Last night we had our annual Ward Christmas Party. A couple of months ago, I was asked to be in charge (but I had been thinking about it since our Ward Christmas Party last year ended that I was in charge of). I searched and searched for a fun and different theme for this party. Something that everyone would have fun with. I couldn't find anything I liked. I decided I needed a movie or book to base everything on. I couldn't find a book and then all of a sudden, it came to me, the movie ELF! It was PERFECT! Such a fun movie that everyone LOVES! Then the fun began - making it all happen. I must say that I had the BEST group of people helping me - they made all my crazy ideas come to life and helped make everything AMAZING!!!!!
I am posted a LOT of pictures but I have to - it is all so cool. These pictures are all from before the party started - I will post pictures from the party later.
Buddy (from the movie Elf), left the NORTH POLE (see sign in windows) and walked through the
SEVEN LEVELS OF THE CANDY CANE FOREST
- tall red and white striped poles are from our Christmas party last year (made from carpet rolls, paint and red duct tape)
- branches, painted with red stripes we put in the top of the poles and candy caned hung from them
- the skinny candy canes are PVC pipes that the most amazing guy on my committee (Jeff Humble) bent somehow (blow torch maybe)
- then we painted them white and put red duct tape on
How cool do the hanging candy canes look!!!
Once inside the building, you are in the
SEA OF SWIRLY TWIRLY GUMDROPS
- that is what Buddy walked through next
We figured out a fun way to make swirly twirly gumdrops out of swim noodles but they are hard to find in Utah in November. So we were only able to make 6 of them. Below is our version of a swirly twirly gumdrop. We made it out of
- pool noodles
- piece of PVC pipe to hole the noodles together
- tissue paper coming out of the top to help make a point
- cellophane wrapped around
The rest of the decorations in the lobby were "CANDY" - since Elves LOVE candy.
The LOLLIPOPS are:
- balloons attached to balloon stands (plastic - can be bought at party stores and Hobby Lobby)
- taped to a can of food
- can is wrapped with tissue paper
- balloon is wrapped with cellophane
- curling ribbon of several colors used to tie everything
Other candies are:
- large white paper plates
- wrapping paper cut into circles
- plates with wrapping paper circles are wrapped with cellophane
- tied cellophane with curling ribbon
- some are one sided (taped to walls and used to mark the path on the floor)
- some are doubled sided to hang from ceiling
Once through the SEA OF SWIRLY TWIRLY GUMDROPS, Buddy walked through the
LINCOLN TUNNEL
I had a picture of the front of the tunnel but I don't know what happened to it. Jeff Humble made the tunnel entrance and had the walls of the tunnel made as well. To make it even better, we had tunnel sounds - cars driving and horns honking - playing in the "tunnel".
Once through the tunnel, you (just like Buddy), entered into
NEW YORK CITY
We made a Skyline, including the Empire States Building - that my amazing friend Lindsey Easterly put lights in so it would light up - AMAZING!!!!
In addition to the Skyline, we had white paper chains (made by lots of people including Cub Scouts in our ward and some of the Activity Day girls) and snowflakes, both 3D and regular (also made by many people including the Primary kids, Cub Scouts, Young Woman, and more).
If you watch the movie, you know that Buddy decorates for Christmas with paper chains and snowflakes! Thankfully, my incredibly talented friend Janeen Gardner was on my committee and helped a TON - and her mother-in-law had a super cool tool that allowed us to hang snowflakes and paper chains from the ceiling (anything metal - lights, speakers). Seriously the coolest thing ever!
We had to have a really cool 3D snowflake - thanks to Lindsey for figuring it out!
Our centerpieces on all our tables were Buddy the Elf hats over a glass vase the candy canes. To stay with the theme of using white paper to decorate, we covered all the tables with white butcher paper and put a square of fun wrapping paper in the center of each table - looked great with the centerpieces!
There are so many fabulous quotes in the movie so we put some of the walls.
When you first walked into the cultural hall (gym - New York), we had a table for the kids to get their own Buddy the Elf hat. We had red feathers that they could write their names on and put on their hats. It was so fun to see all the kids in their Buddy the Elf hats.
We had a couple of other stations in the gym. We had a GINGERBREAD HOUSE station where each family could decorate a gingerbread house (Buddy makes a gingerbread house in the movie). You could also bring one from home - they were all judged and a few awards given out at the end.
It was fun to see how the kids decorated them - they LOVED it!
We also had a station for the kids to make SNOWFLAKES but I don't know where the picture is. The kids could hang their completed snowflakes on a wire at the end of the gym with a clothespin - or on the trees in the gym.
In the Primary room was
SANTA'S WORKSHOP
- Buddy worked in Santa's Workshop before he left the North Pole
We had our Service Project in this room (Elves are all about service). Everyone had donated items before the party to make NUTRIENT KITS to be given to kids at our local food shelter. It was the PERFECT service project because everyone, young and old, could help! Our goal was 200 kits and we made OVER 500!!!! AMAZING!
Since it was Santa's Workshop, we had PRESENTS (wrapped boxes) in the corners.
In another room we had the
MAILROOM
- Buddy worked in the Mailroom when he got to New York City
Here we had pictures of all the missionaries serving from our Ward - 22 in all! Everyone could write letters (to the MISSIONARIES and SANTA here we had stationary for them),
What is a Christmas party without a visit from Santa. We had the other lobby set up with the coolest fireplace (thanks to Jeff Humble once again), a tree, comfy chair, and "THE LIST" (Santa's naughty and nice list). Again, not sure where my good pictures are of this.
In another, smaller room, we had a couple of tables set up so people could sit and eat (not room for everyone in the gym). In this room we had 4 sugary cereals, milk, and juice. We also had the movie Elf playing (edited a little of course).
Back in the gym, we had the
WORLD'S BEST CUP OF COCOA
- in the movie it was the best cup of coffee (but we don't drink coffee)
We have to have everything look good - including trash cans that we wrap with wrapping paper. So we made ELF hats to cover 2 of the coolers with hot chocolate and the other cooler was square so we put a wrapped box over it - so cute (Lindsey is pretty amazing).
We had marshmallows and whipped cream for the hot chocolate - the kids LOVED it!
If you have seen the movie, you know what the 4 Main Food Groupd for Elves are:
So that is what we served for breakfast (hence the SUGARY CEREAL in the other room). We had muffins, donuts, fruit, and even SPAGHETTI and SYRUP! We even had CANDY CORN and CANDY (the candy was for the gingerbread houses).
Here are a bunch of pictures of the food table - it looked so cool! LOVE the donut trees!
Sorry for all the pictures but is all looked so AWESOME!
To carry on the theme of SERVICE home, we had a square piece of wood, painted white and a bow tied around it to look like a present. The attached tied is below. We had one for each family to take home. Thanks to my SIL Michelle for the idea - she gave us one last year and I have been waiting to get to us it at this year's Ward Party.
At the end of the party, we had a HUGE
SNOWBALL FIGHT
- Buddy had a snowball fight in the movie
- Lindsey MADE 300 snowballs to use
- I will post pictures in the next post about the party
Thanks so much to EVERYONE that made this party so FABULOUS!
Posts
