A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

I didn’t realize that if you are interested in a private Santa, you have to be on that in like…July. My good friend gave me the connect to her favorite Santa, and I was glad to get on the list – but when I got to him in September, the only days he had left were Thanksgiving and the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Clearly I will have him on speed dial for July for this coming year. He was wonderful – the 30 kids we had over had a ball. First, Santa knocked on the door and greeted everyone. Then, he came next to the tree and sang a few songs with the kids, read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and then proceeded to hand out a present to each child (that their parents provided ahead of time). Watching the magic of Christmas through your child’s eyes is a pretty amazing thing.

Let’s take a step back. While guests were arriving and we were waiting for Santa to arrive, we had a table set up with crafts – make your own frames or wreaths and a cookie decorating station that went over well. What goes better together than Santa and sugar?!?

We kept the decorations pretty simple, picked up these amazing snowflakes from Paper Source and hung them from the ceiling to make a little winter wonderland. Didn’t hurt that I was able to get them at a steal of a price!

We had a few grazing boards – this savory plate had brie, Harbison cheese (the round soft cheese in the middle – which I got for a steal at Trader Joe’s), blue cheese, honey from our hive out back, dried apricots, raspberries, green grapes, spicy soppressata, truffle salami, candied oranges, wasabi peas and Babybel cheese that had some fun Christmas cutouts (just use mini cutters and gently press through on the red wax).

This sweet board featured green cubze from Happy Chocolatier, Christmas tree cookies from Roche Bros. (they are my favorite and they can be found in the bulk cookie case), home made chocolate covered Oreos, white chocolate pretzel drops from Sukker & Sweet, gingerbread men from Trader Joe’s, peppermint truffles from Lindt, the green balls at the top were watermelon gumballs and the green balls on the bottom were mints from Sukker & Sweet.

I had this wonderful idea that I would make these gingerbread trees and make them into a 3D forest on a platter. Got a great pan and the quickbread mix from Williams Sonoma, but they didn’t bake up flat and I didn’t have time to trim each one, so we had them flat on a plate and sprinkled them with powdered sugar. Not what I had envisioned, but no one was the wiser…and they still tasted delicious.

I always like to have beverages for little hands, and I hate to do juice boxes – so Hint graciously gifted us some of their kid’s fruity water which was a big hit – they come in flavors like apple, watermelon, cherry and blackberry.

Once Santa had left, the presents had been opened, the kid’s bellies had been filled with pizza and snacks, it was time to go home. We sent each kiddo home with a holiday cracker (which I ALWAYS stock up on at the end of the year when they are on sale for 50% off – it’s always a good idea to plan ahead). My kids just love popping them and hearing the sound, I think it they were empty, they wouldn’t even notice. 🙂

We also sent them home with these adorable cookies from Tuesday Spoon Baking Company. Lisa is located in Sudbury, MA and she makes individual cookies that she drops at Duck Soup, but also takes custom orders. How adorable are these pickup trucks with trees in the back. Not only are they beautifully decorated but they TASTE delicious too.

Tags: candy, christmas, grazingboard, holiday, party