How to Host a Holiday "Favorite Things" Party

As guests arrived with all their favorite things, they grabbed a ticket "pack" (custom made for us by Harper Gray) to jot down their name and their favorite thing. I cleared off my dining table and built a tower of cake plates for everyone's favorites. At both Favorite Things parties I've just guessed how many and what size cake plates/trays we'd need and it's worked out both times!

I filled the dessert table with holiday treats from my book, and added in some of our other favorite desserts like mini pies from the Snohomish Pie Company, Lady Yum macarons and Frost Donuts french crullers. If you are local and haven't tried any of these, RUN. They're amazing.

After everyone arrived, we began the first round of Favorite Things. To alleviate a mad rush to the table all at once, each guest was given 12 tickets to redeem throughout the night. We broke it up into three rounds, redeeming 4 tickets each time. So you'd take something from the table and then leave a ticket. Let me just say, compared to the last party of all girls, this was a little more intense. The guys hovered and were a little more aggressive about grabbing the things they wanted!

I had ordered THE most adorable Santa bags for each couple to take their goodies home in but unfortunately they didn't make it in time for the party. Thank you Black Friday shoppers! Sometimes it's a bonus I am a hoarder because I had bought these fun "TOTES" bags about a couple months ago for (maybe) my daughter's birthday goodie bags. They worked perfect for our guests to fill up. I'll be mailing each guest their Santa bag once they arrive, so they'll have it for Christmas morning!

In between rounds we had a photobooth to capture all the date night fun made from a white backdrop and left over garland I had purchased at Costco for my staircase. I found the cute props at Target for $5. Super easy to re-create!

After our second round, we surprised our friends with a Couple’s Gingerbread Decorating Contest with Wilton's Gingerbread Kits. Surprise!! You have 20 minutes. . . GO!

We really should have had this video taped because IT. WAS. HILARIOUS. It was so funny overhearing each couple's conversations as they were racing to get their house together. Talk about marriage building! Some turned out really great. . . and some really awful.

We posted the completed houses on Instagram and asked people to vote for their favorite. We awarded our winner with a $75 gift card to our favorite donut shop FROST!

After the rush of gingerbread building, we had our last round of favorites and then settled around our fireplace with cozy blankets! I absolutely loved lighting all my candles in my outdoor lanterns and actually sitting down! I'm go go go all the time, it was nice to just RELAX!

As people started to leave, we couldn't let them go without a party favor so we sent each couple with our favorite Balsam & Cedar Illume candles and Lady Yum macarons for the road.