Everything You Need to Know About Starting a Christmas Ornament Exchange

The holidays are all about maintaining and creating memories and traditions and a very good way to do this is to start a Christmas Ornament Exchange Group.

First you need to make a list of who you think will enjoy belonging to the group. Some of your friends may be 'crafty' and others may claim to be all thumbs. For both catagories you may want to throw around some ideas with them after they have expressed interest. This can also be used for a children's group or maybe moms and kids. A good maximum number is 10-12 if all adults, for the kids or mom and kid groups the size limit will depend on ages etc.. If you get too many members the quality will go down because people will have to make too many ornaments to stay in the group.

For the 'crafty' group discussing different ideas helps set the bar. People will get an idea of the level of ornaments that will be exchanged. It isn't as much fun to get or give a candy cane reindeer when you made or get Victorian decorated glass ornament. You may even want to include a list of suggestions with the invites. A little internet research and you can incude a few for both groups if needed.

For the 'all thumbs' group discussing ideas with them is a good time to encourage them. As elaborate as Victorian decorated glass ornaments sounds if someone can use a glue gun and has just a tad bit of creativity they can handle them. If that is too much for them there are other projects that are even easier that will also impress.

Once you have got your group together you need to pick a date. A week-end date is good and usually the one before or after Thanksgiving seems to work very well. It is best to plan early those much needed dates go fast this time of the year. This is a fun party for midday or evening.

The party itself can be as fancy or as simple as you would like. Something as simple as cookies, punch, and coffee to maybe a potluck to a catered affair if that is your style. This year you are the host but next year another group member will be hosting. This is to be decided at the party and can be done by volunteering or by picking a name out of a hat.

Everybody is encouraged to bring some sort of nice container for their ornaments both the ones they are giving and also to take their new treasures home in. One of the best part of the party is looking at all the glittering, sparkling creative ornaments in their decorated display containers. Baskets work very well for this.

The ornament exchange is easiest if everyone sit in a circle and start passing the gifts around starting with different people even going in both directions. This way everyone gets to choose at least a couple times and no one is always last. It is nice to make 1 or 2 extra ornaments so everyone gets choices. This is also something you can suggest to your group member.

This is a very easy party to host and everyone, including the host, now has new ornaments to decorate for the holidays.