Christmas Craft Party

Christmas Craft Party: ideas for a girl friend get together with decorations, drinks, appetizers, sweet table, and ornament making craft.

I had a little Christmas craft party on the weekend....I know you're thinking it's a little early. I'm not even going to try and deny it. But, I heard someone say years ago that November should be for getting ready for Christmas and December for celebrating it. I like that. So this was a getting ready for the Christmas season kind of a party.

I got together with some girl friends for some great food, conversation and Christmas ornament making. It was a really lovely evening and I'm excited to share all the pretty details with you. It's such a great idea to get together with some girlfriends and do a fun activity together. You want to choose simple Christmas crafts, that aren't too difficult, so everyone has fun doing their Christmas project. We made DIY Christmas ornaments together and it was such a fun project.

Christmas Craft Party Decorations

Let's start out with all the pretty holiday decorations and party decor. I worked all week on getting my Christmas decorations up on the main floor of our house for Christmas celebrations. This year I decided to go with a vintage theme for my Christmas decor. I found the perfect party decor from Minted. The different colors of pink, blue and grey color scheme looked great with all my own vintage inspired Christmas decor.

When guests arrived at the front door the dining room was all set up for our easy Christmas crafts and with a pretty dessert buffet for snacking.

The pretty paper fans, paper confetti for the table, and fun circle bunting were really great additions and added lots of holiday spirit.

The Buffet Decorations

I dressed up the buffet area with a few fun touches. I wrote out the lyrics of "Have a Holly, Jolly, Christmas" on the chalkboard. My favourite easy addition for this Christmas was printing a few vintage Christmas cards I found for free online and putting them in these simple white frames. This is a really great way to add some vintage Christmas elements even if you can't find the real thing.

Craft Party Drink Station

Every fun party needs some fun drinks, and especially for Christmas you need a little holiday cheer! I set up the drinks station in the kitchen, on my kitchen table. Not the greatest for photos on the blog, but really practical in real life, since you can set up so guests can serve themselves from all sides, depending on what they're having.

I started out by placing a pretty wooden sleigh on the table. I thought it would be a fun Christmas-y piece to use, a bit different, and since it's nice and flat, it worked great as an elevated serving piece -different heights always add interest to a buffet. 😉

Christmas Craft Party Centre Piece

On the sleigh, I set up several cloches as a centerpiece, and the gumball machine snow globe that I made here. The cloches looked like snow globes with little glitter houses and faux snow inside. They looked great along with a mini silver Christmas tree.

Cold Drinks

I wanted to offer my guests a few cold drink options. The cranberry-raspberry punch is made from juice and ginger ale. Cranberry always seems perfect for the holiday season. I set-up some champagne glasses with pretty striped paper straws and straw labels.

I also offered some wine, and water to guests.

Hot Chocolate Bar

The star of the show was the hot chocolate bar. I made homemade hot chocolate, using this crock pot recipe. It was very chocolaty, maybe even a little too chocolaty for me -although admittedly I'm not the biggest chocolate fan, and you could certainly just increase the milk.

Since my crock pot was busy making pulled pork -more details on the food to come, I made the hot chocolate on the stove, and when it was ready put it into a large thermos for serving. This worked great, since it stayed really hot, and I didn't have to even think about it all night. Along with the hot chocolate, I put out some Irish Cream, and some Kahlua -in case any of my guests wanted to make their hot chocolate a bit special. 😉 There was also some caramels that could be added in, and some whipped cream. Yum.

I also offered some cinnamon sticks for stirring, or for those who can't get enough chocolate -chocolate spoons! I picked them up at the dollar store, each package had a few milk and a few dark chocolate spoons. These were a big hit. I also put out some candy canes for stirring, in pretty mason jars.

Flavored Homemade Marshmallows

The highlight of the hot chocolate bar was the homemade marshmallows. I made three kinds -vanilla, chocolate, and Baileys. I have to say they were so yummy. You can find my flavoured marshmallow recipe here.

