Christmas Eve Treats for Santa

Thank you to Oriental Trading Company for sponsoring this post. Product and/or compensation was provided to me to share my ideas and tips, however, all opinions are fully my own. 

Lately, my son has been questioning the existence of Santa Claus -  like, a lot.  He's at an age where most of the kids are finding out the real deal.  Yet (to my delight), he still believes in Old St. Nick and refuses to feed into any of the stories his little buddies on the playground are telling him about Mom and Dad being the gifting culprits.  My daughter on the other hand....she 'believes'....but she's still trying to disprove.  She's placed a cute sign in her room on a dry erase board that says, Santa, if you came please sign here.

Well, since we still have a few believers in our house, I thought that a fun way to make the most of the magic of Christmas would be to set up a special treats station for Santa.  What better way to get in good with Santa  than offering up a nice and warm and welcome to our home as he's making his rounds on Christmas Eve?

I chose some products from Oriental Trading Company to help create a festive treat station with delicious plate of cookies, cupcakes and  Christmas favor boxes filled with 'reindeer nibble' (mini pretzels, popcorn, melted white chocolate, sprinkles, and Christmas M&M's)

  

This is such an easy idea to recreate.  I didn't go all out with treats, we just chose some of Santa's favorite cookies and snacks from the store bakery section.  The station was set up in the man cave...on account it's the perfect setting for Santa to slip down the fireplace and out of our wood burning stove.  I placed the cupcakes and cookies onto layered paper plates from Oriental Trading Company.  A delicious cup of hot cocoa would await a chilly Santa Claus and warm him right on up.  On his way out, Santa can grab a treat box filled with reindeer nibble for his herd to keep them going through the night. 

I really wanted to make this space bright and fun.  So, I chose festive pieces like this whimsical table top rocket sleigh featuring Santa and all his North Pole pals. I really got a kick out of the expressions on their faces.

I also loved these felt cone trees.  I placed them on either side of the stove and I think they give just the right pop of color and accent that space well. 

The wooden painted Nordic Noel Ornaments were perfect addition to our white 4 foot tree, while the Nordic Noel tree skirt tied it all together and to finish it all off a pompom star tree topper - of course!

Although my kids are just about at the age where they realize that Santa coming down the chimney to bring them gifts, my not be real, I still love that they believe just enough in the wonder and spirit of Christmas....and so long as they believe, I'll keep finding fun ways to make their holiday magical!......and I know that 'Santa' will enjoy nibbling on his sweet treats while drinking his 'special' hot cocoa on Christmas Eve ;)

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Thanks again to Oriental Trading for always providing the most adorable and festive elements for my all my holiday ideas! 

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My Etsy Shop Cyber Monday Deal

Hi  friends!  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! 

I have a funny little story to share......The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, my poor son was just so DONE with all the attention placed on Christmas.  He kept stating that no one cares about Thanksgiving and that it was a time for family and good food.  He was really serious about it and right on so many levels.  Bless his sweet little heart for valuing the purpose of Thanksgiving.

Of course, as any good mother, I empathized with him, gave him big hugs and mommy kisses and told him he was right; family is really important and we should make Thanksgiving just as important as Christmas!  Secretly, deep down inside  my crafty brain, I was making snow angels, constructing a Christmas village out of empty milk cartons, baking gingerbread cookies, decorating the tree, watching A Christmas Story and wrapping gifts....because after Halloween, Christmas is my most favorite holiday! 

I'm so excited to start celebrating the holiday, that I'm doing something I've NEVER done before and having a CYBER MONDAY sale in my Etsy shop for a WHOLE WEEK!  I have oodles of fun holiday themed decor and printables that I will be releasing over the next few days and I'm hoping that you'll pop over to my Etsy shop and check things out. 

No special coupon is needed - any purchase over $30 will receive an automatic 15% off!

Here are some of my handmade shop items that are perfect for your holiday day home and festivities!

