Ugly Sweater Party!

So Clayton and I threw our 1st Annual Ugly Sweater Party. It was very last minute, only a week in advance haha. But, it was a lot of fun. I wish we had a bigger place so I could invite every one I wanted to but we just kept it to a group of Clayton's good friends growing up. We have been wanting to get together with them so we figured, Why not make it a party? haha so I was super excited to start decorating and planning for this. I had never really hosted a party before so I wasn't sure what to expect.
Decorations: My favorite decoration has to be the embroidered peace picture I found at the DI!!! I love it and that it was perfect for an ugly sweater party. Funny thing is though, I would have it up even if I wasnt having the party haha it is so vintage. :)

I went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of tacky garlands and hung them up. I used the snow globes I made as a center piece for my table.

I bought bells from the dollar store and mini ornaments from the dollar bin at target. I bought cute plaid/burlap place mats from the World Market that added the perfect touch. I put all of the appetizers on them while I served the popcorn on the table.

            

It was awesome how much I was able to find for so cheap! I bought a ribbon for my tree as well! Super happy about that :)

I also made my tree on the wall a "christmas card/photo tree" by using puddy tacks and clothes pin. Turned out cute along with the cutest "snow falling" strands I added to my mirror in the entry using cotton balls and string. 

 

Food/drink: I served bagel bites with ranch, wheat thins with a cream cheese/salsa dip, 4 different types of popcorn (oreo, kettle, ranch, and butter), I had a hot chocolate bar, and I also had a ginger ale punch. I mixed ginger ale, apple juice, and cranberry juice :)

I wish I had taken a picture of all of the that. Oh well. 

Games/entertainment: We socialized, ate, played the white elephant game, voted for the ugliest sweater, and then watched a movie.
For the voting, I had a jar wrapped in a sweater. I just cut the sleeve off of an old sweater and then the winner got a bottle of apple cider "in a sweater" as well :P I thought it was clever haha oh and they wore that ugliest sweater ribbon around their neck ha. It was the ugliest ribbon I can find on google images.    

              

Here is me and Clayton after the party. It was so hard to find ugly sweaters with only a week in advance. I dont know if you can tell, but my sweater is christmas green and the material is velvet haha thought it was super ugly. We added dollar store antlers as an accessory :)

All of our guests showed up with some awesome sweaters that they either got from their grandparents or moms closet haha Im bummed that I didnt take any group ugly sweater pictures. I definitely know what to do now for my next sweater party haha

Oh and this has nothing to do with the party but I made an ornament for my tree. it still needs a hole drilled into the top but since claytons drill got stolen, it will have to wait. I am just setting it on one the branches on my tree. But basically, i just kept the small piece of the tree that they cut off from the bottom of the trunk when we bought our tree. It was our first tree together so I thought it would be nice to have something to keep as a memory :)