HOW TO THROW THE PERFECT POLYANNA

Coming from a professional pollyanna party planner, I have many tips and tricks to share on how to set yourself up for success and have a blast of a time. Happy guests = happy host. Preparing for the party will include starting early in the month of December, so saddle up now folks! Below is a list of steps one must take to organize a perfect pollyanna party from start to finish.

H O W  T O  P R E P A R E

Start early! Go to santassecretkeeper.com and fill out all the information including your group name, all the participants names, and the spending limit. Once you have all those details in place, the website will email you who you individually have to get a gift for.

P A R T Y  S E T  U P

Being prepared with food, beverages, games, music, and the perfect cozy holiday decor is essential. To take some of the load off of the host (you), it helps to divide up the food situation between all participants. It’s also important to cover the whole gamut of food/drink options. Here are a few to consider dividing up - Entrees, hors d'oeuvres, side dishes, and desserts.

Once the food is divided up, you can move onto beverages. If you don’t want to have everyone BYOB, you can offer wine, sangria, beer, or seltzers. If you want to take it to the next level, you can make a festive beverage, alcoholic or non alcoholic. One website that offers a plethora of choices for themed alcoholic beverages is https://www.delish.com/holiday-recipes/christmas/g860/holiday-cocktails/. You can make these drinks non-alcoholic by not adding in whatever liquor they suggest. A few of my favorites are white christmas margarita, jingle juice, peppermintinis, christmosas, and mistletoe shots.

D E C O R  T I M E

Next it’s time to decorate! This part is my favorite. Setting the table up can be done in 2 different simple ways. You can either keep the center of the table empty with a few decorative pieces and place the food on the table. Or you can make the center of the table a whole masterpiece and keep the food on a separate table. Your centerpiece can include anything festive, from a Christmas scented candle, to tinsel with lights and a variety of mini Christmas trees spread throughout.

Place settings is almost a whole other topic in itself. Coordinating the place settings with the way the rest of the table looks is essential. If you like the center of your table filled with all the food options, jazz up the place settings to make the table still look decorative while still offering the space for the plates of food. If you prefer your table to be filled with festive decor, keep the place settings to a minimum, not to take away from your  beautiful creation of a centerpiece. No matter what option you choose, you should always choose a seating chart. A seating chart helps you divide up where people will sit, without them having to worry about where they should sit. Plus, I like to make name tags fun and my guests can actually take them home, it makes it special.

F U N & G A M E S

Once your guests arrive and enjoy all the food and take in all the decorations you put in place, it’s time for some games. And when I say games, I don’t mean any game on your phone, I mean a board game, specifically Mall Madness. Starting with the fact that board games will never not be extremely fun, Mall Madness is the ultimate 3D board game experience. Unfortunately, there are only 4 players or less at a time so depending on the size of  your pollyanna party, you may have to take turns. In the meantime, there are plenty of other games to play like Headsup and Telestrations.

Now that you have all the tips and tricks on how to host the perfect pollyanna party, nothing can stop you! Be prepared to be the designated pollyanna party hoster every year because yours will be one to remember and no ones will ever compare. You will be the hostess with the mostess! Happy Holidays and Happy Pollyanna Party throwing!