Money Making Machines: How To Decorate For a Memorable Holiday Party

Coral Nafie,

If you're planning a Christmas party, you'll find some good and simple ideas for making it a memorable occasion.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Varies

Here's How:

Plan your party around a theme or a seasonal color scheme. Finding decorations and making plans will be easier. Choose anything from Santa to snowmen, music to angels. Find some other ideas for holiday theme ideas. Red, white, green, gold, and silver are traditional holiday colors. Use just one color or combine several for your decorations.
Making a simple phone call to invite your guests is easiest for a spur-of-the-moment party. But if you're planning ahead, design your party invitation after you've chosen your theme. Create an invitation that your guests will really remember. Cut out a paper shape for your theme and write the party information on the back. Embellish it with ribbon or glitter and add a tie for hanging.
Make an impression right from the start. Think about wrapping your front door with Christmas gift wrapping paper. Create a giant bow and tie it around the door. Don't forget a beautiful wreath. Arrange luminarias along the sidewalk and have Christmas music playing from the minute the guests arrive.
To add a holiday touch to every room in your house, tie bows on everything from candlesticks to doorknobs, teddy bears to chair backs. If you know how, make the bows with a wire tie. They'll be easy to remove and reuse year after year.

Place a small floral centerpiece or cluster of candles on a coffee table, piano, desk, or side table. Select a color to enhance your decorating theme and color scheme.
To add a festive look everywhere, sprinkle glitter on every surface you can see. Think lamp shades, table tops, buffet, bathroom countertops, buffet, table, dining table, and under glass serving plates. Be sure you don't get the glitter on food service dishes.
Select several tapes or CDs and play Christmas music all evening. Choose a type of music that compliments your decorating theme.
If you have a fireplace, pile it high with logs and keep it blazing all through the party. Recruit a friend to keep it going. If your fireplace does not burn real logs, arrange pillar candles at different heights and burn them. They'll cast a beautiful flickering light around the room.
Whether you're serving food as a buffet or seating your guests at the table, decorate the table with elements of your chosen theme or color scheme. In this case, "more" is good. Sprinkle glitter around the table. Your centerpiece, table linens, even the food, can compliment your decorating plan. Arrange colored, candied apples around a roast, green parsley or rosemary on white potatoes, white pearl onions mixed with green peas. The possibilities are endless.
Offer a small gift to each guest at the table. Decorate and personalize a tree ornament and use it as a place card. Or decorate cut-out cookies with your guests' names. Tie a small sheer bag with pot pourri or have a mini pointsettia at each place. Place your guest's name at the favor and date it as a memento of the occasion.
Even if you don't have enough for every guest, use your holiday china. For a buffet service, alternate holiday plates with plain, regular ones on the pile. If guests are seated, alternate the patterns around the table. Be sure to use a tablecloth or mats and napkins to continue your color scheme. And don't forget the polished silver and crystal. After all, it's a party!
Have a simple holiday decoration in every room that your guests will enter. Use a pretty wreath on the door of the room where they'll leave their coats, a glowing candle in the powder room, a beautiful pointsettia in the kitchen, small arrangement on the hall table, or mini Christmas tree on the coffee table. The possibilities are endless. And what a difference these special touches will make!
For a fun addition, and for the fun-at-heart, hang some mistletoe or a kissing ball from a chandelier.

Tips:

If you're on a budget, you'll find that candle tapers, pillars, or votives give a beautiful glow and festive look to any room.
A footed clear glass bowl piled high with colored glass tree ornaments makes a pretty centerpiece in place of flowers.
Don't forget to turn on all your Christmas lights before your guests arrive.
Place candles all around the house and turn out all the lights except the ones on the Christmas tree. Everything will look romantic and cozy for your party.