Sweet Love and Ginger

Jessica

10 Great Christmas Party Ideas

By

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Today is a special treat! We have a guest post from Chrystina of ChrystinaNoel.com all about Christmas themed parties. Things are a little busy on me end with the holidays and all so I’m happy to have her stopping by to help me out. Enjoy!

_________________________

Hi everyone! Chrystina here, where I’ve been blogging for four years about handmade greeting cards, hosting parties, and how to stay in touch. How did JC and I become friends you might wonder? Well, about two years ago she left a comment on my about page that said, “I’m a civil engineer who likes to host parties too!” and from that moment we were friends. We’ve even managed to hang out in person a few times.

Chrystina Noel Christmas Post - JC and Chrystina

JC and I do parties a little bit differently though. JC does food. Goodness does she do food. She cooks appetizers, entrees, and desserts for as many people that will fit in her house. I tell people to eat dinner before they come so all I have to do is serve them snacks, desserts, and beverages while focusing more on the theme of the party. So today I’m here to share with you 10 ideas for themed holiday parties.

1. Engineer some Gingerbread Houses

As a civil/architectural engineer it would be a shame to not mention Gingerbread house making. Have all of your friends bring a tub of frosting and a different kind of candy and all you have to do is supply the graham crackers, plates, and holiday music. It’s a great opportunity to let out your inner architect – and get a pretty wonderful sugar high.

Chrystina Noel Christmas Post -Gingerbread

2. Sing a Song

If you’re a singer invite your friends over for a sing-a-long, especially if you have a friend who plays the piano. It’s very easy to put together a caroling book using lyric sites from the internet, or you can buy ones with the music included for cheap as well. If you’re feeling extra-inspired, try taking the act on the road and go door to door!

3. Swap Some Cookies

This is one of my favorite holiday traditions. Each year at the Christmas party my friends show up with a tray of cookies and everyone leaves with 12+ different kinds to add to their collection. Not only that, but we get a chance to try a lot of great new recipes every year to add to our collection.

Chrystina Noel Christmas Post - Cookies

4. Watch a Holiday Movie

There are so many holiday movies – from classic to corny to comedy. Have everybody bring their favorite movie and then take a vote once everybody arrives about what movie they feel like watching. Add to the holiday cheer by drinking some hot chocolate with candy canes in it or light the fireplace.

5. Write your Holiday Cards

Instead of sitting at home writing your holiday cards, why not have a party for everyone to write their holiday cards together? It’ll give everybody the chance to check something off of their to do list and catch up with each other along the way. If you want to make it extra fancy buy some holiday stickers; red, green, silver, gold, and blue fancy pens; and pretty envelopes.

Chrystina Noel Christmas Post - Cards

6. Get Together to Wrap Gifts

Another good way to check something off your to do list is to host a holiday wrapping party. If everybody brings a different kind of paper and an accessory (whether it’s ribbon, bows, or tags) you can add a lot of variety to your gifts and personalize each and every one.

7. Host a Gift Swap or Secret Santa

If you have a tight-knit group of friends, why not host a gift swap or Secret Santa to celebrate the holidays? There are so many ways to do this. You can choose the person, buy a general gift, swap the gifts, steal the gifts, or leave a series of gifts throughout the month – the possibilities are endless!

8. Decorate your Tree

Invite your friends over to help decorate the tree. Turn on some Christmas carols, drink some hot chocolate, and open up a bottle of wine to help set the mood. Then as a party favor you can give each one of your friends who helped a special ornament to take home to their own tree.

Chrystina Noel Christmas Post - Tree 2

9. Taste Some Holiday Beverages

Speaking of wine – there are so many holiday beverages out there: hot chocolate, boozy hot chocolate, spiced cider, spiked cider, eggnog, spiked egg nog, mulled wine, wassail, and a bunch of really fun cocktails. Take this opportunity to try a few you haven’t tried before and don’t usually get the opportunity to try at other points of the year.

10. Photoshoot

Set up a photo booth in your home and get some holiday props – Santa hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, reindeer antlers, holiday books, mistletoe, and bells and host your own holiday photoshoot. Use garland, banners, or curtains to create a solid backdrop and add a little bit of fun!

Chrystina Noel Christmas Party Ideas

There are so many ways to celebrate the holidays, now all you have to do is choose your favorite and start planning. And remember sometimes all it takes to celebrate the holidays is an ABC Family movie and a box of Nestle hot chocolate mix – with mini marshmallows of course.

If you’re looking for more Themed Party Ideas, check out my most recent e-book, which you can download for free at Chrystina Noel. Happy planning!

From TXSC15 650x650Chrystina is a blogger, papercrafter, and self-taught party hostess living in Philadelphia, PA. She blogs about party logistics, handmade greeting cards, and staying in touch with people you love. Interested in learning how to better stay in touch with people you love? Check out her e-book, How to Stay in Touch. You can also find Chrystina on twitter, instagram, and pinterest.

Balsamic Roast Veggie Toasts with Gruyere

By

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This is a recipe for Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Toasts, a simple appetizer that does double duty as a great vegetarian meal.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Toasts

Winter is a time of soups, stews, roasts and sweets. Savory and filling are the stars this time of year, but it’s always this time of year that I want to bring a little freshness into my life. Things like lemon, balsamic vinegar and winter fruits are defiantly requirements in my house. They add a hint of brightness, complexity and freshness that so many meals this time of year are lacking.

