How to Throw a Friendsmas Party That Will Get You and Your Friends in the Festive Spirit
This post shows you how to throw a Friendsmas party for you and your friends to get in the festive spirit!
With the festive season approaching, it’s the perfect time to spend your moments with your loved ones. Not just your family, but your friends too! The perfect way to do this is by throwing a Friendsmas party!
If you’re planning on hosting Friendsmas and need some help with how to, then you’ve come to the right place! This guide on how to throw a Friendsmas party will not only be a step-by-step guide, but will also have inspiration on what to include, from themes to games and gift exchange ideas!
1. Pick a Theme
2. Pick a date and send invitations
3. Plan the menu
4. Decide on games and activities
5. Shop for decorations
6. Plan the gift exchange
Secret Santa
White Elephant
7. Make a Christmas playlist
8. Clean your apartment
What is Friendsmas?
Friendsmas is a Christmas celebration spent with friends rather than family. Sometimes it’ll occur on the same day as Christmas, for example, if you’re studying abroad or have been living abroad and won’t be able to make it back home to your family for Christmas, so you spend it with the friends you have made while abroad. Other times, it’ll occur days or weeks before Christmas, depending on when you and your friends are available.
Whatever your situation is, throwing a Friendsmas party is a lovely way to spend time with your friends and really cherish those moments you have together.
How to Throw a Friendsmas Party: An 8 Step Guide
1. Pick a Theme
When hosting Friendsmas, you have the joy of picking what theme to follow. This will set the tone for the whole night, so make sure it’s something you and your friends will resonate with and enjoy!
Here are a few ideas to inspire you:
- Ugly Christmas sweater – Everyone has an ugly Christmas sweater lying around their home somewhere, so it’ll be funny to see what sweaters you and your friends wear. You could even turn it into a competition where you vote on the ugliest Christmas sweater!
- Painting and Pajamas – Get out those matching PJs that you only wear during Christmas and spend your Friendsmas painting. Paint on canvases, do a paint-by-numbers, or follow a Bob Ross tutorial! This is a way to get you and your friends’ creative juices flowing while enjoying the festive season!
- The Nutcracker – The Nutcracker is probably the most famous Christmas production ever, which makes it an amazing Friendsmas party theme! Go for a ballerina and coquette vibe with vintage, cozy coquette decor and a Christmas tree covered in vintage ornaments, bows, and ribbons.
- Pinkmas – This is a very easy theme to follow. Everything from the clothes you and your friends wear to the tablescape and florals has to be pink!
There are so many different themes to choose from, so if you’re looking for more ideas and inspiration, you can find loads on Pinterest. And honestly, Pinterest will be your best friend throughout the whole planning process of throwing your Friendsmas party!
2. Pick a date and send invitations
Once you’ve picked your Friendsmas theme, decide on the date it’s happening and send out invitations. It’s important that you do this early in advance to make sure everyone RSVPs on time, and so it’s easy to plan ahead. I would recommend sending invitations at least a month in advance, and to also include an FAQ section on it to let everyone know what to expect (e.g., theme, dress code, what to bring, etc).
If you want to send e-vites (online invites), you can use Partiful, which makes it easy to plan your Friendsmas, track RSVPs, and keep everyone in the loop.
Alternatively, if you want to go old school and send physical invitations, you can find templates on Canva to design, print, and mail to your friends.
A third option is to design your invite on Canva, download it as a picture (PNG or JPG), create a group chat with your friends, and send the invite so that everyone receives it directly on their phone at the same time. This is probably the simplest way to keep everyone in the loop, as you can all communicate through one channel that everyone has: messages.
The next step is deciding what you want to do for your Friendsmas dinner. If you love cooking, then this is your chance to be in your element! Depending on how many friends will be attending, figure out exactly what you’re going to cook so it’s easy to make a grocery list of what to get.
Alternatively, if you want to take the pressure off cooking everything this Friendsmas, then a potluck would be the best option! With a potluck, everyone can contribute to the menu by bringing their own homemade dish that you can all enjoy!
