Oh the joys of having a baby born on Christmas Day – every birthday will have a winter or holiday theme for the rest of his life ( I mean we already have all of the decor out right?). And so for one we just had to go with a Winter One-derland.
The wanna be Martha Stewart in me looked up 25 different holiday snack ideas and decided I was going to make all of them – my friends talked me off that ledge and told me to focus on a few key items. A good combination of savoury and sweet and both adult and baby friendly ( I mean it was Max’s birthday after all).
Then came decorations – I favourited a million things on Etsy, but realized a first birthday party should not cost us hundreds of dollars. I also have been focusing on reducing waste – so decided on a few key items and also tried to make a lot of them with items around the house
The icing on the cake for me though was the idea of a hot coco bar. What kind of winter one-derland would be complete without one right?
So this is what we ended up with:
Food: We went with some winter wonderland themed treats
A veggie snowman
Every party needs a healthy snack tray and so took a wintery twist and used the veggies to make a snowman. As dog owners we know there is always some yellow snow to avoid so we added in some yellow peppers
Is there anything that says the holidays more than cranberry brie bites. Super simple to make and absolutely delicious
Christmas tree pull apart cheese balls
This was the bread and butter of the day. I had a vision to create cheese balls from pizza dough and bake them in the shape of a Christmas tree – this one took the most time and effort (remember a friend telling me to focus on one big item) well this was it and they were worth the effort.
snowflake cookies
Sugar cookies are always a delicious treat to add to the dessert table and so I baked and decorated 50 sugar cookies – we had left overs for Christmas so that was great.
We also set up
Hot chocolate bar
It was my dream to have a hot coco bar and wanted this to be a highlight feature.
We made the hot chocolate in an instant pot so it would stay warm throughout the evening and had some toppings like marshmallows, candy canes, chocolate chips, and some Baileys for the adults.
Decorations: It is easy to create a winter one-derland with decorations we already had
We kept everything simple and winter themed but there were a few highlights that I absolutely loved that really personalized the decorations.
We created a personalized banner with pictures through the months. Another favourite for me was we create a Max’s First Year poster, showcasing some of his accomplishments in his first year.
Overall it was honestly the most special day and to see our little one so excited to smash his cake, play with friends, and open gifts was incredible. But I my top tip for planning the best birthday party is don’t stress it mama. I was so nervous and stressed leading up to the big day. Did we have enough food? Were his friends going to have fun playing with the toys in the house? Were there enough decorations?
And then I realized that none of that mattered. It was all about friends and family coming together to celebrate Max. So just enjoy this special day mama’s, because after all your first baby only gets one first birthday.
xo
Mia
