Making a List... and Checking it Twice: List of Holiday Theme Parties

You know what's going to happen this Sunday night after trick or treating? The instant Halloween is over, Christmas will be everywhere... music in the grocery stores, ads on TV, the works! As much as you may want to ignore it... it will be here sooner than we think! So, no procrastinating this year. Here's a list of Holiday Theme Party Ideas.... I'm sure one of these ideas will be a perfect way to ring in the Holiday season with friends and family!

12 Days of Christmas Party - Partridge in a Pear Tree, Lords a Leaping, Maids a Milking, 5 Golden Rings and more... think of all the great imagery and decorations that could be used for this party! Also, it could be a lot of fun to have a scavenger hunt too!

Jingle Bells Party - Bells, bells and more bells will make this a festive party.

Oh Christmas Tree (O Tannembaum) Party - This could be a party specifically for decorating the tree, or a party just centered around the gorgeous holiday tree, either way, the tree gets to take center stage.

Deck the Halls - House Decorating or Tree Trimming Party - All will love to join in the festive spirit and deck the halls with merriment. You can have most of the decorations complete, and have folks help out with the final touches, or have guests make their own ornaments to bring home.

Caroling Party - When was the last time people came by your house to sing carols? Start the tradition this year, and your whole neighborhood will remember. After caroling, head back inside for warm treats and hot cocoa.

Frosty the Snowman Party - Decorate a snow man, watch the old holiday show, or make snow man as part of craft activity.

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer Party - Who wouldn't want to come to a party and play reindeer games?! All will love this party based on the nostalgic TV show!

Angelic "Rejoice" Party - "Angels we have heard on high" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" are just a few of the Christmas carols that come to mind that speak of angels. Deck your holiday house with silvers, light blues and etherial fabrics and accessories for this angelic affair!

Better Not Pout- Santa Claus is Coming to Town Party - The star of this party is definitely Santa and his arrival! A good old fashioned party with Santa Claus will bring smiles to all ages.

Naughty and Nice List Party - All will have fun sharing their nice list, and possibly their naughty list at a party filled with revelry and silliness.

Joy to the World/Peace on Earth Party - Peace symbols abound, this holiday party will celebrate peace on earth and good will towards men. It could even be a party where gifts are brought, then donated to a charity!

Presents, Packages & Bows Gift Exchange Party - Everyone loves getting a little gift... and a Holiday Gift Exchange is the perfect venue. Fill the space with packages and bows, and it will feel just like Christmas morning!

Hot Cocoa Bar and Dessert Party - Fill a bar of delicious morsels perfect for putting in a nice mug of hot cocoa, and layer your tiered plates full of delicious deserts. This will be a party that will warm up anyone!

Holiday Cocktail Party - Egg Nog, Spiced Rum and a Hot Toddy too... Get out the martini glasses and cocktail recipe book and have an 50's style Holiday Cocktail party with all the traditional standbys, and new concoctions too!

Let it Snow Snowflake Party - Decorate your space with snowflakes galore... falling from the ceiling, scattered on the table and floor with twinkle lights in abound... If you're lucky enough, it may even snow on the day of your party! This glittery, snowy party will put all in the mood for the Holiday season.

Nutcracker Party - Get out all your holiday Nutcrackers, put on the music from the ballet, and have yourself a Nutcracker party-- just like the party in the performance!

Messiah/Classical Holiday Music Party - Set an elegant buffet, play the beautiful classical music and enjoy the holiday season with friends and family!

Holiday Cookie and Dessert Party - Cake stands filled with delicious offerings, tiered platters with holiday morsels! This party will be perfect for all your sweet tooth friends and family.

Cookie Exchange Party - Who wouldn't want to come to a dessert or cookie exchange party. You bring a dozen cookies and leave with much more! A delicious holiday tradition.

Gingerbread Cookie Decorating Party - Hand make the gingerbread, or buy them undecorated, set out the decorations and frosting and have friends and family join in the fun of decorating the cookies! The best part of this party is you get to leave with lots of new friends-- your gingerbread cookies.

Gingerbread House Making Party - A holiday tradition for many, instead of just decorating a gingerbread house with your family, make it a party by inviting friends and family to come a decorate their gingerbread house too! After they are complete, set them up and take a picture of your Christmas village!

Holiday Baking Party - Get out the aprons and mixing bowls and invite friends over for a fun holiday baking party. Each person can bring their favorite recipe and ingredients and make them all together as a group. At the end, share the recipes and the tasty treats with everyone!

