A Christmas morning party is a fun way to celebrate all of the best parts of Christmas early, especially with these yummy whole grain oats recipes! I planned this party as part of my partnership with #CollectiveBias, and it was definitely one of my favorite Christmas party ideas ever! Thanks to Quaker for sponsoring the party and giving me such a great product to use for my Christmas party treats!
One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is Christmas morning, so I thought it would be fun to throw an old-fashioned Christmas morning party for my toddler and all of his little friends inspired by my favorite parts of Christmas morning. The majority of the amazing photos from the party were taken by TC from Big Bash Photo with a couple of my own sprinkled in. It was so nice to be able to just sit back and enjoy the party for once rather than being the photographer as well, and this is the first of my party posts that I’m actually in a party photo!
Every year for Christmas my parents always bought us new Christmas jammies that we were given on Christmas Eve. Since Christmas morning isn’t the same without those jammies, I decided that all of the kids needed new jammies. My friend Brenda made me some darling customized pajamas, and I bought a couple of others during black Friday clearance sales. I hung them all up for the kids to find on my the frame for the A-Frame tent I made for my Captain America party. Aren’t kids in pajamas the cutest?
They were especially cute playing some of these pajama party games!
After all of the kids had changed into their jammies, we ate. Before the party, I put together my food table keeping these five “rules” in mind:
- Height, height, height – you always want to incorporate height into your party, and I did that in this party with the use of old-fashioned holiday tins, a poinsettia, and Christmas tree decorated with popcorn and cranberry garland.
- Think outside of the plate when plating – Everything doesn’t have to be on a traditional plate, in fact it’s way more fun if it’s not. I used Santa’s boot to anchor my cake pops and setup the granola in my little red flyer wagon. Both add variety and interest to the table.
- Symmetry – I always try to make sure that both sides of my table are symmetrical. They don’t have to be identical, but both sides need to be balanced. I did this with the poinsettia on one side and Christmas tree on the other, matching plates on either sides of my table, and one large focal point in the middle of it all.
- Don’t forget to embellish – A party table full of food can be good, but a party table full of food + thought out embellishments can be amazing. In addition to all of the food, I filled in some of the blank space with old fashioned toys like blocks, a nutcracker, and a Night Before Christmas book. Those simple additions help to fill out the table as well, which is great for pictures.
- It’s all in the details – Just like the big embellishments, an amazing party table is really all about the small details. I added bells to our drinking jars, used hand-stamped spoons, added toppers to the pancake pile, and used table runners I made with fabric to make the table look like a big present just for this reason!
For my party table, I had a spread full of items inspired by one of my favorite brands – Quaker Oats. For breakfast, we had oatmeal pancakes, cranberry orange bread, granola bars, granola to make fruit and yogurt parfaits, and fresh fruit. I was so excited a couple of months ago when I found a small little red flyer wagon that I knew would be perfect for a party prop eventually. It was a perfect focal point for this table with the granola stored in cute plastic tubes for easy serving. And for dessert, oatmeal cream pie cookies, oat dipped cake pops, #MyOatsCreation peppermint no-bake bars (recipe below!), oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and three kinds of delicious old-fashioned fudge. And all of the darling printable designs, those were created specifically for our old-fashioned Christmas party by Elena from World Wide Party. She did the designs for my Lovely in Lavender spa party as well and is amazing!
And of course, I didn’t forget the drinks. I setup a little “have a cup of cheer” drink table with traditional holiday wassail, orange juice, water, milk, and juice boxes for the kids. Don’t you just love the little jingle jars I made with glass mugs and the hand-stamped cups. They’re perfect for the hot wassail and cold juice!
After the kids were all full of delicious goodies, the festivities began. We started it off with a little bean bag toss that I created using empty Quaker oats containers and beans bags I made with gorgeous snowflake fabric. Check back later this week for the full game tutorial. All of the kids had a great time tossing, or placing, the bean bags into the “present” to win old-fashioned prizes like a slinky, parachute men, bubbles, and rubber ducks.
And then we made reindeer food. This was actually my mom’s idea of something that she did as a little girl with her mom, so I knew it would be perfect for our old-fashioned party. I set out a big bowl of Quaker oats, some small bowls of red and green sprinkles, jelly jars, and a bunch of heart-shaped measuring spoon sets and let the kids have at it. Elena made me reindeer food toppers and little tags to go along with them to remind the kids to sprinkle the reindeer food on their lawns to let the reindeer know that they should stop at their house. I knew the idea was cute, but I had NO idea how much fun the kids would have making the food. Or in the case of my little boy, eating it. I seriously had to drag him away so I could clean the table up before it got all over the place.
Once the kids had their fill of sprinkles, we cleaned everything up and just let them be kids. Some of the kids went outside (like mine with no coat or shoes) and others just played inside until it was time to go home. It honestly felt like Christmas morning; the kids were that happy to just play together. While the kids were playing, us moms played a simple version of my favorite lucky last line gift exchange. I found this amazing vintage gift wrap on Etsy and wrapped up a couple of fun gifts with it, perfect for moms who want to play a game but still need to keep an eye on their kids.
And for the final touch, I wrapped up some fun little Christmas gifts for the kids because what is Christmas morning without presents? Each of the packages included a little Christmas book, set of stickers, and a coloring book. I’d originally intended for the kids to take them home to enjoy but I underestimated what happens when you give 10 toddlers stickers and stories.
Along with the presents, I sent the kids home with these darling Christmas lollipops and little Christmas treats I put into tubes with “From Santa” tags.
White Chocolate Peppermint Bars
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup unrefined coconut oil
- 2 cups Old-Fashioned Quaker oats
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 ¾ cups white chocolate chips
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- candy canes for garnish
Instructions
- Line a 9×13 pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Melt peanut butter, honey, and coconut oil in a pot over medium-low heat.1 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/2 cup honey, 1/2 cup unrefined coconut oil
- Once melted, remove from heat and add oats, shredded coconut, white chocolate chips and peppermint extract.2 cups Old-Fashioned Quaker oats, 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut, 1 3/4 cups white chocolate chips, 1 tsp peppermint extract
- Stir until chocolate is entirely melted.
- Pour into the prepared 9×13 pan and cool in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
- Top with crushed up candy cane pieces then allow to cool until set in the fridge.candy canes
- Remove from the pan with the parchment paper and cut into squares.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Info
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