Have your holiday parties become dull? Do you find that even though your annual
party starts at 7 o'clock your guests are ready to leave by 9 o'clock? This
year, get together with your friends and neighbors and throw a party that will
keep everyone on the move and having lots o' fun. Pull everyone's resources
together to host the best Progressive Caroling Party that anyone has ever
attended.
The best element about this type
of party is that there isn't one specific person or couple who is in charge of
everything. Throughout the evening everyone gets to act as host as well as
guest. Whether you start at one house and pick up people as you carol from house
to house, or have everyone meet and then travel as a group of carolers, there
really is no perfect place to begin.
Invitations
Ticket Invitations are perfect for a caroling party. Your
guests will love the authentic event ticket. Or, our
Christmas Bells invitation has a
music paper background.
Decorations
As long as everyone stays with the
group, and goes from house to house in a timely manner, the party will be a
success. Not to mention that by this time in the year everyone should have his
or her houses already decorated for the holidays. If not, here is a great
holiday decorating kit that will have your home looking like a Winter
Wonderland in a matter of minutes.
Menu and Activities
The only additional preparation
that needs to be done for the party is to plan the menu.
Make sure that you have
festive paper goods on which to eat, cute table decorations like confetti in
festive shapes and colors, and select the
music
and activities with which to entertain the guests.
In my opinion, Progressive parties
work best when the entire crowd begins and ends the party as a group. Except for
a few latecomers and stragglers throughout the evening it's nice when everyone
can stay together. For those of you who have never attended a Progressive Party,
the basic premise is that as the evening progresses so do the courses. For
example, the party starts at Elaine's house where everyone is greeted with mugs
of warm apple cider and gingersnaps. People chat for a while and when it looks
like everyone has arrived, the caroling begins. Start by standing in front of
the first lit house that you see. Make sure that the houses you are singing to
are all lit because it is not fun to sing "Jingle Bells" to a dark house. Sing a
couple of your favorite tunes at a few houses and then go to Joe's house for
your next "course" (those of you braving the colder climates might consider
these courses/stops "warming points"). At this point the group has probably
worked up a bit of an appetite and is ready for some cheese and wine to take
care of the winter chill. After a few nibbles and several sips of wine gather up
the troops to venture off to the next house of victims... Um, I mean lucky
listeners.
Throughout the evening you can really
stretch out the courses if necessary, but I have found that this social
gathering works best with a few houses hosting appetizers, a house for
cocktails, a main course house, an after dinner drink house, and a home full of
desserts. To keep your guests happy and entertained, make sure to have a few
icebreakers handy at the first house in case your guests aren't all close
friends (and even if they are).
Also, just for fun, plan little
events at some of the houses or on the way to the houses. Some cool ideas are to
have an ornament hunt, gift exchange, a
custom candy bar wrapper,
Christmas trivia, name that tune (with the Christmas songs), and Christmas
themed charades.
Dress
A Progressive Caroling Party is ideal
for both the people who want a casual party as well as those who want to wear
their holiday best.
