Practical tips, tricks, recipes, and decoration ideas to help you throw a kick-ass party.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Holiday Traditions

Well, it's now a couple days past Thanksgiving. Did you all enjoy your holiday? We had wonderful time with family, and now we are looking forward to enjoying leftovers for the next three months. Unfortunately we ran out of leftover gravy already.

But a party hostess has no time to dwell on the parties of yesterday when there is such a festive season to come! Yay for Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Festivus)! I've heard of many fun themed events happening in the next few weeks from Cookie Exchange Parties, to a Tree Lighting Party, to an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.

But there's one I'm looking forward to most of all. My parents have thrown the same formula Christmas Party for the past TWENTY YEARS. There are some new faces every year and some people who used to come but have moved far away, but there is a group of about twenty people or more who keep getting invited and keep coming back year after year. This is a tribute to the quality of friendships that my folks maintained throughout the past two decades. (Or maybe it's just a tribute to the popularity of the super-strong hot buttered rum that is always served.)

So, I've been thinking of party traditions. The holidays are the perfect time to consider starting your own tradition. Friends and family move away and we lose touch during the year, but having an annual event in your hometown can bring everyone together. Maybe get a group of the old gang to come over for (spiked) hot chocolate and board games on Christmas night after their family obligations are finished. Or pitch the idea that all the cousins go bowling on Christmas Eve. Begin a tradition of a service project that everyone can work on together - serving a hot meal at a soup kitchen, distributing toys to local families in need, putting a care package together for our troops overseas.

Brainstorm with select friends or family to decide what fits your group best. Renew those old acquaintances this year!

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