Real Party – Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

Are you looking for inspiration for a hootenanny of a party? Then, look no further than an Ugly Sweater Party. Or Festive Holiday Sweater Party if you don’t want to offend the natives. Last year was my First Annual Ugly Sweater Party and Gift Exchange, just for the ladies. Everyone has asked if we are doing it again. Alas, I can only summon up the strength for one holiday blowout a year, and Halloween was it. Next year, I promise, it will be bigger, better and more tinsely! But then, I can’t call it annual then, can I?

Some people take their sweaters very seriously, and if you’ve ever received one as a gift, you can attest. Fortunately/Sadly, I’ve not been a recipient of one, nor do I have grandmas with trunks full of them to borrow one, so I had to purchase mine. The majority of my guests did not have to. And you had to come decked out, flashing light bulb earrings and all. And they did not disappoint!

It was the most painful, gawdy display I had ever seen, Santa hats, LOTS of embroidery, elf ears, sweaters with music, festive socks, the works.

Of course, we had to have cocktails to drown each others’ outfits, so we had Chocolate Peppermintini and Cocoa and Cream, courtesy of Stirrings drink mixers, recipes right off the bottles, with crushed candy canes as a rimmer and a mini candy cane garnish. I had discovered Martha’s Apple-Ginger Sparkler recipe, and everyone loved it, down to the cinnamon stick and crystallized ginger garnishes.

And, of course, true to form, we had things to do. I made necklaces from jingle bells, and we couldn’t say the word “Christmas” or else you lost your necklace. Everyone was quite competitive (read aggressive) about it too. There was a holiday hunt where I posted up 10 close up pictures of various Christmas paraphernalia and the first to find them all was the winner. We made paper-ball ornaments and did Martha’s no-stitch cross stitch on votive holders, and the infamous “Guess How Many M&Ms In The Jar”.

We had a $5 nice gift swap, via a holiday-themed Left-Right story. I figured since they were all such good sports about the ensembles, they could go home with something nice. And, a prize to the winner of the Most Festive Holiday Ensemble. It was C in the upper left corner of the sweater collage, pictured above. Her socks even lit up and played music. Festive fun had by all!

Yours truly with the bobble-head Santa headband……

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