Do overused holiday party themes make you feel like a Grinch? This season, say goodbye to boring Winter Wonderland and Santa’s Workshop celebrations. Revive your holiday spirit with fresh, festive party ideas.
These unique themes will make it a holly jolly holiday party to remember:
12 Tastes of Christmas
Instead of celebrating the 12 days of Christmas, turn the focus toward food with a 12-course holiday meal. It might sound daunting, but having guests bring dishes to contribute to the feast can take some of the burden off.
Encourage people to make their favorite festive treats from childhood to add an extra fun element to this party theme. Nothing beats sharing a meal with loved ones, and a 12 Tastes of Christmas party is an excellent way to try new flavors while connecting with friends and family on a deeper level.
Tropical
While most people picture snow and icicles when thinking of Christmas, switching things up with a tropical theme is fun. Transform your venue into a beachy paradise with palms instead of Christmas trees and sunglasses instead of Santa hats.
Serve a fresh menu with on-theme flavors like pineapple salsa and coconut shrimp. Don’t forget to offer festive tropical drinks, like a cranberry margarita or passion fruit mocktail.
Masquerade
Grab a mask and dance the night away with a masquerade-themed holiday party. This option offers plenty of flexibility, depending on how formal or casual you want the dress code to be.
Keep things low-effort by instructing guests to throw on their favorite party outfit and a matching mask. For a grander affair, ask partygoers to dress to the nines in fancy gowns and suits.
Woodland Christmas
Bring the outdoors in with a woodland Christmas event. This enchanted forest theme is easy to pull off and budget-friendly with a healthy dose of creativity.
Rustic elements like antlers, dried flowers, and fairy lights will enhance the nature-inspired aesthetic. Incorporate a lot of greenery and offer healthy fall foods, like a harvest salad and stuffed mushrooms.
Ugly Sweater
An ugly sweater party can be fun if you prefer to dress down for holiday gatherings. Tell guests to don their ugliest sweaters and vote on which one looks the most atrocious.
Alternatively, you could turn it into a sweater-making party by telling attendees to bring a plain sweatshirt and providing craft supplies to create a personalized tacky design. Play up the theme by setting up a station with sweater-shaped cookies, colored icing, and sprinkles so guests can make edible ugly sweaters.
Cookie Swap
A cookie swap party is a delicious way to celebrate the season and is easy to arrange since every guest is responsible for bringing a batch of cookies to share. The key is having a festive and visually appealing table where all the cookies can be arranged for partygoers to browse.
Get creative with a Christmas-inspired color palette of red and green, or stay minimal with all-white accents. Provide holiday tins for guests to stuff with chocolate chip, thumbprint, hot chocolate, and other cookie varieties.
Old Hollywood
Make your friends and family feel like A-list celebrities with a glamorous Old Hollywood party. Set a formal dress code fit for a red carpet—you can even roll out a red carpet at the entrance to your party and snap photos with a Polaroid as guests arrive.
Play jazz music in the background and offer old-fashioned cocktails, like martinis and cosmopolitans, in vintage glassware. Amp up the Old Hollywood factor by decorating with white feathers, velvet ropes, and mini Oscar statuettes.
Christmas Around the World
Hosting a Christmas Around the World event allows you to experience global holiday traditions without leaving the country. From the decor and games to the food and drinks, there are many clever ways to incorporate various cultures.
Hide a pickle ornament in your Christmas tree and give a prize to whoever finds it in honor of the 16th-century German tradition. Star-shaped paper lanterns are common in India around the holidays, so set up a crafting area for party guests. As for the menu, you can serve authentic Mexican tamales, Greek roasted lamb, Polish borscht, and more.
Carol Karaoke
Tap into your inner pop star with a carol karaoke party. Buy or rent a karaoke machine to get guests in the holiday spirit by belting out their favorite festive tunes.
There are also many free playlists with karaoke versions of classic Christmas songs, so you only need a microphone and a screen. You’ll create lifelong memories of singing and laughing with loved ones at your caroling-inspired event.
Groovy Christmas
Relive the ‘70s with a groovy Christmas theme. Tell everyone to dress in boho hippie attire and decorate your space with sparkly tinsel, disco balls, and lava lamps. Play retro holiday tunes and serve old-school snacks like fondue and shrimp cocktails.
Murder Mystery
Give your holiday party an edge by turning it into a murder mystery game. Many fun and festive kits take the stress out of party planning with prepared stories, characters, and accessories. You can also browse free downloadable murder mystery party games online and change the details to be holiday-themed.
Polar Express
If you have a soft spot for “The Polar Express,” plan your party around the beloved Christmas film. Add train-themed elements throughout the space, like a ticket booth and an “all aboard” sign at the entrance.
Tell guests to arrive in their comfiest holiday pajamas and have a hot chocolate bar with marshmallows, candy canes, and whipped cream. Of course, don’t forget to give out jingle bells as party favors.
Gingerbread House Decorating
Host a gingerbread house decorating party to embrace your creative side. You can make it a friendly competition with prizes for the best gingerbread creations or keep things laid-back and decorate for fun.
Consider buying pre-built gingerbread houses so guests can save time and focus on decorating—especially if there will be kids in attendance. If you’re up for a challenge, have your partygoers build their houses from scratch with icing.
Tea Party
Pretend you’re royalty for a day by throwing an elegant holiday tea party. It’s the perfect excuse to dress fancy, drink tea, and indulge in light bites.
Browse local antique and thrift stores to find Christmas tableware and select a few holiday tea options, like peppermint and spiced vanilla. This theme gives you plenty of freedom to create a menu with festive offerings like cranberry brie bites and gingerbread biscuits.
Don’t arrive at your next holiday party empty-handed
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Elise Armitage is an entrepreneur and founder of What The Fab, a travel + lifestyle blog based in California. At the beginning of 2019, Elise left her corporate job at Google to chase her dreams: being an entrepreneur and helping women find fabulous in the everyday. Since then, she’s launched her SEO course Six-Figure SEO, where she teaches bloggers how to create a passive revenue stream from their website using SEO. Featured in publications like Forbes, Elle, HerMoney, and Real Simple, Elise is a firm believer that you can be of both substance and style.
