ones that is sure to be a fond holiday memory.

You Should Start The Planning Early
You Should Start The Planning Early

You Should Start The Planning Early

One of the most important steps in learning how to plan a Christmas party is planning early.

You should start working as early as September if you're organizing a holiday party for a large crowd of people, since the month of December will likely be busy for everyone.

If you want to have the Christmas party at a restaurant or dining hall in your area, you'll need to make your reservations early to ensure that you and your group will have a space.

You should also learn how to plan a Christmas party by including some of the attendees. Just because you're in charge of the planning doesn't mean that you have to do everything yourself.

You can assign a person to be in charge of the food, or ask a group of people to bring different dishes until the entire culinary theme for the party is covered. You can also ask other coworkers or parents of students to bring party decorations, so that you won't have to spend a lot of money on making the party location look nice.

If you're asking people for their assistance, sending out requests at least a month in advance so that you can get a good response. This will also prevent you from overwhelming people at the last minute.

Think about how to plan a Christmas party in terms of how many people you want to invite. If you only want to have an intimate gathering with just a few family members and loved ones, you can have the party in your home, or purchase some heating devices for your garage for a Christmas dinner that everyone will enjoy.

If you live in an area where the weather is unusually warm for the holidays, you can have a Christmas party for a larger crowd at a local community center or park. You can still bring holiday decorations and Christmas music, or you can assign a partygoer to bring a few of these things so that you can cut down on overall party costs. For more great ideas on how to plan a Christmas party, check out the informative articles (and pictures) that are available in magazines like Family Circle or Food and Wine.

Planning A Family Christmas Party
Planning A Family Christmas Party

Planning A Family Christmas Party

One of the best parts of the holidays is spending time with family and loved ones.

So, if you want to have more 'organized fun' with your family this year, you should organize a Christmas family party. And even though everyone is feeling the strain of the economy, you can plan a great party on a budget that your whole family will enjoy.

One of the best things you can do is have a family meeting at least a month before you want to have a Christmas family party.

Write down every family member's name and place the names in a hat. Let everyone draw a name to that you can exchange gifts. This way, everyone is sure to get a gift. You should also set a price limit that everyone is comfortable with, so that everyone will be able to stay within their holiday spending budget.

Next you'll need to figure out what type of food you want to serve at your family Christmas party. Talk to your family about their favorite foods, as well as dishes that are kid-friendly. If you don't want to make all the food yourself, you can create a sign up sheet where family members can volunteer to make certain dishes until you have everything you need. Keep in mind that this list can be passed around online as well in case some family members live out of town and will be coming in for the party.

You should also make phone calls concerning the Christmas family party to check on the progress, since this will help you to save money on postage. This way, you won't have to send out traditional invitations, although there are some online resources you can use to create free e-invites.

If you're really looking to save money, you should arrange to have the party in a family member's home, or heated garage. If you are thinking about renting out a dining hall for a large family, you will most likely have to pay a deposit, and you'll only get a portion of this back if you decide not to have the event there.

Once you're at the Christmas family party, you should have done enough planning to relax and have a good time. Make sure there is a children's corner with kids' games and activities, and prepare a separate table for toddlers to eat Christmas dinner at.

It is also a good idea to send around a collection jar at the party. This will help to get money together for next year's Christmas celebration. Spending a few minutes after the celebration to talk about plan's for the next year will also help save time and money when you're ready to start doing more planning.

Kids Christmas Party
Kids Christmas Party

Planning A Kids Christmas Party

Whether you're a teacher, a parent, or the family member that has been put in charge of the party planning this year, you'll want to make sure that the kids Christmas party that you host is a big hit.

Here are some great ideas that you can use to make sure that your students and family members have a great time.

Consider the ages of the children that you're throwing the kids Christmas party for. If the party will be attended by mostly toddlers, you will definitely need to have some interactive games that will keep children entertained for at least an hour.

Playing familiar children's Christmas carols during the party will keep your little guests happy and children, and you should encourage them to sing along. Make sure that you ask the parents of the children that will be attending if you need to prepare food for those with food allergies. You want to make sure that each child can enjoy the party, and that they don't feel out of place by not being able to enjoy some of the holiday fare.

Older children may enjoy doing some crafts during the kids Christmas party. You can bake a batch of sugar cookies in the shape of Christmas trees, ornaments, or reindeer, and provide ingredients for the children to decorate the cookies any way they want.

Things like icing in white, red, and green colors, as well as hard candies, peppermints, and gum drops can be used to decorate the cookies, and you can sing Christmas carols with the kids while they make their own version of holiday cookies.

