How To Organize Christmas Parties

Organize a wintery sleigh ride.

       A house party at Christmas affords the young people of the family a chance to be entertained and cheery for a weekend or more. The charm of a house party is in the bringing together of congenial guests who spend several days with their hosts. When the girls or boys return from college or boarding school for the holidays they often bring with them as guests classmates whose homes are too remote to make it worth whole for them to take a long and expensive journey for the recess. The girl and the boy who hail from the west and attend an eastern school of learning, may be forced to spend a homesick holiday if no comrade tenders an invitation to join a family group.

       Outdoor sports, skating, coasting, tobogganing and sleigh riding are the pastimes of the country, while the city offers sight-seeing, music and the other diversions. Storytelling around a bonfire in Southern states is sure to be a favorite feature of the festivity and ice skating parties are certainly typical of those folks who live up North. Daily excursions such as these are thankfully hosted and organized by others: all you really need to think about is how and when to provide transportation. However, hosting house parties will take a bit of personal planning in advance.

       The long evenings at home, the little parties invited to meet the visitors, and the whole merry and swiftly passing time make a Christmas house-party one of the gala seasons of the year. The housekeeper finds that her provision for the table must be ample. Her pies and cakes disappear like magic, for young people are noted for good appetites. I will links to ideas and helpful ways to organize these home parties below.

       Tableaux, charades and conundrums are among the amusements appropriate to such a parties and I keep an updated listing of ideas for these entertainments here. 

Traditional Outdoor Christmas Parties:

• Christmas bonfires keep Mississippi River Glowing
• A Winter Ice Skating Party
• Horse-Drawn Sleigh Rides in Cedarburg
• How to Plan a Winter Sledding Party 
• A birthday sledding party
  

Traditional Christmas Ideas for A House Party:

• Jesse Tree Ornament Exchange Party
• Christmas party ideas and holiday entertaining tips
• 5 Ideas for an open-house Christmas party
• How-To: Host a cookie themed open house
• A Holiday Open-House Party Checklist
• Christmas Party Ideas
• Fun and Easy Christmas Party Ideas
• Ornament/Gift Exchange Game
• Holiday wrap 'n yap
• Delightfully Sweet Gingerbread House Decorating Party

"GHRI Food Director Susan Westmoreland shares her favorite cookie recipes and shows you how to host a cookie swap."