The holiday season is the time for festivities and parties. It’s the time when everyone is looking forward to meet up with families and friends to have fun and celebrate the season. Whether you are planning an intimate dinner party with your closest friends or organizing a big family reunion for your relatives, there are special touches that you can do to make the party spectacular. The key in planning a memorable Christmas party is to plan ahead of time. This way, you’ll have more time to decide on the menu, the decorations, and everything else. You’ll also have more time to send out the invitations, if you’re using them, or to call the people you’re inviting.Here are some things to focus on when planning a Christmas party.Choose Creative DecorationsOf course you can always stick with the usual decorations such as Christmas socks in the chimney, mistletoes on the door posts and so on. However, if you want to hold a unique party that your guests will definitely remember, you can go for a creative theme and decorate accordingly. For example, you can choose themes such as Arabian Nights, Winter Wonderland, Fairy Tale, Back to the 80’s, Santa’s Workshop and so on. If you’re going for the Moroccan theme, then you can decorate with colorful fabric swags or even Moroccan tents. You can also have bright carpets and small pillows where people can sit back and relax while sipping wine. If you’re going for a Fairy Tale theme, you can make the place look like Cinderella’s ball.Your guests will usually make their first impression based on the decorations, so be creative. However, you shouldn’t spend too much on these, so go bargain hunting to find the decorations you need at an affordable price.Have Great EntertainmentSet the tone of your party by having great music playing at a comfortable volume to create ambience. You don’t even need to get a DJ or have someone playing the songs for you; you just need to make a playlist ahead of time and hook up your computer or MP3 player to a decent sound system before the party starts. Make sure you include a mixture of holiday classics, Christmas carols, and some danceable tunes to the playlist to keep things interesting. Have more than enough songs in your playlist so that each song will only be played twice (or thrice at the most) because nothing is more irritating than hearing the same song over and over again when it is playing on a loop.Focus on the FoodNo matter how great the decorations are or how fabulous the entertainment is, your guests won’t be too happy if there isn’t enough food or if the food does not taste good. Serve some hors d’oeuvres or finger food which your guests can nibble on all night. Make sure you also have light meals like salad, pasta or sandwiches to keep them from getting hungry. Have an assortment of desserts that they can choose from, such as cupcakes, gingerbread or ice cream. Serve both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.  GP

The use of gift wrapping paper is probably one of the most wasteful and most environmentally damaging aspects of Christmas. Each year, we keep seeing more elaborate Christmas gift wrapping paper in the market, which are usually plastic laminated or coated in metal foil. Think of all the toxic dyes and inks used in manufacturing these gift wrapping papers. In addition, you must consider the volume of trees that are cut down every year to meet the demand for Christmas gift wrapping paper. Latest studies estimate that it takes about 50,000 trees to produce all the Christmas gift wrapping paper needed every year. That’s the equivalent of 8,000 tons or an entire forest being cut down for something that people are usually too excited to even look at since they are in a hurry to see the gift inside. Christmas gift wrapping papers actually account for the 25% increase in generated waste in the US alone between the period of Thanksgiving and New Year.We know it’s our responsibility to take better care of our planet. Here are a couple of eco-friendly ideas for wrapping your Christmas gifts.Use Reusable BagsInstead of wrapping your gift in wasteful gift wrapping paper or in paper bags that will be thrown away afterwards, you can choose to put your gifts in a reusable shopping or carrier bag. Although reusable bags are a bit more expensive than regular paper bags, they are better for the environment. You can just consider the shopping or carrier bag as part of the gift, especially since there are now a lot of trendy designs to choose from. Carrier bags are sturdy and can be used over and over again for shopping and other purposes. Use Recycled Paper and Natural Gift DecorationsIf you really prefer gifts that are wrapped in gift wrapper, make sure you choose recycled paper. This can either be the gift wrapping paper from the presents you received last year which you carefully smoothed out and kept for recycling, or you can buy gift wrapping paper made from recycled material. You can also choose banana paper, which is a very pretty paper made from the stalks of banana trees that are usually thrown away in the process of cropping bananas.You can also use other paper items that you may have for wrapping gifts. For example, wrap your gifts in old newspapers which you’ve dyed a lovely sepia shade using leftover coffee. You can also use old magazines, maps and comic books instead of buying gift wrapper.Make sure you use natural gift decorations that are both eco-friendly and visually stunning. Don’t embellish your gifts with plastic ribbons and bows that are non-biodegradable. Wrap your gift with a bit of twine instead of using tape and use pinecones, shells, berries or sprigs of holly as decorations.Use Clothing Items You can wrap small gifts in a pretty scarf, with the scarf being part of the gift. If you plan on giving recipe books or a box of brownies, you can wrap these in colorful tea towels made of organic cotton.  GP

Planning a simple office party for your department – where everybody knows everybody else – is quite different from planning your company Christmas party, which involves everyone within the corporation from the staff members to the senior executives. Parties at the corporate level are usually more lavish than intimate office parties since there are usually VIP guests in attendance, such as important clients, heads of other businesses or even competitors.If you’re tasked to plan your company Christmas party, there are several things you must remember.Start Planning Ahead of TimeThe month of December is not the time to start planning your company Christmas party. Such a short planning time could work for small Christmas parties for your department or among friends, but this can’t work for parties that will have at least 100 people in attendance. Start planning early enough so that you won’t need to rush around.Set up a committee to plan the party with you, especially if you’re looking at potentially a thousand guests or more. It would be great if you can get people from different departments so that you will also have an idea of what other people want from the party. Schedule regular monthly meetings by July or August, then increase the frequency to weekly by October.List down everything you need to accomplish as a committee and cross off each item once it is completed. Even if the tasks are distributed among the committee members, someone should still keep a main list to monitor the progress of the group. Planning a company Christmas party can be very stressful to everyone in the steering committee, so it would really help if there is one person who can keep a running tally of what has been accomplished already and what still needs to be done. Choose a Great ThemeIn planning company Christmas parties, remember that there is a need to impress not just the employees of the company, but the VIP guests as well. The best company Christmas parties always have a central theme that is reflected in the choice of decorations, entertainment, food and program. However, before you decide on the theme, check the budget restrictions first. Will management provide all the funds for the party or are the employees required to share the cost? How much is the total budget that you can use?There are several themes you can choose from. You can go for a Moroccan theme complete with entertainers (or employees) dressed up as sultans and belly dancers to welcome guests to the venue. You can go for a 70’s theme with psychedelic lighting and 70’s music in the background. To get the latest ideas for a theme, you can always check the internet.Pick the Right VenueThe venue can either make or break the party. No matter how great the theme is, if the venue you chose is cramped, or chilly, or difficult to locate, you can be sure to receive complaints. A hotel function room is a popular choice for company Christmas parties because they are usually easy to find, has sufficient parking space, and guests can choose to stay overnight (at their personal expense) if they get too drunk to drive home afterwards.  GP