Are you planning a holiday party to end all holiday parties? Use these tips to incorporate every celebration into one!
Every year, I get so excited looking forward to our Christmas celebration. Seeing friends and family is the cornerstone to the holiday season, after all! But how do you throw a big celebration with friends when they don’t share your traditions?
With the help of some creativity, there are a few enhancements you can make to a Christmas party that will make it everyone’s favorite celebration. Follow these four tips to throw your own big multi-holiday party, and it may become an entirely new tradition for your friends and family.
1. Don’t lose your Christmas Spirit.
Your first reaction might be to feel a little bummed that your friends don’t celebrate this time of year the same way. Remember that it’s your excitement in Christmas that you’re trying to bring to a new party theme.
If you’re set on having your Christmas party, then you could also host your multi-holiday party after Christmas once things have calmed down and you have a chance to invite all of your friends over for a fun time.
2. Create shared spaces of multi-holiday décor.
When you arrive at a holiday party, do you expect each faith to stand in a separate corner of the room? Of course not! That’s why creating hubs of decorations will bring the party to life.
It’s also a lot of fun to create a mix of symbols in one place because it’s unexpected and calls for plenty of creativity. Here are a few quick ideas to get you started:
- Separate the figures in your nativity scene and spread them around the party space to represent Christmas.
- Incorporate a menorah, gold coins, dreidels, and Star of David crafts in the same spaces to represent Hanukah.
- Incorporate straw mats, beads, fruit and vegetable bowls, and a chalice as the unity cup to represent Karumu, the ritual feast of Kwanzaa.
The colors of Kwanzaa are red, green and black, similar to Christmas, while the colors of Hanukkah are generally blue and silver. Tall candles are used for both Kwanzaa and Hanukkah as well.
The Chinese New Year occurs on a different day each year between late January and early February, but could be included in your décor by representing the animal of the year. 2018 is the year of the dog and 2019 is year of the pig.
There are many more popular holidays that you could also represent such as Boxing Day, St. Lucia Day or even Mardi Gras. Another fun holiday is Festivus, a celebration that originated from the show Seinfeld. This celebration involves a standing metal pole, meatloaf for dinner, and the tradition of venting about the worst parts of the year.
3. Decorate with neutral colors, metals and lights.
Rather than just decorating your tree with lights, drape your lights around the party space. Using string lights will make the space feel more magical without assigning it to one holiday. Most holidays incorporate candles as well for the Winter Solstice.
Snowmen and snow globes both make great multi-holiday decorations. Any décor that focuses on winter with white snow or the New Year with silver and gold will help tie together the theme.
4. Play group games that everyone is familiar with.
While your decorations will invite guests into the holiday spirit, your party games serve as the traditions. The best multi-holiday games are familiar to all guests, so everyone can play, and are standard party games that you can add holiday themes to.
- Holiday Bingo – Use our instructions to print your own bingo cards, then add your own multi-holiday words to the word sheet. Use M&Ms to fill the squares.
- Ugly Sweater Contest – Have your guests wear their ugliest holiday sweaters, and then give out a prize to the best one.
- Pin the Nose on the Rudolph – Print out your own Rudolph and noses with our materials. This is a fun kid’s game, and can also be a fun drinking game.
- White Elephant Gift Swap – Ask your guests to bring a present under $20, then everyone will draw numbers to take turns choosing a gift.
Do you have your own décor ideas for throwing a multi-holiday party? Share with us in the comments!