Last Minute Holiday Party Tips and Tricks

I’m gearing up to host our annual Christmas Eve get together with my side of the family. Even though not everyone can attend, our “” of family members still consists of 30 people, so I am rushing around putting my creative juices into high gear trying to make this a creative, yet meaningful evening. I can’t wait to share what we do, but that will have to wait or it’ll ruin the surprise.

How can it be that with only days before Christmas, I am still tweaking my decorations? I was two weeks behind in my decorating this year, and I want to squeeze in every last minute of festive decor. So I compiled a few of my suggestions for last minute party ideas, mainly in the decoration department.

Gather all your Extra Ornaments (or pick them up at the Dollar Store)

I’ve already shared in my “Real Life” Christmas Home Tour how I have been adding Christmas ornaments to every nook and cranny of our home. It’s such an easy and frugal way to dress up ones home with little effort or money.

For our Candy Cane Kids theme table, I purchased these great Ikea lanterns for only $1 at a summer yard sale. I used one of my aprons, yes, my apron for the red and white striped runner and then filled the thrifted bowl with more ornaments.

Light All your Candles

I have candles everywhere throughout our home. One of my friends arrived five minutes early to my Ladies’ Christmas party that I hosted this week, and she graciously spent another ten minutes lighting all my candles. Candles make such a difference. Light them liberally around your home.

Since I burn so many candles, I often have older candles that look quite ugly on the inside. I decided to give my old candles an extra special makeover, and I rubbed the Vaseline jelly on the outside of the candles and then sprinkled them with glitter.

It gave the appearance of a high end, expensive candle, yet the best part is that I can wipe the Vaseline Petroleum Jelly off and switch out the colors for various themes.

I did some with white glitter (as seen above), red for the candy cane table and gold for a festive, holiday look on my dining room table.

Grab your Cloth Napkins

I just shared a post on how to dress up your table in minutes with an easy napkin fold.

Taking just a few seconds to learn this technique can take a typical table to a beautiful tablescape. I’ve included a video of me sharing some simple tips and tricks on how this easy napkin fold will transform your table.

Open up your cabinets and use your glass dishes.

Don’t let those “special dishes” go to waste. Use them and serve everything in miscellaneous bowls, cups, vases – yes, even your chips.

This is where I love shopping thrift stores for last minute decor treasures. The glassware section is always filled. You can check out my “Trash to Treasure Glassware” post and video to see what I do for my tablescapes.

Dig out some old frames

A fun and easy idea is to create a photo booth. My friend inspired me to give this a try for our party. I am going to have large frames for group pictures, and raiding our dress up box for creative and crazy pictures will be so much fun. I’m going to have reindeer antlers, feather boas, old fashioned hats and plenty of Christmas attire. Maybe even ugly, tacky Christmas sweaters would be a hit.

Don’t forget to make your young daughters feel like movie stars with their own “make up” box handy to primp before the big photo shoot. Pageant girls know to always have their Vaseline Petroleum Jelly ready to create shiny lips and now that I know the trick of adding color and glitter to my jelly, I’ll never go back to sheer.

Source

I’m amazed over and over at all the wonderful ideas that I have implemented with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, and it’s something that most people have stocked all the time. These Homemade, Kool-Aid Flavored Lip glosses are adorable. I can only imagine how they will go crazy for Cherry Flavored lip gloss. What a great craft idea that would be at any girl’s birthday party.

Are you still scrambling for last minute party ideas or you able to settle in and relax already?

I am so excited to host our family and know that it’s truly about being together that makes all the difference, although the little touches make it a bit more magical.