Old Fashioned Dickens' Christmas Party - A Victorian affair, filled with vintage charm is a great way to celebrate the season!

A North Pole Party with Santa, Mrs. Clause and the Elves - Transform your party space into the North Pole for a whimsical, festive affair all ages will have fun at!

Santa's Toy Workshop Party - Scatter vintage style toys around, and set up tinker workstations-- your holiday party setting is Santa's toy workshop, what a fun sight it will be!

Star of Bethlehem/Creche Party - This party is perfect for after the children's Christmas pageant at school or church. Set out your creche scene at the center of your serving table, play some traditional holiday music and enjoy the season with friends and family.

Popcorn and Cranberry Garland Making Party - Set out bowls of popcorn, cranberries and string and have guests make garland for your tree or for them to take home and put on theirs. You can offer different items to make other types of garland, like a bead garland or a candy garland.

Tartan Christmas Party - Tartan red and black is definitely the fabric for the Holidays. Have folks dress in their best Tartan and set you space up in reds and black. All will love the look and the fun!

Letter to Santa Party - Throw your holiday party early this year and have guests write their letters to Santa all together. Provide stationery, envelopes and stamps, as well as delicious treats and share your holiday wishes together!

Stockings by the Fire Party - Nothing says the holidays like a stockings hung carefully by a warm fire. Have guests bring their stocking, make a stocking or just come and get a treat from one of your stockings at your holiday party!

Mittens Party - Pin woolen mittens on strings throughout the space at this mitten party... when guests leave, have them take a pair home to keep warm!

Candy Cane or Ribbon Candy Party - Red and white and full of delight-- ribbon candy and candy canes are traditional symbols of the holiday season. Decorate your space filled with these candies, serve peppermint cocoa, and other treats and ring in the holiday season.

Sugarplum Candy Dessert Party - Jars and jars of candies should fill your space for this sugary sweet dessert party, no one will want to miss!

Twas the Night Before Christmas Party - Take cue for the old story for decorating and activity ideas! Wear a stocking or cap, hang sugarplums and candies, and definitely have Santa show up... a fun party for all to remember.

Sledding Party - If you live in snow country, gather friends and family at the local hill, set up some hot cocoa and treats and have a fun sledding party to celebrate the holiday season!

Christmas Ornament Making Party - Set up tables and have guests come and decorate ornaments to take home. Make sure to date the ornaments so you remember the party for years to come.

Elegant Damask Holiday Party - Get out the china and crystal, light the candles, and throw an elegant holiday party for your friends and family. We don't get dressed up nearly enough these days, so make sure folks know to wear their holiday best!

Holiday Craft or Card Making Party - Set out the craft tables, put out the art fixings and have friends come over for an afternoon or evening of crafting fun. You can create small gifts for friends and family or make cards. Have guests bring their favorite art supply to share.

Holidays Around the World Party: Celebration of Holiday Traditions Around the World - Spend some time researching holiday traditions around the world, and throw a party where you celebrate these great festivities. Not only will you educate your guests, but all will have fun in the process!

Tacky Christmas Outfit Party - Pull out that tacky holiday sweater and tie, and head over for some retro 1950's hors d'oeurves and laughs at this Tacky Christmas party. Make sure to bring the poloroid for some classic party shots!

Ornament Exchange Party - Wrap up a festive ornament and bring it to this party for an ornament exchange. All will have fun celebrating with friends and family, then leave with a treat for their tree at home.

Christmas Train/Polar Express Party - Set up the train under the tree, and invite all to a Polar Express, holiday train party. Old fashioned train tickets will be the perfect invite for this holiday affair.

Holiday Lights Party - Set out the strings of lights, and have friends and family decorate away. Or, if you live in an area that has a decorated street, after some time eating at home, head out on a walk with your party and enjoy the night and Christmas lights in your neighborhood.

Now, time to start planning... Happy Holidays!

...weekly roundup...

Can you believe it's already October? It seems like just the other day I was lamenting how summer was ending, and now I'm full swing into Fall and excited about it! Pumpkins, Halloween costumes, and the Holiday rush ahead! Well, enough getting ahead of myself... time to slow down and share some highlights from the week:

• A vintage style Sports Ticket Invitation is my latest new addition to my Etsy shop.
• This week I highlighted many great Sports Party ideas-- games, a printable Sports Name Game activity, decoration ideas and more.
• Have you seen Cathe Holden's blog/website, Just Something I Made? One of my all time favorites. She's such a talented designer and so many ideas! You must check it out.
• Martha and her crew are up to it again-- have you seen this very cute Chalkboard Banner/Bunting? 
• Yum, yum, I saw this delicious recipe for a Salted Golden Carmel Bar online this week-- it's basically a gourmet Rice Krispy treat. I think I need to make it this weekend!

