{Advent Calendar Party}

Want a fun way to invite the Christmas season into your home? And have lots of fun with your friends at the same time?

Host an Advent Calendar Party!

A what did you say?

A party where you make a simple Advent Calendar. Now, these Advent calendars weren't intended to hold goodies, chocolates or toys. These where intended to hold slips of paper with family activities written on them. One activity per day.

I searched online for fun, simple and creative Advent calendars that could be created in a short amount of time. I emailed out suggestions (1 and 2) to everyone and I also asked everyone to think about what activities they wanted to put in their calendars (I think that's the hard part).

I tried making a few of the calendars ahead of time to see if they were really doable in a short amount of time (2 hours) and I realized that I needed to find a different idea (especially since we were in Michigan visiting family over the Thanksgiving holiday and I wouldn't have much prep time). A miracle happened while I was shopping at Michael's on Black Friday and I found tiny paper bags- 25 per package. Talk about a miracle! I decided then that my party guests would be invited to decorate these bags with numbers (1-25) and embellishments. Perfect!

Some of the guests brought various scrapbooking tools...but this was a great way to use the scrapbooking materials I've gathered over the years. And guess what that means? I can go get new stuff!!!!

Clever Anuschka brought her own pretty envelopes to decorate. Love those vivid vibrant colors!
Bunch of busy crafters.

The food spread...I think we had enough cheese, crackers, veggies, fruits and baked goodies to feed a small army. I also had mulled apple cider (and coffee, tea, and milk). Too bad I didn't get a close up photo of the food before we started snacking. Maybe next time. Do you see the vase filled with lovely flowers and greenery? Mark gave me a bouquet! :)

We had several kids come along with their moms to the event. The older ones participated with the advent calendar decorating and the younger ones got to watch some Christmas movies, go outside and play (it was a beautiful warm and sunny day!), play inside, and dress up....

Funny Lilly! That's one fancy kitty cat riding a tricycle!

I also found this Christmas-theme coloring sheet roll at Michael's. The kids all got crayons and went to town coloring it (while a movie was playing).

I'm so proud of my friend Dani! This is the first craft project I've seen her complete!

Emily showing off her lovely creations!

Anuschka's String of Envelopes! I felt that the party was a huge success. I'll admit that I'm a rather nervous hostess. I think the last party I hosted was two years ago. I will also admit that the calendars took a lot longer to create than I had anticipated but we had plenty of food and the kids were entertained so all was good. I always feel that since my house isn't picture perfect I can't have people over but I guess that's not very important in the scheme of things. I did try to get out a few Christmas decorations (I only had a few hours on Monday to decorate).

There are a few things I'd do differently next time. One of them is to make sure Annika isn't aware that I'm hosting a get together for our friends so that she'll say she doesn't feel well to her teacher at school and thus making me late for my own party. Sigh. No- she wasn't sick but I brought her home anyway. She was confined to her room for the day (for two reasons).

So what was the family activity for December 1st in my own calendar? Color Christmas coloring sheets together. Fun and simple.

I promise I'll take photos of the calendars I've made....just haven't gotten around to doing that yet!

ETA- Here are the calendars I made!

This post was shared with the Holiday Inspiration Blog Party at Your Home, Only Better and with A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day Blog Party.