On Christmas Eve we always have our family over for dinner and a little celebration. This year we decided to do a theme-- we went with "Tacky".
I used Evite for simple invitations. They had lots of tacky/ugly sweater invitations to choose from. The party was 'pot-luck', everyone brought something yummy- meatballs, chicken nuggets, puppy chow, cookies and fudge. The
'tacky' theme kept everything light and simple. My mom made this jello mold- reminds me of 'Christmas Vacation'.
Everyone was in town this year-- Amanda came in from Georgia. Becka was here from Oklahoma. And Jessie came all the way from Israel.
We found our 'tacky outfits' at a thrift store. I made Jeff's 'Naughty' vest by cutting up a woman's sweater and hot gluing it to a thrifted leather vest. I hand-cut the lettering on the back of the vest from the sleeves of the sweater. The Santa is made from white felt, yellow ric-rac and googly eyes.
I made these headbands for myself and my girls to wear. 'Tacky Headbands' are a must for a 'Tacky Sweater Party'!
Everybody else had great luck finding 'ugly sweaters' at Walmart, Target, or even Etsy. Some people already owned 'tacky' sweaters too :)
Santa "Grandpa" even stopped by our party. Most of the kiddos were excited about our guest.... a few were not :) This was Maisy's first year to be happy about visitng with Santa. Might be because she was related to him :)
Then it was time for the awards! Afton was the self appointed 'Head Judge" We handed out 8 'tacky' awards, plus 4 big buttons. She wanted us to give out lots of awards so no one would get their feelings hurt!
My favorite part of the night was the DIY Photo Booth. I was happily surprised how enthusiastic everyone was about taking silly photos:)
I think this year's party was the best yet. It set the tone for a very Merry Christmas too!