Another important part of the menu is drinks! Make sure you don’t run out of drinks, and if you’re having alcoholic drinks, encourage your friends to bring their own too.
A few details you could include for drinks are a hot cocoa bar and a drinks station where you include a dispenser (ideally Christmas tree-shaped) with a homemade cocktail that everyone can easily pour out and drink.
4. Decide on games and activities
Friendsmas is all about enjoying the time you have together, and a crucial part of creating fun memories with your friends is through games and activities. Of course, you could play the classic board and card games, but since you’ll be celebrating Christmas, you can play some Christmas party games!
Here are some ideas for Christmas party games and activities that will be fun to play:
- Organize a Christmas quiz
- Ornament in a cup/ornament dunk
- Gingerbread man decorating
- Gingerbread house competition
- Christmas bow scoop
- Candy cane in a cup
- Vision board making
5. Shop for decorations
If you’re hosting Friendsmas, then having Christmas decor is a non-negotiable. You may already have a Christmas tree (if not, then get one ASAP), but there’s more to Christmas decor than just that!
You may like: 22 Christmas Tree Decor Ideas to Recreate
Christmas decor covers everything from your front porch to your mantel and tablescape! It’s all about creating that festive space for everyone to enjoy Friendsmas!
Make sure that you shop for all the Christmassy decorations early (around mid to late November at the latest) before they sell out during the peak of the holiday season!
6. Plan the gift exchange
Of course, with Friendsmas, you can’t forget the gift exchange! There are different ways you could do a gift exchange, depending on what you and your friends prefer.
Secret Santa
One option is Secret Santa, where you all get randomly assigned a person whom you have to buy a gift for. Draw Names is my favorite recommendation for organizing a Secret Santa. I’ve used it every Christmas for as long as I can remember! It’s so easy to arrange a Secret Santa with Draw Names, as everyone can easily join via their email. Also, they have a wishlist feature where everyone can add what gifts they would like, which is perfect if anyone is unsure what present to give for their Secret Santa!
White Elephant
Another option is White Elephant (also known as Yankee Swap). This is a gift exchange where everyone brings an anonymous wrapped gift, and each has a turn to choose a gift. Draw numbers from a hat (or Christmas stocking) to determine which order the turns go in.
The first person (aka, whoever picked out number 1 from the draw) picks a gift first, opens it, and showcases it to everyone else. The second person (aka whoever picked out number 2 from the draw) can either steal the first person’s present or pick a new gift. The third person can either steal the first or second person’s present or pick a new gift, and so on.
If someone’s gift gets stolen, they can either steal another one from someone else or unwrap another one.
In some games of White Elephant, a gift can only be stolen 3 times, but it’s up to you and your friends to decide if you want to include that rule!
7. Make a Christmas playlist
You’ve got to have an official festive playlist for your Friendsmas! It’ll put everyone in a great mood, and it’ll be fun to sing along to Christmas songs like “All I Want for Christmas Is You” and “Last Christmas” after a few drinks!
You can make your playlist on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music, and you could even invite your friends to add to the playlist!
Here’s a Christmas playlist that I made a few years ago that features the iconic Christmas songs you can add to your own playlist!
8. Clean your apartment
If you’ve followed the previous steps, then you’re all set for throwing your Friendsmas party. The only thing left to do is to clean your apartment a day or two before the Friendsmas date.
Make sure you do a deep clean of your living room, dining room, and bathroom. If you have a guest room where your friends will be sleeping over, make sure you make it a cozy space and include a welcome basket of essentials they may need.
You could also clean and set up your Friendsmas tablescape the night before to save yourself from rushing the tablescape decorating on the day!
This post showed you how to throw a Friendsmas party this holiday season!
Enjoyed this article? Find some more inspiration for holiday parties and festive activities from our blog posts below:
- The Ultimate Winter Bucket List for Adults: 30 Best Things to Do This Festive Season
- How to Throw a Friendsgiving Dinner Party That All Your Friends Will Adore
- 50 Funny and Ridiculous Elf on the Shelf Ideas
- 18 Beautiful Christmas Bedroom Decor Ideas
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