Invite: For the invitation, I made sure to include Christmas plaid, the Hallmark logo, and an old red truck to fulfill some common Hallmark tropes. This in addition to the wording of the invitation.
Decorations: Hallmark Christmas movies are all about beautiful red and green scenes, and snow accented evenings. I tried to decorate with items that went along with those concepts. The main table had a red tablecloth with fun accents.
For the centerpiece, I used some holiday themed boxes with plaid and added decorations I either had or borrowed from friends. These included a cute gingerbread house since the plot of many Hallmark Christmas movies includes the couple building or judging gingerbread houses.
The red truck hauling a Christmas tree is another Hallmark staple. The little trees and snowflake pieces on the table added to the festive wintery decor.
No Hallmark Christmas movie is complete without one of the characters baking perfectly decorated Christmas cookies, so I incorporated these into my place cards. I bought these super cute Christmas cookies from Target. Nope...I don't have the skills or the time to do this myself! I placed them on a piece of silver metallic cardstock that I cut and folded to look like a mini cookie sheet. I added a tag that read, "Mysteriously Perfect Christmas Cookie for ______" and included the guest's name.
I made a tag to place on top of the napkin that read "Napkin-ly Ever After" to play with the happily ever after ending to every Hallmark Christmas movie.
For wine charms, I cut out images of various Christmas related items prevalent in Hallmark movies - snowflake, movie clapboard with holly, a present, a tree, the truck with tree in the bed, cup of hot cocoa, and mistletoe among others.
For wine labels, I designed labels to imitate Hallmark movie titles. "Holiday Romance in a Bottle" was for my white wine and I added a sparkly Christmas tree made out of wine bottles and glasses. For the red wine, it was "Uncork Christmas: The Perfect Pairing in Every Sip." I found an image of a Hallmark movie couple with red wine glasses in hand to add to the design.
Near the beverage table, I borrow a super fun lamp with Santa around a Christmas tree, and throughout the evening it played Christmas music while the "snow" spilled up and fell down around Santa. I also had a fire going (definite Hallmark staple), stockings hanging, a Hallmark Christmas movie playing in the background, and my usual holiday decor.
Menu: If you've followed my blog in the past, you know I always tie my dinner menu in with the theme of the evening. For this dinner, we started with a "Tis the Season Salad - 'Tossing' Away that Business Job in the City." This was a simple appetizer salad with romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red pepper pieces, and goat cheese. I chose these items to keep the red, green, and white theme prevalent.
The main course was homemade meatballs I titled, "Mistletoe Magic Meatballs." These were "too irresistible to stay apart." I followed my mom's meatball recipe which was easy and delicious.
For a side, I served mashed potatoes I titled, "Let It Snow Mashed Potatoes." The tag line read, "'Snow' Special They'll Capture your Heart." Cheesy...just like Hallmark movies. As you may be able to tell from my menu cards, I tried to find a Hallmark movie title that matched or was similar to my menu item name. I added the poster image for the movie to the menu card.
Along with the mashed potatoes, I served "Merry Mix-Up Mixed Veggies." The tag line read "'Peas" and thank yous lead to a one 'carrot' diamond for this local gal."
I also served rolls with butter - "All I 'Knead' for Christmas" as they were "ready to 'roll' in for a hometown Christmas." I had never tried these rolls before, but they were rolls from the freezer section. I just brushed butter on the top, baked them in the oven for a few minutes, and then brushed a little more butter on the top before serving. They were quite good.
For dessert I made a Candy Cane Oreo Ice Cream cake which was delicious. The tagline for this entree was "It's love at first bite for this sweet couple," and it definitely was love at first bite for all of the guests as we loved it.
Favor: I didn't have a hot cocoa bar even though drinking hot chocolate is a staple in Hallmark Christmas movies, so I decided to use hot cocoa as my party favor. I bought small mason jars from Michaels craft store that said "Love" on them which was perfect for this theme. I filled each glass with the mix from 2 packets of ready-to-heat hot chocolate mix, then mini chocolate chips, then mini marshmallows, and finally crushed candy canes. I designed a tag that read, "A Little Christmas Miracle in Each Sip."
Since this was a dinner party and not a movie viewing party, we didn't watch a Hallmark movie. If you are planning to watch one, I would definitely suggest playing a Hallmark Christmas movie Bingo game. There are ton on Etsy for purchase if you don't want to make it yourself. You could also have a story starter and have guests write the rest of the storyline and give a prize to the best one.
All in all, this was a fun Christmas-y theme!
No comments:
Post a Comment