Red, Green, and White Yarn Pompom Christmas Garland

Scandinavian/Nordic Tome Santa Claus Ornament

Red and Aqua Winter ONE-derland Party Hat

Merry and Bright Printable Wall Art

Remember, I'll be releasing new products and special offers throughout the week!  So, be sure to pop over for more holiday fun!

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Follow me @cwbdparties on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and tag me when share your best holiday entertaining moments using ideas from my site! 

{Holiday Home} Silver & Gold Rustic Luxe Decor

I spent the day finishing up decorating my home for holidays and wanted to just share the Silver & Gold Rustic Luxe theme I chose for this year.   I made many of the items for this set up by hand, or purchased them for very little at the dollar store, on clearance or on an awesome sale!

You know, I can find inspiration just about anywhere.  Last Christmas I made all my Christmas cards by hand and found the most beautiful paper pack at the craft store.  The name of the pack was Rustic Luxe.  I thought, how fitting for a very elegant holiday.  I held onto that paper pack as inspiration for my dining room tablescape, living room mantle and my dessert and cocktail station for our holiday festivities.  Have a look at a few of the photos I captured and how I saved on decor. 

If you ever want to create a custom look to your wine glasses, you can do it all on your own.  Don't spend extra money on anything fancy.  All you need is paint made for glass and a brush.  Here, I created these gold brushed wine glasses for my table.  I love how they look and that they cost next to nothing to make. I already owned the glasses, the brush and the paint!

These gold chargers were used for my Little Miss Spider Lady Halloween party.  I mixed up my place setting with a sliver rimmed plate (from the dollar store) and a gold rimmed salad plate.  Each place setting was topped with a small gift box filled with peppermints.  The boxes were made with my Cricut and the paper is from that beautiful Rustic Luxe paper pack! 

The napkins for the table are from the thrift store.  I created napkin rings by tying ribbons to a jingle bell and tying to the napkins.

I love these mercury glass footed candle holders, they are perfect for this theme and just look so opulent! I also added a mercury glass vintage vase and tealight candle holder (a dollar store find). To add to the tablescape, I added a string of gold beads that were used on our Christmas tree a few years back.  If you notice that twine wrapped tree on the table.....I made that out of a Styrofoam cone, wrapped with twine, painted it gold and glued on embellishments.  Cost me virtually nothing to make!  The ornaments are pulled right out of my Christmas stash.

I have three trees in my house, you can see the main tree in our home in the background of this photo.....I think I really love Christmas!

These cute sisal fox and squirrel animals were finds at Target last year that I purchased after I knew I was going to go with a Rustic Luxe theme this year.  I think they're so adorable and whimsical.

A few weeks ago I found the prettiest gold foil letters by Teresa Collins and had to have them.  I created a festive wall hanging by wrapping tinsel around a picture frame and then attached the letters to a ribbon to create a garland.  A small jingle bell garland was added for a very merry touch!

For my mantle, I added  faux birch wood logs, bleached bottle brush trees and a few elegant holiday decorative pieces to set the scene.  I think the buffalo snow really sets off this winter scene!




I used my little white Christmas tree from last year's Christmas Wishes party and used it here in my dining room and flocked it with gold,silver and white ornaments!

For my dessert station, I created a rustic and glam look by incorporating very chic gold pieces with very rustic pieces - simple right?  I wanted a woodland look to the table but still....with a touch of glam.  I love the look of birch logs and incorporated a lot of that into the design.  I also made a lot of the items by hand.  You might remember the gold sequin wreath from this tutorial.  I  made faux birch wood logs using this super simple tutorial by Design Dazzle.  The Gingerbread 'Lodge' was a labor of love.  I love how it turned out!  I found a mini wooden pallet and sleighs at the craft store and whitewashed them.

I created Birch wood log pretzels by simply dipping a pretzel stick into white chocolate bark and then drizzling with milk chocolate.

These chocolate balls of deliciousness are called Brigadeiro.  If you haven't heard about them, please Google them.  They're a homemade Brazilian candy.  I love them, they will rock your world!!!!

I hope you enjoyed the photos and I wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS filled with lots of love, peace and JOY!!!!!