A Favorite Things Party
I mentioned on Instagram last week that one of my friends had thrown a favorite things party, and a bunch of people asked for details.
This was actually the fifth one I’ve attended and they’ve all been slightly different, but the basic concept is the same. (In fact, the first one I went to was what sparked the $5 gift guides)
how a favorite things party works
Every one choses a favorite thing (that’s $5 or less) and brings five of them to the party.
Then everyone puts their name in a bowl five times.
(Alternatively – everyone can two identical favorite things that are $10 or $20 and then you put your name in the bowl 2 times instead if you want nicer gifts).
At some parties (like the one I just went to last week), everyone puts their favorite item on a table and at others, everyone keeps theirs hidden until it’s time to pass them out. Personally, I prefer seeing them all set out – it’s fun to see them all together.
You go around the room and each person tells what they brought and an explanation if needed. Then they draw five names from the bowl (re-drawing if they pull their own names or two of the same name) and those five people get the item you brought. Ta-da! Super easy.
It’s always fun to see what other people brought and it’s especially fun to take a few things home.
To this most recent party, I took tall sparkler birthday candles (I bought some for Ella’s birthday last year and they were just so festive). Some of the popular items at this party were pretty notebooks, hair glaze treatment, cookie butter, dry shampoo, Burt’s Bees tinted chapstick, kitchen shears, and Febreeze.
In the past, I’ve taken my all-time favorite blue pens, a colorful little desk tray, and . . I can’t remember what other things I’ve done.
One of my friends in Texas does this party every year around the holidays and everyone brings their favorite cookies along with their gift and you go home with a huge assortment of other cookies.
At the other ones I’ve attended, the hostess just does a spread of her favorite foods (the one last week was seriously impressive with multiple candies, tiny Greek salad cups, soup shots, two drinks, pear and blue cheese crostini, and chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. I shouldn’t have eaten dinner beforehand).
Also, at this most recent one, the hostess had us all write our favorite color, a recent favorite read, our favorite place to travel, and our favorite way to relax on a piece of paper and then she read each one off and everyone tried to guess who it was.
I’m usually super not into getting-to-know-you type things (bleck!), but this was surprisingly delightful and low-key. Also, Jessica was phenomenal at asking fun follow-up questions and we had a lot of fun conversations about each person’s answers.
Anyway, there you have it.
And now I need to throw one myself because hosting parties is one of my favorite things.
This sounds like such an amazing idea!
Steph – http://nourishmeclean.blogspot.com
So fun! I was thinking about throwing one to get to know people in our new ward when you posted that picture on Instagram! And now that I actually know how it works, I'm all set!
This sounds fabulous… must do for my next ladies night!
Fun, fun! I need to do this!
Fun! Can I come? I should do one of those around here.
I loved. I will try it one day.
This idea is so clever! I recently hosted a wine and cheese, and I am currently loving the idea of hosting themed parties like this.
This is such a fun party idea! Now I want to do one. And serious kudos to whoever brought the cookie butter … that stuff is amazing.
Love this! I'll have to throw one of these soon!