For years now, I’ve wanted to host this party. I can’t be the only one who secretly finds writing Christmas cards just a wee bit tedious, can I? I’m not a Grinch; I just find the number of cards and personal messages a little daunting during the crunch time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, I thought it would be more fun to write my cards surrounded by friends, and, of course, sugary treats. And that’s just what we did at our Letters to Santa Party.

Lucky for me, Sarah Brown of Brown Paper Goods offered the perfect party invitation — modern, with polka dots (naturally), and traditional Christmas colors with a pop of blue. Sarah kindly designed a complete party set for me to coordinate with her invitation: banner, bottle wrappers, food labels, cupcake toppers/favor tags, and most importantly, Official Letter to Santa stationery.

Dining Table

I decorated the center of our dining room table with an embellished mailbox and two Santa mugs that held pens and pencils. Instead of fresh flowers, I added two rosemary trees, tied with red organza bows, and two flowering red plants (I have no idea what they are) that I replanted in green art pottery from my collection. (Use what you have!)

For place settings, I used my china, a red linen napkin, and a red place mat created from scrapbooking paper with edges that I punched. Each plate held our party favor, a decorated sugar cookie from Sugar & Flour in two designs: envelope and stamp.

Dessert Table

We started the party around the sweets table, which featured the Merry Christmas banner from the printables set, as well as glitter ornaments on a red backdrop.

Desserts included cupcakes capped with custom toppers from Edible Details that mimicked our stamp and red envelope (with a little green seal). To make a two-tier stand, I turned a green pottery planter upside down and added a white lunch plate.

The desserts also included giant peppermint sticks, peppermint bark, mint M&Ms, gum drops, and macaroons. The peppermint sticks are in a paper mache container that I covered with red wrapping paper and two bottle wrappers. (By the way, the peppermint sticks came in cellophane, but it wasn’t cute, so I re-wrapped them using a 12″ treat bag. Just cut a small slit in the center bottom of the bag, slip the stick through the slit, and tie the top of the bag with a thin ribbon.) The macaroons (from Etsy seller Bokolette) included Red Velvet (red), Spiced Caramel & Apple (red & gold dust), Pistachio (green), & Vanilla Olive Oil (light green) — so tasty!

For drinks, I had pomegranate Izze for the moms and milk for the children. I used the 3″ bottle wrap on the Izze and the 2″ wrap on the milk bottles. Tomorrow, I’ll have a tutorial on the blog about how to turn Starbucks Frappuccino bottles into Christmas party bottles.

Writing Letters to Santa & Christmas Cards

With treats in hand, we moved to the table write our cards and letters to Santa. While moms wrote our Christmas cards, our boys and girls wrote their letters to Santa. They took this very seriously!

When the children finished their letters, they addressed their envelopes to “Santa, North Pole” and placed them in our special mailbox so they would go directly to Santa.

Crafting & Coloring Activities

Each child’s place setting had a mini lunch box that I altered with scrapbooking paper, and then wrapped in twine to attach a glitter pencil. Inside the lunch boxes were all the supplies the children need to complete their foam crafts. They had gingerbread men with google eyes, Christmas trees with pom-poms, and stockings with candy canes to decorate. They also each had a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer coloring book and a pack of crayons that I wrapped in more scrapbooking paper.

I’d love to hear what you think of this “mommy and me” type party.

Vendor Credits

• Party styling: The Party Teacher
• Letters to Santa Party Plan
• Photography: Viridian Images Photography
• Printables: Brown Paper Goods
• Cupcake toppers: Edible Details
• Macaroons: Bokolette
• Sugar cookies: Sugar & Flour
• JOY embellished wooden letters: Dwelling Online