Purchasing a few small Christmas trees for children to decorate during the kids Christmas party is a great idea as well. You can break the kids into teams, and time them to see who can create the best tree decorations. Give out prizes for the most creative designs, and make sure that the party favors that you send the children home with are in keeping with the tree decorating theme. You can also purchase some solid colored ornaments and have the kids decorate them with paints, glitter, and stencils.

Make sure that you're working with parents as much as possible when you're organizing a kids Christmas party. If you're having the celebration for your students, notify the parents of the event as far in advance as possible, and ask that they bring decorations, or items that will help you to set the table for your student's Christmas dinner.

If you need help coming up with ideas for the party, your team of parents can also help you to create engaging themes that the little ones will love.

Christmas Office Party
Christmas Office Party

Christmas Office Party

It's been a great year for your small business, and you want to let your employees know how much their hard work has meant to you.

Having a create Christmas office party is a great way to do this, so you should get started right away to make sure that you can organize a celebration that your employees will definitely appreciate.

If you have a small staff, you may want to arrange to have your Christmas office party at an upscale restaurant in town. Make reservations as early as you possibly can to increase the likelihood of having the party on the day that you want.

You should also make sure that you're as aware as possible of your staff's eating habits or dietary restrictions. Choose a restaurant that has a number of dishes for vegetarians or people with food allergies, and enforce a dress code if you want the party to be especially sophisticated or formal.

You should also think about whether or not you want the Christmas office party to be for employees and their families, or employees only. This will likely have a lot to do with the restaurant that you choose.

The Christmas office party should also be a time for employees to really have a good time, instead of a stuffy event that everyone feels uncomfortable at. Ask your coworkers what they would like do to during the party, and if they have any locations in mind.

The holiday party is, in some ways, a reflection of the office culture, and you want each of your employees to leave the party having had a good time. Asking for opinions during the planning process will increase the likelihood that everyone will enjoy themselves, and will take some of the pressure off of you.

Make sure that you decide whether or not there will be gifts at the Christmas office party as early as you can. This will give employees time to find acceptable presents,and you can have a gift exchange so that everyone will only be responsible for only purchasing one gift.

As the boss, it is proper etiquette for you to purchase a small gift for each of your workers, as well as a card thanking them for their services. Your gift can be a small token of appreciation, or you can buy gift cards for each of your employees.

Baked goods also make great Christmas gifts, so baking a batch of cookies and wrapping them in decorative paper for each of your coworkers is a great idea. Take a poll of your employees' favorite treats as well, so that you'll know which gifts will be a hit at your Christmas office party.

Holiday Party Ideas
Holiday Party Ideas

More Holiday Party Ideas

If you're planning a Christmas party for your friends and family this year, one of your main concerns is probably making sure that everyone is entertained.

There are lots of ways to find holiday party game ideas, especially if you start early. And if you don't find suggestions that you think would work for your party, you can use a little creativity to come up with some great games yourself.

Think about the type of people that will attending your party this year. Are you hosting a celebration for a group of friends that is especially sophisticated, you may not need to come up with too many 'games'. Activities that will help to break the ice and introduce guests to one another would probably be best.

For instance, you can write the names of your guests down on strips of paper and have each party-goer choose a name from a hat. Each guest will have to find the person on their sheet of paper, and spend a few minutes getting to know the person. After time is up, all the names are returned to the hat, and guests draw a new name to get to know someone else.

Some holiday party game ideas will get your guests excited about attending the party before the actual event. For instance, you can have a holiday cookie party, where guests have to bring their most original holiday dessert creations.

You can give out prizes for the cookie that is decorated the best, the best tasting cookie, or the cookie with the most original ingredients. This is also a great idea if you're hosting a party for young children. This will give kids a way to be interactive both before and during the party, and food is always a great tool to bring people together, no matter what their age.

Coming up with holiday party game ideas for a family party can be challenging as well. This is mainly because most people don't think they have to plan structured activities for family during the holidays.

However, having a formal party is a great way to create some Christmas memories that your children will remember for the rest of their lives. Come up with games that are kid-friendly, such as a relay race to decorate cookies or Christmas trees. You can even have a karaoke hour, where members of the family can sing Christmas carols in their own special way.

Once you've come up with holiday party game ideas that you're satisfied with, you should make sure that your decorations, party favors, and party food are up to par. While the games will be entertaining, nothing makes a party like great food and a guest list that everyone feels comfortable with. Happy holidays!

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)