Friendsmas: How to Bring Your Favourite People Together

This year, with not going home for Christmas to be with my family, I wanted to ensure I was still celebrating the season with my chosen family. The people I choose to spend time with, support, laugh and make memories with. Celebrating with these special people feels as important as celebrating with loved ones who have known you all your life. I’m grateful for each of these relationships and felt the need to show appreciation for them by hosting what I like to call Friendsmas, a night of good food, drinks, friendship, crafts and conversations. Today I’ll be sharing what went into this event so that you too can host your very own Friendsmas for the important people in your life.

Decor

Let’s be honest, it’s pretty on-brand for us to have decor as a key element to a great celebration but what can I say, we both have a passion for colour palettes and making things pretty! In thinking about the decor for the event I started by considering what kind of colour pallet I wanted to work with. 

Years ago, I saw an influencer who had decorated her Christmas tree with a pallet of red, pink and gold and immediately fell in love. I became mildly obsessed with the look of this colour scheme and knew that at some point in my life I wanted to make this happen for myself. So, I decided that Friendsmas was the perfect excuse to make this dream a reality. I already had a number of red and gold ornaments in my collection, so really the only thing I had to think about was how to effectively bring pink into my already existing pallet. I came across a couple ornaments with accents of pink, including a bunny with a couple of pink shopping bags, and a pink car with a Christmas tree on top to name a few. I also added a set of standard orb-shaped ornaments that were pink in various textures, matte, high shine and sequin, making the pink of the pallet stronger and more cohesive with the amount of red and gold that was already there. Once the tree was in place, the rest was easy, sprinkling the pallet throughout the rest of my home including garlands, candles and the tabletop decorations I had for my shelves and bar cart.

I believe the key to a beautiful Christmas tree is ensuring that the bulk of ornaments should be reminiscent of who you are and evoke good memories. Your tree should always bring you joy whenever you look at it so choose pieces that make you smile.

Food and Drink

There are a lot of different directions you can go with food and drink at a friend soireé, which means there is no wrong answer, whether you have a potluck, do catering or make a nice home-cooked meal for your nearest and dearest. 

For a period of time, I had my mind set on making a turkey dinner, but the reality of living in a condo with no formal dining space brought me to my senses, so I landed on an appetizer-focused evening. I made the bulk of the appetizers myself, three appetizers, a salad, a charcuterie board and two desserts while asking everyone to bring one appetizer each to contribute to the meal. It turned out to be an incredible spread, full of indulgent, delicious food. Personally, I love a potluck because you get to try different dishes that you might not make for yourself in your day-to-day life, not to mention, it takes a little bit of the pressure off the host making everything, ensuring there’s more than enough food for everyone.

In terms of beverages, there are again so many avenues you could go: mulled wine, holiday cocktails, cider, spiked cocoa, the list goes on! As someone who tends to get very excited about hosting and often bites off a little more than she can chew, I opted for a little personal kindness for myself and went the route of simplicity, offering various wine options. It wasn’t super fancy, but there was more than enough for everyone! I also recommend having a festive option for anyone who doesn’t want to partake in alcohol, such as sparkling water or cranberry ginger ale, to help make sure everyone is included in the merry festivities.

Activities

Of course, your friends are the most important aspect of hosting Friendsmas, as it’s truly all about socializing, catching up and enjoying time together at one of the busiest times of year, however, I really wanted to make sure that there was a little something extra! You might choose to plan fun, interactive and silly games for your evening, but for this group, I knew crafting would be the perfect option. I created a craft corner for my friends to come and decorate a glass ornament if they wanted. They could then stamp a bag to either take their ornament home or gift it to a loved one. I loved this because it was a fun activity, a chance to laugh and be creative, and doubled as a party favour, something that could be taken home to remember the night of festive fun.

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