Hosting a Gift Wrapping Theme Christmas Party

Christmas can be a hectic time of year with events to attend, parties, and shopping. If planning a Christmas party for your girlfriends is on your list of things to do, consider having a themed party that will be enjoyable but also get other holiday tasks done.. A Christmas Party with a Gift Wrapping theme will allow you to catch up on what's going on with your girlfriends and give everyone the chance to get ahead on the season's gift wrapping. No time to plan the event? Here's a guide to hosting a party with a Gift Wrapping theme.

1. Invitations: Send out the invitations highlighting the party theme early to get on everyone's calendar. To keep with the party theme you can print the invitations on a piece of gift wrap or you can buy Christmas paper at the office supply store and print out invitations for your guests. You can just use the typical invite bullets or you can consider a poem like invitation:

Got Christmas preparation STRESS?

Can't seem to get it all done?

Here's a chance to treat your self....

WHAT: Gift Wrapping Party. Be a wrapping ELF!

ATTIRE: Dress however you want to dress (Casual)

WHY: Wrap your gifts while having some fun!

WHEN: Add your date and time here

The invitation should include specifics like RSVP time, a note about bringing things they want to wrap, remind them to bring their rolls of paper, bows, and ribbon. If there will be a gift exchange, include that on the invitation too.

2. Food: As the Gift Wrapping Party Host, you'll need to plan on what food to have. Since everyone will be busy wrapping, finger foods are probably best. This way guests can snack on items between gifts they wrap. You will want items that are easy preparation wise as your time may be tightly scheduled during the holiday season. Your gift wrapping party guests may enjoy a fruit or veggie and dip platter which can be ordered premade from the store. You can have a simple hot dish by putting a couple of bags of premade meatballs into your crock pot and adding 3 or 4 cans of cream of mushroom soup to them. Be sure you put them on 3 or 4 hours before your party so they cook and the soup becomes gravy. Nuts, chips, doughnuts, or cookies from the local bakery are all good finger food items which don't take a lot of preparation time. Keep it simple but offer a variety of items.

3. Decorations: If you have a small Christmas tree, use it as a center piece for your table. Decorate it using gift wrapping items. Tie a piece of ribbon through the hole of a roll of tape, or the handle of scissors so you can hang them on the tree. Fasten an ornament hook on one of the very small gift wrap bags to make it a tree decoration. Surround the tree with smaller gift wrapped packages. Make one bowl on the table for handling pens to fill out gift cards with, and another for gift tags. If you are going to provide package bows, they can be used as a decoration also.

4. Party Games: Start your Gift Wrapping theme party with a kick off game. Pair off attendees into groups of two and give each team some table space for the game. Each pair is given an awkward shaped item to wrap. The only rule to the game is that each person can use only one hand so the other one has to either be behind their back, or holding the unused hand of their partner. Each team gets one right hand and one left hand to use with team members deciding who uses which. Each team gets 2 minutes to do their best on wrapping an item. The group collectively can decide who wins the competition. Prize for the winning team might be a gift basket of wrapping goodies.

5. Wrapping Time: With the theme of the party being Gift Wrapping, most of your time will be spent getting gifts wrapped. You'll know your guests better than anyone. Some may not mind pairing up with another to wrap things, while others will want to do things their own way. As hostess, you can shuffle folks to parts of the room where you think they will work the best. Put on some Christmas carols for background music and enjoy catching up with what is happening in your friends' lives as you get your holiday gifts wrapped.

6. Gifts: If you decide to do a gift exchange with your attendees, be sure to let them know on the invitation what the dollar range for the gifts should be. When the guests arrive with their gifts in hand. Take each one, and place a number on it and place them somewhere they won't get mixed with the things you are wrapping. When you come to the gift exchange time, you can have each person draw a number which determines the gift they receive. Do this one at a time, saving yourself for last so that you know that no one gets their own package. As hostess you may want to buy a small gift for each of your guests to thank them for spending the time and celebrating the season with you.

Themed parties are a fun way of celebrating and a Gift Wrapping theme can help prevent those last minute wrapping sessions before the gifts have to be ready.