This recipe is pretty adaptable in that it can easily be made into a sandwich, and eaten as a main dish or when cut to size it makes a wonderful appetizer to accompany most winter meals.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetables

I love the way that the sweet balsamic melds with the stringy, salty gruyere. Using different vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, red pepper, onion or even roasted garlic only adds to the complexity of flavor and texture. I think this dish is so simple that it takes dinner party guests by surprise with its addictive flavor.

It’s also a good way to get young ones to eat their vegetables.

Balsamic Roasted Vegetable Toasts

Balsamic Roast Veggie Toasts
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 16 Servings
Ingredients
  • 8 oz broccoli florets
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced thick
  • 1 small red onion, quartered
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil (plus 1 tablespoon)
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
  • 8 slices sourdough bread, halved (or quartered depending on preference)
  • 12 oz shredded soft gruyere cheese
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425F.
  2. Spread the veggies out on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic, salt pepper and toss well to coat. Place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until the veggies have softened and begun to caramelize, tossing once halfway through. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. On a separate baking sheet spread the bread slices out and lightly brush with olive oil and place in the oven until crisp and golden, about 22 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.
  4. After the bread has rested carefully divide the veggies up evenly on each toast. Top with cheese and place back in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
  5. Serve immediately.

Similar Recipes:

Pear & Brie Toasts

Pear & Brie Toasts

Engagement Tart

Engagement Tart

4-Cheese-Red-Pepper-Dip

4 Cheese Red Pepper Dip

Recently

By

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

So November has passed and with it my favorite time of year, now we are moving into the frigid temperatures and busy holiday season. This month a lot has happened around the SL&G house.

 

I showed you all our new door and our in progress bedroom, but we still have a long way to go with this house.

We welcomed some amazing new souls into this world and I’m so excited to watch those cute little girls grow up. O hey, I’m an aunt now!!

I got to travel to CT again and hang out all weekend with some awesome people (apparently we are really bad at taking pictures, so I have none)

There was a Friends Giving celebration with another group of awesome friends and a stuffing cook off, in which I’m pretty sure we all won. #weatetoomuch

Walking the rail trail

Walking the rail trail #mileadaychallange

All the food and good times has gotten both Chuck and I thinking more about our health and the fact that we have been majorly slacking. It’s time we did something about this. I’m still working on a plan for getting through the rest of the holidays with healthy eating, but in the mean time we started the #mileadaychallange. Everyday between thanksgiving and Christmas we plan to walk at least 1 mile on top of whatever else we have done that day. We have 5 days under our belts and are still going strong.

I also took some time to analyze my diet again and talks about how much I am loving Part Time Vegetarianism.

This month was also NaNoWriMo. The month were thousands of people challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I participated last year and made it to 40k before my story ended. This year I was in no way prepared to take on this challenge so instead I decided to challenge myself to work for 10 minutes a day on one of the books I have in the works. Honestly I wasn’t able to even do this. Some days I was able to put in hours, while others Netflix won that battle. I know I could have tried harder but honestly this was the first time in months that I had time to do anything at all. That 10 minutes a day turned into time to work on passion projects of all kinds, including the blanket I mentioned above. I also got my thank you cards in so that took up some time as well. This was the creative spark that I was looking for, so I’m still calling it a win. Next year I’m going to take on this challenge and win.

Filed Under: Recently

Hand Stamped Linen Napkins

By

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

This is project number 9 in my 12-12-12 Series. This project involves hand carving rubber to create stamps for custom stamped linen napkins. 

Hand Stamping

Once in a while you hit it big, that’s something that the above picture did for me yesterday. I posted to instagram on a whim thinking this light is cool and I havent posted in a while. Well It went viral (for me that is), getting roughly 4 times the likes of any instagram post ever. If someone could tell me what it is about this picture that made it so popular that would be great.

I digress you are here to read about my most recent project right?

 Hand Stamped Linen Napkins

I had this project on my mind for a while. In fact I bought the stuff to make it way back in June, however as you can probably guess life took over, I lost the kit in the move for a while and so I never got to actually do anything with it until now. I really liked this craft and I definitely believe that it is something I would do again, probably in the near future, when I get an actual dinning room table (finger crossed we find one we like soon!).

This project was pretty easy so I thought I’d break it down into simple steps for you.

  1. I bought this kit (Speedball Speedy Carve Stamp Making Kit).
  2. Next I drew the design that I wanted and carefully carved it with the tools in the kit and used scissors to cut out the final design.
  3. I used fabric paint and a cheap foam roller from the craft store to roll the paint onto the stamp.
  4. Carefully placed the stamp onto the fabric and applied light pressure.
  5. Once dry I ironed the fabric where the stamp was placed and tossed it into the wash to make sure it had set.

Hand Stamped Linen

I was really happy with how these turned out. I like the kind of worn in look that they have and think that they will go great in my dining room, once it’s back together. The napkins I bought in white from your typical box store, since I didn’t want to spend to much money on this first trial run. The next napkins will probably be on a littler better quality linen.

Have you been working on any new projects lately? I need some ideas for the last few projects in this series and I’d love to see what you guys are into.

Check out my other craft projects here.

Leftover Turkey & Stuffing Casserole

By

This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Leftover Turkey & Stuffing Casserole

This is my version of one of my favorite childhood recipes, though I used to call it something a little less savory. You see this dish never really had the best looks since it’s all kind of monochromatic. I used to think it looked like vomit, which is not something you want to think about before you put the thing in your mouth, but in reality it was always a house favorite, because it’s delicious….

Read More