Have a great weekend!

...weekly roundup...

10 Years Since Camp Nutenbeier-- My Summer Camp Wedding

It's been a busy week here at B.Nute productions. Lots of work, and new items posted. Below is a round up of the latest and greatest:

• I've been a busy bee trying to update my website full of great party ideas, holiday party ideas, party resources, and of course very cool designs! Check it out.
• I've been wanting to create a series of Paper Doll Party Invitations... and finally have had the opportunity. This week I posted a Halloween Paper Doll Costume Party invitation. I love how it turned out. Keep posted for the next ones to come... a Wedding Shower Paper Doll Party, Baby Shower Paper Doll Party, Princess Paper Doll Party, etc.!
• My son's {very belated} birthday party is coming up... a Pro Sports Championship party... new invite too. I'll post it soon!
• Preppy is back, and I'm ready... Check out my new Preppy Paisley party invites- perfect for a wedding shower, baby shower, birthday or any occassion!

I'm looking forward to the weekend... my husband and I are going to get a chance to celebrate 10 wonderful years! Can't wait for many, many more...

For Your Amusement- Cool Exhibit

While travelling the other day through SFO, I got to check out a very cool exhibit of vintage slot machines.


They all had great graphics on them... Hard to capture, but here's a little taste.



This one would look great in a casino at North Shore Lake Tahoe.



A great Halloween one...



Art Deco style too...

So, if you're travelling United in or out of SFO, be sure to check it out!

... and let the shopping frenzy begin

Assorted Rosie Flo Colouring Books

It's time... Halloween is over and the holiday season is in full swing (eeeghads, how early it begins!) So, to help you out in the shopping madness, I'm going to highlight over the next couple weeks some GREAT finds... at least I think they're pretty neat!

First off is Rosie Flo. I just stumbled upon this colouring (yes, it's British) book at a local book store (in California) and couldn't put it down! Should I let me daughter have this, or should I keep it for myself??!! :)

Sample (low resolution, sorry) Image from Rosie Flo's Animal Colouring Book

Such incredibly creative drawings that you color in. You also have the task of adding a head, legs and arms... anything goes. The book themes are great-- the image above is from the animal coloring book. All the fancy dresses are some type of animal, or animal theme (see above, the bee hive, and the bug wings...)

So, check out the Rosie Flo website, and make sure to get one of these books for that artist in your life... young or old!!

P.S., I found my copy at a local bookstore, but I also found it on Amazon as well.

Jars, Jars and More Jars

To go along with my last post...

how 'bout adding some jars to that game room motif?

Wouldn't these look cute on the mantle,

in a bookshelf or on a side table?

Game pieces are always a hit,

but what about these croquet balls too.

Great vintage wood balls...

I love this idea too!

Cards from any questionare-type game

would be a great addition to my family's dining room table.

It would be really fun at a dinner party as well!

And, then there's the paint brushes in jars...

this may not go well in the newly anointed game room,

but sure could make a great arrangement

pretty much anywhere.

Think of all the rest of the jar decorating possibilities throughout the year...

• Halloween- candy corns, spooky fake spiders, toy eyeballs, etc.
• Thanksgiving - small gourds, fall leaves, acorns, nuts, etc.
• Christmas - ribbon candy, peppermints, small ornaments, bells, tinsel, etc.

and the list goes on.

Have you used jars to decorate in your home? What do you put in them?

Pictures above were taken at Martis Camp, Lake Tahoe.

Themes Aren’t for Everyone... or Are They?

So, I have to tell a story... I love this story, it makes me smile in satisfaction every time I think of it!

For my wedding, I did the theme-thing... I know, you’re thinking, “eeeeghads, she’s one of those types of people...” I think I could get away with the theme-thing for a wedding in my family because a) I’m the youngest of 4, so our family had experienced many traditional weddings, and a theme would be a good change... and b) I’m the “artist-one”, so I could get away with it!!

We had our wedding weekend up in Lake Tahoe, California. A place that holds so many memories for me, from the time I was a baby, to even living up there a couple years right after college. I decided on going with an “old time Tahoe”/summer camp theme. Think of the rustic lodge-look, mixed with that Tatum O’Neill/Kristy McNickel movie about coming of age in summer camp. I wanted that. Sophistication, fun and maybe a little wild behavior too! :)

As I dove into creating the theme; grouping the guests into “cabins”, coming up with camp activities like knot tying, lanyards, learning guitar, and creating boy scout inspired badge books for each guest, I got a little feedback from my father, one who’s opinion I always take to heart.