The Crafts

The highlight of the Christmas craft party was of course the crafts! We all made DIY Christmas decorations together. I set up the dining table with all kinds of great craft supplies and invited my friends to each bring some clear glass, or plastic ornaments that we could fill together as the craft for our Christmas craft party.

Ornament Making Supplies

I used my milk glass collection to house all the little craft supplies for the evening. This worked great to keep all the different materials organized and still make it look pretty. 😉 The milk glass worked great with our vintage Christmas theme too.

Ornament Fillers

I had a few ideas of what the fillers could be, and as a personal touch I even checked in with my peeps to hear what some of their Christmas colour schemes were this year, so we could have some options that would work for everyone. We had some neutral tones, some bright colors, traditional red and green, and some pink options.

If you're thinking of setting up an evening like this, here's a few ideas of what you might want to include as filler a plastic or glass ornament. One friend was working on a woodland, and nature theme, so I found some simple birch bark, tiny cedar pine cones, and white feathers. Everyone liked the idea of snow globes, so I put out some faux snow and a few fun options for fillers. There were twigs to decorate, little mini white Christmas trees, and few tiny plastic deer too.

My sister picked up some plastic balls that split in half to fill. These worked the best for the snow globes and allowed her to make some snow globes with some little toy animals. They turned out so cute. Another friend is planning to pick some up and put some lego men in for her little boys this year, which is such a great idea to personalize your DIY ornaments.

I also had some letter beads. Some people used them to spell out someone's name. I glued the letters together to write the word "snow" and added some faux snow. So cute and so simple. These make such great DIY Christmas gifts too.

I had also picked up some rhinestone buckles, and a little black velvet ribbon. We used these to make a cute Santa ornament, with some simple red tinsel inside.

We also used lots of glitter, sequins, beads, paint, music sheets, and ribbons. The possibilities are really endless.

Ornament Making Craft Supplies

Here are the supplies we used for our craft projects, plus a few glue guns and hot glue. Of course you will also need some plastic or glass ornaments to fill. We used:

birch bark
feathers
tiny pinecones
faux snow
mini trees
twigs
mini deer
letter beads
rhinestone buckles
black velvet ribbon
glitter
sequins
paint
music sheets
ribbons
tinsel
pom poms
wooden beads

You can see from the smiles on the faces of my friends that we had a great time together -eating, drinking, crafting, laughing, and connecting. This was a really easy craft and perfect for a night like this. Everyone had so much fun making their own ornaments for their Christmas trees or to use as great gifts for the whole family. This was the perfect way to enjoy a crafting day or night together.

Christmas Craft Party Food

For this party I made a few hot and cold appetizers as well as a fun dessert table. You can read all about how I did all the food and drinks for the party for around $100 here if you're interested in party food on a budget.

Crockpot Pulled Pork Sliders

I started out with the pulled pork sliders. This was my main hot item for the party. I found a good crock pot pulled pork recipe here, which also meant it could be made ahead.

I served the pork with a homemade coleslaw on slider buns, that were the perfect size. These were a real hit, and everyone loved them and the small size was perfect.

Perogies

For a vegetarian hot option I served perogies. They were simple frozen ones, garnished with a little sour cream and some fresh chives. They looked great, and were super easy. Simple food dressed up with a garnish and served individually is always a hit.

We also had some homemade hummus and pita chips, veggies and dip, and potato chips for nibbling and snacking while we crafted.

The Sweet Table

I made really simple vanilla cupcakes and they looked so cute. The cupcake toppers were ornaments from the dollar store that I added a tooth pick to, and they we adorable for our vintage Christmas theme.

I also made some mini cheesecakes -see my recipe here. These were easy to serve and perfect for our retro theme.

For some healthy options we served some dates stuffed with walnuts and a fresh berry tray.

This holiday party craft night making handmade ornaments was so much fun. It was great to spend the evening making simple crafts and eating great food with girlfriends and get us all into the Christmas spirit. It was so fun, I think it might become one of our new favourite Christmas traditions.

With a Christmas craft party to enjoy with friends, life really is a party!