Throw a Christmas in July Party

I wish I could take credit for the following adorableness, but I have to give all credit to my friend Susan who is truly and out-of-the-box creative mom. The best part is that she doesn’t even realize just how cool she is, but she comes up with some really neat things for her four boys to do. It’s like year-round summer camp at her house.

Yesterday, K and I joined our friends at a Christmas in July party complete with decorations, projects, a gift exchange and an indoor snowball fight! We had such a fantastic time, I had to share some ideas to throw your own Christmas in July party. Follow these simple, but creative steps for a Christmasy good time in July!

• Invites – With your evite invitations invite the kids to bring a present for a gift exchange from the Target $1 spot. Invite moms to bring cookies to share.
• Food – Serve all your favorite Christmas cookies. To keep the kids busy, make plain butter cookies in various Christmas shapes and create a cookie decorating station (outside) for the “big” kids.
• Decor – Give your Christmas decorations a break from storage. Decorate a tree with beach themed items from around the house – flip flips, shovels, pool toys, sunglasses, etc. Pull out Christmas books for reading/decoration, and play all of your favorite Christmas carols. You can even bust out the Christmas-themed toys that only see play once a year.
• Art project – Cover your kitchen table with giant sheets of paper and draw Christmas-themed shapes and characters creating a giant Christmas coloring book for the kids. (It totally helps to be able to draw here, but you could always Google Christmas images, print them out and tape the sheets all over your table.)

• Snowball fight – This is where my jaw hit the floor. At some point during the party, Susan started an all-out snowball war in her living room! With snowballs made from nylon filled balls of stuffing, these snowballs were softer than the real thing. Even my timid toddler got into the act of collecting and tossing snowballs. It was all out fun with lots of laughter.
• Finally the gift exchange. As each child arrived, have them deposit their packages in a basket, and as each child leaves allow them to select a present to go. We took an Elmo book and received an animal puzzle. Each gift only cost $1, but it brought HUGE smiles!

In between the Christmas fun, the kids ran around and had a typical play date while the moms caught up. It was a fun day filled with several creative extras that made it extra special. So, if you are planning to have some little ones over, throw convention out the window and create Christmas in July (or August or whenever) party. The kids will love and the moms will be in awe of your creativity!