Hi All,

I had been busy with planning a small and simple birthday party for my little girl. With office and home schedules, it was a task to organise everything.
This blog was mainly created to share ideas hence, I am uploading some pictures which may give some ideas on a christmas birthday party.

A) Invites
I used a simple white cardstock paper to print the invites as home. I made the christmas trees with glitter foam and pasted them onto the card separately for effect. The red satin ribbon gave a nice final touch.
Here’s how they looked.

B) Decorations
This time there were no balloons. I made a Santa at home with a badminton shuttle cock, some red felt cloth, cotton, cardboard, googly eyes and a luggage tag belt. Here it is,
 
 
Only home made decorations with Christmas themed papermania papers and glittery foam cut into circles and stars.

 
 
We set up a christmas tree in the living room with lights and decorations.
 
 
One tree we set up just outside the house to give a “welcome to a christmas party” effect.
A simple holly outside on the door and a snowman to welcome. (My neighbour had some artificial snow that looked fantastic. I don’t know exactly what it was but after mixing with water, it gave a wonderful real snow effect to our trees).
 
 
 
We distributed santa caps to everyone. One of my friend had also made some lovely reindeer antler hairbands and two big white snowflakes. Our birthday girl was dressed in christmas colors of red and white and a santa cap.
 
C) Menu
As the duration of the party was only from 5.00 to 6.30 pm, we had organised dry snacks in boxes. The menu consisted of lemonade, cheese croissant, vegetable pattis, chocolate doughnut, cake and wafers. The cake was lovely.
 
 
 
D) Games
The kids who came were of varying age groups hence, we had kept two different activities. For the younger age group ( many of them also came with their moms), we had cut scotchbrite scrub pads into christmas tree shape. They could sit wherever they wanted and decorate it with different stickers, colorful bindis and stars. For the older group, a treasure hunt with 8 simple clues was organised outside the flat, in the lobby. The treasure was a box of chocolates which they all shared. This way, the kids were busy and there was enough space for everyone to move about without getting claustrophobic.
 
E) Return gifts.
Return gifts were also simple craft books or animal photoframes for younger kids and assorted stationery for older kids. With each packet, I added a mini holly. I used simple brown paper bags and tied them up with colorful satin ribbons. I used an image from internet and made a thankyou sticker to be added to the return gift.
 
 
One thing was also very useful and sometimes we forget this. I had bought a good happy birthday songs CD for kids.
 
Tips for improvement:
Although, the time specified was 5.00 to 6.30 pm, many guests came at different time intervals. As a filler for this extension, I should have organised at least two more games / activities.
During their foodies time, a good 10 minute cartoon would also be helpful to settle them down.
 
I hope the guests enjoyed the party and Thanks to my friends who helped me set up the party. I also hope that reading all this will help you create your own ideas for your party
 
Love,
Poornima