smithwillas
5 min readJan 17, 2021

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Holiday Party Ideas if You Actually Want Guests to Have Fun

Holidays are that time of the year when everyone talks about parties and dinners. Every host wants their party to be a memorable fiesta and their guests to talk about the fun they experienced for weeks.

When you plan a party during the holiday season, you don’t want it to be just another lunch or dinner. You want your guests to have fun and enjoy, and add some pleasant memories into their lives.

So, you start thinking about the party you planning to throw about a month or couple of weeks before the day of the event. The foods, the drinks, the deserts, the decoration, the theme, the guests, and the activities — everything that you want at your party is on your mind during this period.

To ease your struggle and help you will planning, here are some of the unique holiday party ideas you can consider this season, if you want your guests to have some genuine fun –

Pajama Party –

Popularly, pajama party is a gathering of friends who sleepover at the host’s place, spending the whole night, having fun while enjoying snacks and drinks.

Family parties don’t go well with this theme. But pajama parties are exclusive gathering for friends and cousins. This could be a great way to have a thrilling partying experience.

Pajamas, or the casuals people often wear at night, will be dress code for the party. To give it a twist, make “holiday-themed pajamas” a must for your pajama party.

Foods and drinks can be ordered online and stocked in the kitchen. Or maybe, you can hire a party chef to ensure everything being served at your party is freshly cooked.

You don’t need to plan a lot if you are considering a pajama party. All you need to do is, get the food and drinks sorted and turn on the music.

Happy Holiday Hour or Dinner –

If you are planning a party, in which you plan to invite the families of your friends and relatives, and don’t want the party to go all night, try having a “Happy Holiday Hour” or “Happy Holiday Dinner”. Events like these don’t take up more than an hour or two.

Serve foods and drinks course-wise to everyone on the table, while some soft music plays in the background. Instead of music, you can also play some holiday-themed movies on your projector or TV screen.

Make sure that kids, too, enjoy their own time at the party. For this, you should have plans to keep them busy in kids-friendly games and activities, like magnetic dart game.

If you think it is too old school for the kids of today, place a gaming console in a corner of the party hall, and name it Kids’ Corner. Don’t forget to make separate arrangement for kids’ foods and drinks.

The food here at such parties should be holiday themed.

Classic Dinner –

Nothing could be more special than a classic family dinner — involving traditional foods and drinks your family is known for. Holidays are once a year occasion. Just like you, your guests too want something that gives them nostalgia and brings them back to good old days.

Since everyone invited knows that you are going to serve traditional foods and drinks at the dinner, take this year to surprise them with the presentation of food.

For example: set up a projector to play old family photos with some holiday themed music. Or else, build a stage where you and your guests sing and dance to classic pop or country music, while others watch them, enjoying snacks and drinks.

Parties like these should be ended with guests receiving a personalized gift from the host. The gift could be anything like — branded or rare cigar, tobacco pipes, custom printed t-shirt, a photo frame, or a wine bottle with custom printed thank you message.

You can use customized labels on wine bottle and other gifts (or their packaging) to turn your gifts into a pleasant memory for your guests.

Kids should not feel neglected here. Some of the gifts you can consider for kids are: candies, sweets, books, and toys.

Ugly Sweater Lunch or Brunch –

Ugly sweater and holidays have become synonymous. You can adopt this theme for your upcoming holiday party.

Prepare a list of guests and invite them for lunch or brunch. And ask them to put on an ugly sweater. Imagine everyone visiting your party dressed up in funky, ugly sweater! It would be a great fun.

To add more fun to the party, play some crazy music in background and dance with your friends and family members. Want it to be more memorable?? Video tape the party and click lots of selfies and put them on your Facebook.

This idea can be adopted for dinner as well.

Bottom Line:

To become a happy and successful party host, you will need to start planning and making arrangements for the party two to three weeks in advance. Place your order at the supplies store beforehand, so there is no last minute delay or disappointment.

Prepare a to-do-list of things and sort them stepwise. Don’t be overconfident that you can manage everything on your own. Involve other family members too in the planning process. Apart from the dressing up for the party as per the theme, don’t forget putting on a smile on your face. This boosts your confidence and prepares you well for the party.

To end with, here are some of the essentials you will need to ensure on the day of the event. Ensure that the dining and party area is warm and welcoming and at the same time, properly ventilated. Also, make sure that the bathroom is not just clean, but also have fresh soaps, linen, and fresheners in place.

Don’t forget to thank everyone for visiting your party by offering them a personalized gift.

Hope this article helps you with your holiday party planning. Happy Holidays!!!

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smithwillas

Smith Willas is a blogger, freelance writer with online marketing agency in Florida.