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It amazes me how fast time goes when you have kids. One of my favorite motherhood quotes is by Gretchen Rubin- “The days are long but the years are short.” I feel like they get shorter with each kid. The past year has felt like a blink. Since my youngest has a November birthday, I knew I would be hard-pressed to find a birthday party theme that would also allow me to decorate for Christmas on November 1st (because YES, I do). Then a quick Pinterest search led me to the idea of a Lumberjack party, and we already had a fleece Buffalo plaid outfit so it was basically destiny.
Not only did I already have the perfect little outfit for him to wear, I also had almost everything needed to decorate our house because CHRISTMAS.
I found most of the decorations at Target, Hobby Lobby and Amazon. I linked all of the items below, but I also created a page on my Amazon store with links to similar products here.
It amazes me how fast time goes when you have kids. One of my favorite motherhood quotes is by Gretchen Rubin- “The days are long but the years are short.” I feel like they get shorter with each kid. The past year has felt like a blink. Since my youngest has a November birthday, I knew I would be hard-pressed to find a birthday party theme that would also allow me to decorate for Christmas on November 1st (because YES, I do). Then a quick Pinterest search led me to the idea of a Lumberjack party, and we already had a fleece Buffalo plaid outfit so it was basically destiny.
Not only did I already have the perfect little outfit for him to wear, I also had almost everything needed to decorate our house because CHRISTMAS.
I found most of the decorations at Target, Hobby Lobby and Amazon. I linked all of the items below, but I also created a page on my Amazon store with links to similar products here.
Candle is from TJ MAXX / Felt green banner is from Target seasonal dollar section
The make your own trail mix came by accident. I was filling the treat bags and hot cocoa station with marshmallows and M&Ms and I had extra, so I got creative with the extras and filled up my favorite serving dish with other items I had in the pantry- raisins, peanuts and some cereal. The kids loved it, even for some of them “make your own trail mix” really means fill a cup with marshmallows and M&Ms, but that’s what parties are for…there were a lot of raisins left at the end of the night. 🙂
Copper mugs / red chalkboard sign from seasonal Target dollar section
Treat bags (I cut them in half)
Inside of each treat bag I put the ingredients to make a microwavable s’more, a hot chocolate packet and a granola bar. This was easy and inexpensive! The clothespins were to attach a tag with each child’s name on it, and I found the clothespins in the dollar section at Target with the seasonal/Christmas items.
For dessert I opted to make cookie cakes because my nephew shares the same birthday and his favorite is cookie cake. It ended up being a great choice because it was easy to make egg-free (#foodallergylife) and then I served ice cream sundaes with them, which the kids were thrilled about.
Another thing my nieces were thrilled about was this little hot cocoa station I set up in the kitchen. Coincidentally, the day of the party was also the first real snow we got here in Buffalo this winter, so they were in the mood for a warm treat while the adults enjoyed cocktails (pro-tip: babies don’t really care about their 1st birthday party so have it in the evening 🙂 )
I do a little hot cocoa station like this every Christmas morning because we host brunch. It’s easy to set up the night before and all you need to do is fill a Crockpot with milk and set it to “keep warm”. I’ve done Crockpot hot cocoa before, but this time I just kept the milk warm and had the kids make their own with packets. These adorable coffee cups were found at TJ Maxx and the little hot sleeves that came with them were the perfect spot for the kids to write their names. The girls pretended they worked at Starbucks and were writing their orders on them.
This time around we only had family since our families are pretty large, and with the time of year we can really only invite as many people as we can fit into our house. It was a happy day for our family AND my house is now officially decorated for the holidays!
