The holiday season is the time for festivities and parties. It’s the time when everyone is looking forward to meet up with families and friends to have fun and celebrate the season. Whether you are planning an intimate dinner party with your closest friends or organizing a big family reunion for your relatives, there are special touches that you can do to make the party spectacular. The key in planning a memorable Christmas party is to plan ahead of time. This way, you’ll have more time to decide on the menu, the decorations, and everything else. You’ll also have more time to send out the invitations, if you’re using them, or to call the people you’re inviting.Here are some things to focus on when planning a Christmas party.Choose Creative DecorationsOf course you can always stick with the usual decorations such as Christmas socks in the chimney, mistletoes on the door posts and so on. However, if you want to hold a unique party that your guests will definitely remember, you can go for a creative theme and decorate accordingly. For example, you can choose themes such as Arabian Nights, Winter Wonderland, Fairy Tale, Back to the 80′s, Santa’s Workshop and so on. If you’re going for the Moroccan theme, then you can decorate with colorful fabric swags or even Moroccan tents. You can also have bright carpets and small pillows where people can sit back and relax while sipping wine. If you’re going for a Fairy Tale theme, you can make the place look like Cinderella’s ball.Your guests will usually make their first impression based on the decorations, so be creative. However, you shouldn’t spend too much on these, so go bargain hunting to find the decorations you need at an affordable price.Have Great EntertainmentSet the tone of your party by having great music playing at a comfortable volume to create ambience. You don’t even need to get a DJ or have someone playing the songs for you; you just need to make a playlist ahead of time and hook up your computer or MP3 player to a decent sound system before the party starts. Make sure you include a mixture of holiday classics, Christmas carols, and some danceable tunes to the playlist to keep things interesting. Have more than enough songs in your playlist so that each song will only be played twice (or thrice at the most) because nothing is more irritating than hearing the same song over and over again when it is playing on a loop.Focus on the FoodNo matter how great the decorations are or how fabulous the entertainment is, your guests won’t be too happy if there isn’t enough food or if the food does not taste good. Serve some hors d’oeuvres or finger food which your guests can nibble on all night. Make sure you also have light meals like salad, pasta or sandwiches to keep them from getting hungry. Have an assortment of desserts that they can choose from, such as cupcakes, gingerbread or ice cream. Serve both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.  GP

Planning a simple office party for your department – where everybody knows everybody else – is quite different from planning your company Christmas party, which involves everyone within the corporation from the staff members to the senior executives. Parties at the corporate level are usually more lavish than intimate office parties since there are usually VIP guests in attendance, such as important clients, heads of other businesses or even competitors.If you’re tasked to plan your company Christmas party, there are several things you must remember.Start Planning Ahead of TimeThe month of December is not the time to start planning your company Christmas party. Such a short planning time could work for small Christmas parties for your department or among friends, but this can’t work for parties that will have at least 100 people in attendance. Start planning early enough so that you won’t need to rush around.Set up a committee to plan the party with you, especially if you’re looking at potentially a thousand guests or more. It would be great if you can get people from different departments so that you will also have an idea of what other people want from the party. Schedule regular monthly meetings by July or August, then increase the frequency to weekly by October.List down everything you need to accomplish as a committee and cross off each item once it is completed. Even if the tasks are distributed among the committee members, someone should still keep a main list to monitor the progress of the group. Planning a company Christmas party can be very stressful to everyone in the steering committee, so it would really help if there is one person who can keep a running tally of what has been accomplished already and what still needs to be done. Choose a Great ThemeIn planning company Christmas parties, remember that there is a need to impress not just the employees of the company, but the VIP guests as well. The best company Christmas parties always have a central theme that is reflected in the choice of decorations, entertainment, food and program. However, before you decide on the theme, check the budget restrictions first. Will management provide all the funds for the party or are the employees required to share the cost? How much is the total budget that you can use?There are several themes you can choose from. You can go for a Moroccan theme complete with entertainers (or employees) dressed up as sultans and belly dancers to welcome guests to the venue. You can go for a 70′s theme with psychedelic lighting and 70′s music in the background. To get the latest ideas for a theme, you can always check the internet.Pick the Right VenueThe venue can either make or break the party. No matter how great the theme is, if the venue you chose is cramped, or chilly, or difficult to locate, you can be sure to receive complaints. A hotel function room is a popular choice for company Christmas parties because they are usually easy to find, has sufficient parking space, and guests can choose to stay overnight (at their personal expense) if they get too drunk to drive home afterwards.  GP

