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Hosting an Ornament Exchange Party is a fun way to celebrate the holidays with friends and family! Check out all my party tips and menu suggestions, including the recipe for a Hot Cranberry Orange Drink!
One of my favorite things about the holidays is all the traditions. Of course, I will always hold the traditions my parents gifted us as children, such as decorating large amounts of Christmas cookies, going to the Christmas Tree farm to cut down a real Christmas Tree and my sisters and I attending the Nutcracker each year with my Dad, close to my heart; but I also love new experiences and traditions.
One new tradition my siblings and I started as adults was an ornament exchange each year. This fun new tradition started several years ago when my siblings and I started getting married and having families of our own. Those first few Christmases we all tried buying gifts for each other, but that quickly got expensive and stressful. We then tried drawing names, but there again, we weren’t very successful as we had to remember early enough in the year to do that.
Then one year, a December right after my sister had a baby and was tired, overwhelmed and didn’t want to worry about drawing names and buying gifts, we came up with the idea of doing an ornament exchange. Having an ornament exchange party for our adult family Christmas party with was really affordable, less stressful and a lot of fun for our growing family! Plus, it incorporated a tradition my Dad started when we were kids, gifting us ornaments based on that year’s accomplishments and hobbies.
We have been having our Ornament Exchange Party for a few years now, and everyone loves this new tradition. So, I thought I would share some ornament exchange party tips, menu and decorating ideas and even a recipe for a Hot Cranberry Orange Drink, in case you want to start a new tradition of your own! Check out all the fun below!
The Décor:
I love using ornaments in my holiday décor since we have so many, so using ornaments as the décor for an ornament exchange party is a super easy, affordable and obvious way to decorate! In addition to using ornaments in the décor I kept with a classic red, green and white color scheme.
I used colorful red and white polka dotted wrapping paper for the food table backdrop and a simple white tablecloth. Hanging stockings on the wall or even hanging ornaments from ribbon tacked to the ceiling (if you have lower ceilings) would also be fun and cute.
On the food table I set up a small Christmas tree with mini ornaments. I then used one of my large cake stands to hold a bunch of red, green and white/silver ornaments as the table center piece. Other table decorations include small glass vases filled with water, floating candles and fresh cranberries; vases filled with mini ornaments and metal buckets filled with pine cones.
The menu:
I wanted to incorporate the red, green and white color scheme into my party menu as well. To keep with this theme, I served popcorn, my famous Chipotle Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip with crackers, Turkey, Spinach and Cranberry Wraps, Cranberry Glazed Meatballs and some adorable ornament decorated cookies.
For our party drink, I served this Hot Cranberry Orange Drink (recipe below), keeping the drink warm for the party in the slow cooker and providing festive holiday mugs for serving. This Hot Cranberry Orange Drink is actually a drink I drink all winter long. Not only is this drink warm and comforting, I mix in a packet of Emergen-C Super Orange (that I stock up on while shopping for holiday supplies at Walmart) to increase the orange flavor while getting vitamins to help give me energy and feel refreshed during the busy winter months.
Other delicious red, green and white foods that would also be festive and delicious for an ornament exchange include a vegetable platter with broccoli, cauliflower, sliced red and green bell peppers, and celery sticks, circle brownie cut outs topped with strawberries and whipped cream to look like Santa hats, Cranberry Eggnog Muffins, Cranberry Oat Bars, Spinach Artichoke Dip, pasta salad with spinach or sun dried tomato pasta.
The Entertainment:
So of course, this entire party is centered around the ornament exchange and the actual exchange of ornaments can be done a few different ways. We typically do the “white elephant” style gift exchange where we steal ornaments from each other because we think it is fun, but I have included several variations on how to exchange the ornaments below.
Yankee Swap/White Elephant Style- Each party guest brings a wrapped ornament that is worth no more than a pre-agreed amount (for an ornament exchange we set the price limit at $10 per person). Participants draw numbers from a hat to determine their swap order or another option is to go in birth age starting with the youngest person first.
Place all wrapped gifts in a pile. The person who picks the first gift, opens it and shows it to the rest of the party attendees. The next person can either choose an unwrapped gift from the gift pile or steal the gift from the first person. If the gift is stolen, then the person who had their gift stolen gets to choose a new gift to unwrap and the turn is over.
The game continues with person number three either unwrapping a new gift or stealing a gift. If a gift is stolen, then that person can unwrap a new gift or steal another gift (they just can’t steal back the gift they previously had). When all the gifts have been unwrapped then the game is over. We usually play that when a gift has been stolen three times then it can’t be stolen anymore and is “safe”. We also play that after the last person’s turn, the first person has the option of keeping their current gift (in which case the game ends), or steal from anyone else.
Draw Names- Several weeks before the party, write all the guests names on individual pieces of paper and place the names in a hat or bowl. List the guests’ names on a separate piece of paper and draw names from a hat and assign each guest one name. Encourage guests to bring ornaments that represent the guest that they were assigned hobbies, accomplishments, etc. For family this is easy, but if you are hosting an ornament exchange party for friends or co-workers, you may have guests send you 3-5 things they are interested in or proud of for that year as part of their RSVP and then pass that info onto each guest when you let them know who they are assigned to bring an ornament for.
Party Favor/Cookie Exchange Style- For this variation of an ornament exchange, you can ask guests to bring one ornament per person attending the party. So this could be say, 12 mini ornaments, a box of assorted decorative glass balls, etc. Then everyone at the party gets to take home one ornament from each guest attending the party, so for a party with 12 guests, 12 different ornaments.
Ornament Decorating Party- Another option for an ornament exchange party is to host an ornament decorating party. For this variation, the host would provide the supplies for each guest to make and decorate an ornament that they would then get to take home.
I hope you have enjoyed my Ornament Exchange Party tips, tricks and ideas! Be sure and grab the recipe for the Hot Cranberry Orange Drink (the recipe below serves one, but could be easily adapted for a crowd) and cheers to a festive and fun holiday season with friends and family!
A warm and comforting spiced cranberry orange drink.
- 6 ounces all natural cranberry juice
- 1 small navel orange, juiced and zested
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
- 1 (.32-ounce) packet Emergen-C Super Orange
- Fresh cranberries, for serving
- Fresh orange slices, for serving
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In a small sauce pan, stir together cranberry juice, orange juice, orange zest, cinnamon and cloves. Bring juice to a simmer and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
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Remove hot cranberry orange drink from heat and pour into a mug. Stir in one packet of Emergen-C Super Orange. Serve drink warm with fresh cranberries and orange slices.
Disclosure: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
I really love the concept of an ornament exchange party. I bet this would go over very well with my family. #client
This looks like such a fun party! The drink sound delicious and I love those ornament cookies! Love your site!!