My Favorite Things Celebration

Host a “My Favorite Things” party this holiday season in “Oprah Style”. You can invite as many friends as you want or you can choose to keep the group relatively small. Start with invitations and party packs like these from the Creative Orchard or Party Papers. Swag bags can be prepared using these free printables. You can also ask each person to bring their favorite dessert or appetizer to share. Then decide how you want to organize it by trying one of these three suggestions.

1) Ask everyone to bring five (or you choose the number) of their favorite things as gifts. Each gift had to be exactly the same and set a price limit.  When guests arrive, have them write their name on five slips of paper and drop them into a bag. After some mingling over cocktails and appetizers, gather in the room with the gifts. Then draw five names out of the bag – making sure each name chosen is different and not their own. The host kicks off the game by standing up and sharing what gift she brought and why it’s her favorite thing. She then delivers her gifts to each of the five girls whose names she drew from the bag. One of the five gift recipients then volunteers to share and distribute her favorite things, and so on and so on. At the end of the night, everyone will come away with five incredibly cute and creative gifts of their own.

2) Set up a fun table with name cards so that when the guests arrive at the party there is a place for the favorite things.  Don’t wrap the gifts so that they are easy to see. Spend the first hour chatting and eating and then the fun really starts. The host kicks things off by sharing the item she brought. She tells a little bit about it and why it’s one of her favorite things. Then one by one the guests go to the front of the room and share a little about their favorite item. After each person has had a minute to share their favorites the shopping begins. Now the guests will know what everyone brought and have an idea of something they’d love to take home. Start at one end of the room and one by one go to the table and pick an item. After everyone has had a turn to pick one thing, start at the other end of the room and each guest picks something else. Each person usually gets at least one thing they really want.

3) Make your favorite things party like a traditional gift exchange. Have each guest bring one of their favorite things (maybe with a higher price tag) and then exchanged in secret santa form by drawing numbers. Examples could be a favorite magazine subscriptions, plush robe, best sunscreen/skin care products, rare wine, stunning scarf, pretty tea set, or a useful gift card.