If you’re planning a party this Christmas, surprise your guests with unique and memorable Christmas party decorations. Remember, the decorations are very important because they are usually the first thing your guests will notice upon arriving at your house. In addition, the decorations will set the tone for your party.Don’t be satisfied with generic decorations like wreaths and red flowers, which you can see nearly everywhere. If you want your guests to remember your party, make sure you have memorable decorations. Here are some creative ideas for unique Christmas party decorations that your guests will be talking about for days.Walk in the Winter WonderlandCreate the Winter Wonderland effect by using mainly white decorations on the entire venue. Use white fabric swags in the ceilings and walls, cover your tables with white tablecloth tied with a silver bow, stick paper snowflake cutouts on the windows, and put up a polystrene snow man in the center of the room. Fill glass bowls with white food items such as marshmallows, popcorns, mints and white chocolate and put these in all of the cocktail tables or in strategic areas around the room. You can even lower the thermostat in your heater so that the room will be chilly for your guests, but make sure they are still comfortable and not feeling too cold. If you want, you can also rent an ice skating rink and have a skating Winter Wonderland party. You could even have a couple of ice sculptures around the rink as decorations. If it’s really a white Christmas for you this year and it’s snowing in your area, then take advantage of the lovely weather and make a couple of snowmen outside to greet the guests. Serve hot chocolate to complete the winter feel.Celebrate the Twelve Days of ChristmasMake the Christmas carol come alive in your party by paying homage to the 12 days of Christmas. Think of quirky ways to incorporate the items mentioned in the song. For example, in order to represent the “five golden rings,” you can put 5 wreaths decorated with gold Christmas balls in a prominent area. In order to represent the “twelve drummers drumming,” you can dress up a couple of cocktail tables to look like drums. To represent the “three French hens,” you can serve three different kinds of chicken dishes. You can even tie fresh pears in a tree to represent the pear tree.Have Fun at Santa’s WorkshopMake the Christmas party really fun and encourage all guests to come in costume, either as fairies, dolls, toys, elves or Santa’s little helpers. Make sure to assign someone to come in full Santa Claus gear, complete with a huge sack filled with “gifts.” Spread colorful toys and various tools around the venue to make the place look like a huge workshop. Wrap a couple of cardboard boxes to look like gifts and place them in strategic areas. Serve your food in noodle boxes wrapped like a Christmas gift. For dessert, serve common children’s favorites such as gingerbread, cupcakes and candy canes.  GP

In today’s commercialized world, people seem to think that Christmas simply means presents and parties, shopping and Santa Claus, bright lights and late nights. The truth is that it is really easy to forget the real reason of Christmas in the midst of the frenzy of activities held during December, from parties with friends to visits from relatives.If you want to celebrate the season differently, you can look for more meaningful traditions or activities. After all, Christmas is all about God the Father giving His only Son to the world because of His love for us. Therefore, the best way to enjoy Christmas is through activities where we give to others or show our love to one another. Here are some ideas that you may want to try with your family to celebrate Christmas in a more meaningful way.Give Love on Christmas DayIt’s not enough to just give love, sometimes you need to give more material things as well. Here are some creative ideas to make giving more enjoyable for your family. If you know a family who is financially struggling in your neighborhood, you can prepare a huge gift box for them that contain the things they need such as the ingredients for a Christmas dinner, and other things like clothes, books and toys.You can also visit a children’s hospital, an orphanage, a homeless shelter or an old folks’ home and distribute small gifts. Bring some food and treat them to a simple Christmas snack which can be composed of anything from pasta to candies. You can do this with friends, colleagues or even your entire family. Activities such as these, where you reach out to those who are in need, will remind you for sure of how blessed you are and how important it is to share your blessings to those who are less fortunate.Remember the Christmas StoryGet your Bible out and read the Christmas story with your children every night, while sipping hot chocolate. Start on the first day of December and read only short passages, culminating on the passage describing the birth of Jesus before you have your Christmas Eve dinner. You can even have your children act out the story. Sing traditional Christmas carols together to get you in the holiday mood. This is a wonderful time not only to remember the Christmas story, but to spend quality time with your kids and help them understand the real meaning of Christmas.Start a New Christmas Tradition It’s time to start a new family Christmas tradition. You can spend the first Saturday of December cleaning the house, setting up the tree and putting up the decorations. Make sure you have traditional Christmas carols playing in the background while you’re all working. Afterwards, settle down with a mug of hot chocolate and some popcorn. You can divide the family into two – the first half will go out to find a good Christmas tree, while the other half will stay at home to prepare a special meal. Whatever you choose, just remember that the most important part of Christmas is in the first syllable of the word – Christ. Enjoy your holiday!  GP