He said, “I think your ideas are great, this will be so much fun, but when I think of many of our friends that we’ve invited, I just don’t know how many will really participate, Sweetie. I’d expect only 20-30% or so. Will that be OK with you?”

“Yes.” I said... I heard him, I’d be OK with that, but I thought, maybe he’s wrong with this one??

Sure enough, the participation was AMAZING... 100% if not even more. We ran out of boy scout badges! My husband’s elderly grandfather and my grandmother were giving it their all learning guitar chords... one of my mom’s friends artistically created a nature-inspired frame that hangs in her home even today, and many folks put on their bi-focals to figure out how on earth you make a lanyard! And, yes, the bar badge (received by drinking a good amount of beverages), was a hit too!

At toast time, I had the counselors add up all the badges per cabin, and announce the winning cabin. It was quite a scene... no matter the age, everyone loves a little competition. The winning cabin all got camp t-shirts, and wore them with pride!

I know, there are still many theme-nay-sayers out there.... I saw a t-shirt on a woman at a Halloween party. It read, “I don’t do costumes.” Well she doesn’t know what she’s missing! She needs to come to a bnute party-- that will change her mind!

Making a Party an Experience

I knew my Master’s thesis would come in handy one day! I remember the semester before I worked on my thesis, I spent a day in the New York Public Library researching ideas on what I’d like to explore. There I was in in the library-- an incredible old open space in the middle of Manhattan-- wooden tables, old fashioned lamps, and miles and miles of bookcases. I had a stack of books in front of me, and picked up one called, “Art as Experience.” I was enthralled. This is what I WANTED!! I wanted my thesis to be an experience. I wanted people to see/experience my thesis and remember it. Not for the colors, or an image, but as anyone would remember a memory... I wanted them to walk away, and a year or 2 later remember what they had experienced -- the feelings the images evoked, the people they met, the conversations they had...

Enough about my thesis, that’s a whole separate discussion and I’m sure a lengthy one... but here it is -- SEVERAL (yes, several) years later, and I’m thinking the same thing. I want bnute productions’ Party Kits to evoke an experience for the party attendees. I want party goers to remember your event and not be just one of the same of the many, many parties that they go to each year... I want your party to stand out. I want to make it an experience.

So, how shall we do that, you ask?
1.Give Context - Set a tone, Give a Story, Get Artifacts, Turn on the Music
When the atmosphere is in the theme, it will make the event much more memorable... and even folks who just “don’t like themes” might get into it! I remember a Halloween party I went to over 10 years ago. The hostess went all out in a true haunted house style... tattered curtains, cobwebs, old trinkets on display. She even swapped out all of her everday photos in frames with haunting images. It was great! I didn’t even stay too long at the party, it was one of many that night-- back before kids, before marriage, but to this day, I definitely remember the details, I felt like I was in a haunted house out on some spooky property, not in a victorian apartment in Cole Valley, San Francisco.

2.Use their Senses - Sights, Sounds, Smells, Taste, and Touch
Don’t forget the little things-- and the senses we forget about (say, touch, or sounds, even smells...) it’s these senses that really stick in our head, and make us remember an event more than another. Take for example a certain smell... whenever I first walk into my parent’s house, after I haven’t been there in awhile, I take a deep breath.... it’s the smell... their beautiful 1930’s home definitely has a distinct stately smell that reminds me of home. After I’ve been in it for awhile... a night, a day, whatever the visit, the smell diminshes as I get involved in the activites, conversations, and festivities. It’s that initial smell... One I’ll never forget!
3.Let Loose and Let Their Imaginations Run Wild
Dress ups, talking in the lingo of the theme, games or a little competition set in the theme is always fun, and will definitely make the event stand out from the rest. I love to dress up... even now! There have been few dress up events where I haven’t participated... whatever the reason that day/evening when I was getting ready-- too tired, “just not into it...” I just didn’t get into it, and didn’t dress up... and how I regretted it. The party wasn’t nearly as fun as the parties where I get “into it!” I think it’s that little extra commitment that you make to the event-- like I’m GOING to dress up, I’m going to talk only in an English accent... whatever the effort, it pays off in the end for a great experience, and fun, even funny memories! So, set out extra dress ups for those who don’t think they need it... set out a “lingo” dictionary... and get everyone into it!

4.Have fun!
No explanation needed here!