Ornament Exchange Party

I loves me a good par-tay! Just one more reason I love the holidays.

This week I had my first annual Ornament Exchange Party and it was a HIT. If any of you are sitting on the sidelines wanting to have an annual holiday party but unsure of a theme, this might be the one for you.

I am all for having a party (sing it with me HEY HEY) but I require a few things, can you guess what they are? Yep, it has to be cheap and easy. I want to be able to enjoy the party also and not feel like it’s a big stressful event. You know what I’m sayin? You shouldn’t be left singing, “it’s my party and I’ll CRY if I want to”!! (Sorry I had to do it)

For those of you who haven’t been to an ornament exchange party, they are super fun. Everyone brings a wrapped ornament and places them in a pile and then draws names to see who gets to pick first. The first person grabs a present and unwraps it. **Insert the OOOoohhs and AAAHHhhhs** When the second person is picked they can either STEAL the ornament from the first person, or pick a new wrapped ornament. Rinse and repeat till everyone has a goodie.

So fun!

I wanted everything to be easy for people to grab whatever they wanted so I set things up on my dining table in a buffet style.

Please forgive this picture, I forgot to take one pre-arrival so this is after everyone had their fill. Sorry!

Now, don’t get me wrong I enjoy cooking (every now and then HA) but when it comes to a party I’m more of a let someone else-er. I’m a stickler for my house being clean when I’m having company and having dirty pans, or extra dishes to do before they arrive just isn’t for me.

For this party we had:

Seafood Crab cakes, Spinach Quiche, Three Cheese Quiche, Mushroom Turnovers—These were sooo yummy and flakey crusted, people went back for more and more. Oh Did I mention I paid $5 for 48 of them? Can you believe that, $5 and I didn’t have to bake!!

I also took 6 big eggrolls and cut them in half for finger food size—Cost $1.32 total !!!!!! (My local Teriyaki place sells these exact eggrolls for $2.50 each)

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins—$1

Along with a few other goodies like cupcakes and fudge dipped cookies, but you get the idea.

I took cardstock and holiday stamps and made food labels to place in these cute little ornaments on the table. I left extra and a marker available if my guests brought anything they wanted to label.

  

They looked really cute on the table and made it easy for people to get what they wanted.

At the end of the night I sent each person home with a little favor box.

I found these KAY-UTE “to go” boxes for .25 cents each. Inside I put candy and flavored tea, then topped them off with an ornament to complete the theme of the night and Ta Da, party to go.

Maybe next year you’d like to come?