It's no secret that I love a good holiday celebration.
In fact, I tend to make sure I celebrate every holiday to the fullest extent!
This Christmas season, my friend Leila at Moroccan Olives and I decided to host a little Merry Friendsmas party for some of our closest pals! Movies, drinks, and a Favorite Things Exchange. Perfect conditions for a cozy night in!
And no winter soiree is complete without a hot chocolate bar, am I right?
To set up your hot chocolate bar vignette, you'll need to start with the ingredients!
-hot chocolate mix (we chose the classic, Swiss Miss)
-whipped cream (we used the EXTRA creamy Reddi Whip)
-fun sprinkles (we used Sprinkle Pop's "Fahoo Fores" Sprinkle Mix)
-delicious marshmallows (we used Smashmallows, Strawberry and Mint Chocolate Chip flavors)
-drink stirrers (these "Merry Christmas" ones were from Target's Dollar Spot!)
-something to spike it! (we provided the choice of Kahlua and Irish cream)
We had a "Favorite Things Exchange" in lieu of your typical Secret Santa gift swap!
It's a fun idea that I participated in for the first time at the Female Foodie Retreat this past summer.
Instead of drawing names and buying a gift specific to one person, you buy a set number of YOUR favorite thing. My "favorite thing" was a box of Sugarfina champagne gummy bears (which you can buy separately for $8.50 at lots of different places!).
Basically, you decide how many gifts each person will purchase (ours was 2, so I bought 2 boxes of gummy bears) and set a spending limit (ours was $10 for each gift). You can do any number of gifts and any spending limit though!
In our case, we each bought 2 gifts and made sure that the chosen gift was no more than $10 (each).
Once you come together at your exchange, you draw names. You must make sure everyone participating has their name in the bowl for however many gifts you are exchanging (so we were each in the bowl twice). Pass the bowl around and each person draws 2 names. Whoever you draw, those are the people who receive your gifts! In the end, everyone ends up with the same number of gifts that they showed up with, and you get to try your friends' favorite things!
You can make this a really cute and inexpensive way to do a gift exchange. For example, set your limit to $5 and pick up 4 of the same gift, and you've only spent $20! You'll be getting 4 gifts. Or go the more expensive route for more elaborate gifts!
In the past, I've seen people bring their favorite snack, their favorite dry shampoo, cute keychains, adult coloring books, and much much more!
To finish out the event, we watched The Grinch (the Jim Carrey version that Leila is terrified of)!
But what movies do each of us insist on watching every year?
Here is a list of our top 7 favorite classic Christmas films!
1. The Holiday (free to watch with Prime, or purchase DVD here)
2. The Grinch
3. Elf
6. Home Alone
So I suggest you Amazon Prime the heck out of these so that you can watch them before the big day....Christmas, that is!
But you really don't need much to throw a fabulous Merry Friendsmas. Some good films, great friends, and tasty food and drink are all it takes!
(There might be wine in here.)
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you truly needn't bother with a lot to toss an astonishing Cheerful Friendsmas. Essay Champ Some great movies, incredible companions, and delicious food.
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