christmas parties

[clp]

Seeing as we are in a new house in a relatively new city for us I thought I would do a Christmas party. Most of our new friends have young children so I was thinking of doing a drop-in whenever from mid-afternoon - so that people with kids could come earlier and other people could come later on for a glass of champagne.
It would be good to do a bouncy castle again as we did it for both our kid's birthday parties and it was a huge sucess but I think MrCLP will veto that sort of expense a third time.
Wondering if anyone else is planning something like this and what they had in mind both from a decorating and menu point of view?
CLP

[Julie-Ann]

What a great idea Clp.
We have lots and lots of family so our day is spent going from 1 family function to another or having family here.
My MIL does a similar thing in the evening but her Menu would not exactly excite you. I would do finger food but some that suits the kids and some that suits the adults. Or you could do home made Pizzas - where everyone makes a pizza. Do you a BBQ with a hood on it? They make great Pizza in those BBQs.
And with the decorating just keep in mind the age of your youngest visitor and keep it safe for little ones. What sort of decorating do you normally do for Christmas?

[Mrs B]

Hi CLP

It sounds wonderful what you are going to do Everybody loves christmas parties and to invited to one is always really special.

As you are looking for ideas, I think a definite starting time and end time for families with little children. I would even have a visit from Santa at a stated time as well. Santa could give out little lolly bags to each child or even homemade biscuits etc.
Then, you could have on the invitation that a barbecue and champagne party will begin afterwards. That way, people can decide if they want to do one or the other or both.
As for the menu, we always do a barbecue. Its the easiest, encourages people to go outside and salads are so easy. Sounds like fun and a great way to make new friends. Let us know what you decide to do and make!

Mrs B

[clp]

Thanks for those great suggestions - I do like the idea of a visit from Santa.

Must try pizzas on the BBQ - Julie-Ann - we often do make our own but sometimes the bases don't cook as well as I would like so thats a great idea. I did suggest to MrCLP that living in Canberra with a large backyard we could build a pizza oven but I suspect it wouldn't get used all that much (but I hanker after the Jamie Oliver veggie garden and he used to bung everything into his garden oven).

[Julie-Ann]

The visiting Santa idea is gorgeous Mrs B. The munchkins will love it.
Have you tried a Pizza Stone Clp? We had a chat about how fantastic they are for getting the base just perfect here.

[clp]

I know they are great and I may get one for Christmas (although they remind me of foot spas for christmas presents)

[Julie-Ann]

Lol I would trade the foot spa for the pizza stone any day. But then I loooove pizza.

[Lanne]

A pizza stone and bought base with a make your own pizza party is easy ... and oh so yummy.. and everyone gets what they want!

We have a house warming open on Sunday.. 2 - 6.. drop in anytime, for as long as you like .. I am serving a range of lush gorm. ice creams and every imaginable topping. People can help themselves and the ice cream can go back in the freezer between guests and... i dont think we will mind if there are left overs LOL. EASY catering for the masses and really.. no one needs a meal at that time of day.

If i wasnt already overworked this week I would make more effort and present it like this

http://www.eatdrinkchic.com/post.cfm...dding-or-party

I have a tonne of jars and scoops from an event we did in feb for work so I will be reusing those I think... it keeps the flies off and I can print a menu of ice creams and just get them from the freezer.

I think it could work for a christmas function?

[clp]

Gosh a year has just flown by and here I am planning our Christmas party for this year.

Last years was lots of fun and a huge success. I had a friend dress up as Santa and made all the kids go and find him and then they got little trinket surprises which they loved.

I'm going to try and make the catering a bit simpler this year as I went overboard last year and was trying to do noodles in mini containers which seemed glam but was a real pain as I discovered the noodle boxes were meant as party favours not as noodle boxes. I will do rice paper rolls again but make sure not too far in advance as they dry out quite easily.

I am thinking of joining Costco and buying some bulk things like a wheel of camembert etc and a side of smoked salmon. I'm also going to get a ham and bake it.

[Julie-Ann]

The Santa sounds like lots of fun Clp. The noodles not so fun.
The salmon and cheese is a good idea