Ah the holidays… full of families and friends getting together, gift-giving, and collectively feeling like a human-ice pop every time you walk outside. For those who enjoy hosting, or know someone who does, here are some fun holiday party ideas to fill your season with joy!

Holiday Mocktails

Most Holiday mocktails are festive to behold, with bright colors that are guaranteed to draw you in. You could even set up a little self-service station in your kitchen for your guests to make themselves, and/or serve drinks.

Hot Cocoa Bar

Along with holiday mocktails, you could set up a hot cocoa bar to warm up your guests. You could either make your own cocoa from scratch or make cups of hot cocoa from instant packets for your guests and serve whipped cream, sprinkles, candy canes, cocoa powder, cinnamon, mini marshmallows, or even some mini chocolate chips to melt into your beverage.

Baking Extravaganza 

Another way to entertain your guests is baking cookies or holiday desserts. You and your guests can contribute some delicious add-ins like crushed peppermint, Hershey kisses, and holiday M&Ms. Then, you can add these ingredients into some tried and true recipes or new ones you’d like to experiment with. 

Secret Santa

For this activity, I’d recommend at least a group of four people minimum to help try to better mix up who people get. You can pick a name from a hat the old fashioned way or use a website like Elfster.com to assign gift recipients randomly via email to keep your secret safe until your gift exchange. 

White Elephant Gift Exchange

White Elephant gift exchange is where you and a group of people buy and wrap random gifts and set them down in a pile. Then, everyone draws a number to see what order to select gifts. In White Elephant, once it’s your turn, you can either grab a gift from the pile, or steal one from someone else. This may not be done if you’re the first person, since no one has a gift yet. If your gift gets stolen, you can either steal one from someone else, or grab a new gift. However, you can’t steal it back from the person who’s just stolen it from you. When everyone has a gift, the last person remaining can either keep the final gift or steal someone else’s and swap presents. The more stealing, the more fun you’ll have! Sometimes it pays to be ruthless. 

 Ornament Decorating

Get some clear plastic ornaments from a craft store or dollar store and gather some glitter, glue, paint, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, or any other materials you desire to decorate with. Another alternative is making salt dough ornaments with some simple ingredients like flour, salt, and water. All you have to do is make the dough, form the shapes you desire using cookie cutters, and bake the dough in the oven. You can add food coloring or paint the finished product. At the end of the gathering, everyone will have a nice keepsake to treasure.

Christmas Song Karaoke Competition

For karaoke songs, you can use someone’s phone to play holiday songs on Youtube or your favorite streaming service. Everyone who wants to sing can get a turn, and then you can all vote on who sang it best. Some of the top picks often include Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You”, WHAM!’s “Last Christmas”, and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”. 

Gingerbread House Competition 

Set up your gingerbread cookie kit (you can find them at Five Below or your local grocery store) and spread out your ingredients. Make sure to have enough icing for the glue with confectioner’s sugar, milk, and vanilla extract if you make your own icing. The key to a solid gingerbread construction is sturdy icing, so the store bought variety should be a last resort. Experts use egg whites mixed in with the sugary concoction for extra hold. You can use raw eggwhites or buy a carton. Some methods of decorating include flat decorating before assembling the pieces or avoiding heavy candy on the roof to avoid the gingerbread house collapsing. As an extra bonus, try to buy a few extra kinds of candy of your choosing. 

However you choose to pass the time at your holiday gatherings this season, may your holidays be filled with creativity and special memories.