Our Last Minute, No Stress Holiday Party Idea

Anyone who knows me can vouch for my love of entertaining. Nothing makes me happier than a house full of friends, and a kitchen full of food! This year though, I just couldn’t bring myself to put on a big holiday party.holiday party evite

When I told the kids we were going to pass on having a Christmas party, they were gutted. They totally understood that mom is very very tired this year, but I could see how disappointed they were – especially Zara. Just when I was about to cave and say yes to the big production, the folks at Evite reached out to see if I’d like to share some ideas for putting together a holiday party on the fly.

holiday party evite[Some crafting, some observing, and some ‘snapchatting’ in the back!]

The ask was simple (and kind of hard). Spend a maximum of $100 and get a few friends together for a holiday party on short notice. Zara and I accepted the challenge, and planned a party around our favourite mother daughter activity; crafting!

holiday-party-evite[Zara helped me create the invite, and she loved watching friends and family members send responses, and RSVP!]

holiday party evite

We decided to ask a handful of friends to come by and help us create DIY ornaments for our tree. We picked three relatively easy DIYs that could be done with clear Christmas ornaments and didn’t require any special crafting skills. 

holiday party evite
holiday party evite

holiday party evite

The menu was super low fuss – hot cocoa and cupcakes while crafting, and good old spaghetti and meatballs for lunch. We bought mostly everything pre-cooked or assembled, and spent our morning focused on making crafts with our guest instead of worrying about lunch. 

evite holiday party
evite holiday party
evite holiday party

The kids obviously enjoyed it, but I loved seeing so many adults crowded around the table trying their hand at melted wax and pom pom ornaments! Sometimes we forget how fun a little arts & crafts time can be. 

As someone that always goes all out with entertaining it was hard for me to keep things simple. But there was two surprising results from the $100 challenge; Zara loved working on a budget and keeping track of everything we spent, and a simplified meal and activity plan meant I wasn’t exhausted the day after the party!

evite-photos

After the party, we all uploaded our pictures onto the Evite site so that all of the guests could see them, and also sent out thank you cards directly from the site. If you are short on time and planning a holiday party on the fly, sending out invitations through Evite is so helpful. It saves the time of calling or texting everyone individually and gives you a space where everyone can share pictures easily. 

After our relaxed holiday party, we are planning to take it slow for the rest of the festive season, what are your plans for the holidays?

*This post is brought to you by Evite, however, all opinions are my own. 

http://www.evite.com/c/evite-holiday-party-fly?utm_source=influencerpost&utm_campaign=HolidayParty_Dec_2016&utm_medium=blog&utm_content=pinkchaimedia

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1 Comment

  1. December 13, 2016 / 12:55 pm

    Sounds like a fun party and I love all the ornaments!

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