Kettering Ward Christmas Party 2013
“Santa’s Secret Workshop”
Date: Saturday,
Dec. 14th, 9am-noon
Budget: $1000
Attendance: 200
(we shot for 300 but a storm came in the night before-would project 250 for
next event if early in Dec.)
Pajamas welcome!
Itinerary:
*Breakfast
*YW did a short dance to the jingle “Hot Chocolate” from
Polar Express CD when we mentioned there would be a hot chocolate bar included
in breakfast
*Short Christmas program
*Workshops to benefit needy
Food: (Cost was
$380 including some paper products)
French toast-350
slices made and 250 eaten
Little pastries-13
boxes from Sam’s Club and most were eaten (these were an assortment of donuts,
cinnamon rolls, pastries)
Breakfast Pizzas-12
and most of them were gone
10 Pineapples-all
eaten
4 bunches of bananas-all
eaten
10 bags of oranges
sliced-only ate 5 bags worth
2 gallons of milk-1
gallon were used
3 gallons of OJ-2
gallons were used
Hot Chocolate Bar-(5
cans of hot chocolate bought and only used 2 ½ cans)
Small
containers filled with: 1 bag mini marshmallows, 1 bag dark chocolate chips, 2
bags caramels (use dots next time as cut up caramels stuck together and were
hard to get out of container), 1 bag white chocolate; large container filled
with 2 packages of Pirouette Wafers (cut in half), 60 large marshmallows on
sticks, dipped in either white or milk chocolate and then either dipped in
sprinkles or crushed peppermint, and about 50 spoons dipped in chocolate and
then topped with M&Ms, and 3 bottles of whipped cream. This was a total hit!! (Line got hung up due to having to make a choice-would need to run multiple lines next time)
Christmas program-We
sang a couple Christmas songs and the Bishop spoke for a couple minutes
Workshops- ($620)
Mrs. Claus’ Attic-We made 37 fleece blankets and
assembled 40 art kits (benefited
Bellbrook Family Resource Center and Dayton Children’s Hospital)
Rudolph’s Apothecary-We assembled 96 hygiene kits. (Benefited both Men’s and Women’s local
homeless shelter) Collected donations of personal care items for Harmony House Food Pantry.
Post Office-Made and wrote 80 cards to missionaries
serving from ward and military serving.
Holly Tree Ornament Shoppe-made over 225 ornaments
and decorated six trees to give to needy ward members.
St. Nick’s Magical Moments-Had a Brother in our ward
take pictures of children with Santa.
Simmons’ Sign Making Shop-Scout needed help making
signs for his Eagle project.
North Pole Sweet Treats Co.-Filled over 24 goodie
boxes to give to needy in ward and the kids decorated sugar cookies for them to
take home.
Mrs. Claus’ Attic-Fabric was purchased on Black
Friday for 27 blankets (1 ½ yards each). Fringe was cut and a little slit in
top of fringe so it could be looped. This method made it so even the small kids
could participate. 10 pre-made blankets were purchased from Menard’s on Black
Friday for $1.50 each. We made 20 blankets there and 2 ladies took the rest
home to finish. We rolled the blankets and tied with a bow. 14 receiving
blanket sets were donated and tied with bows also.
The art kits were sewn beforehand. I cut everything out and
assembled kits for the sisters to sew. Most women were overwhelmed when they
saw what we were making and said they couldn’t do it. But when I showed them
their “kit”, they were fine with it. All they were doing was straight-stitching
hems on pockets or sewing the handles, very easy. I then collected and finished
sewing. On one side of the kit we put 10 half sheets of paper in the large
pocket, and a sheet of stickers in the small pocket (bought in bulk on
Amazon.com). On the other side was six small pockets for crayons. I bought the
cheap Oriental Trading Co. 6 pack crayons and they are smaller than regular
crayons, so I was a bit disappointed in them. But I used them anyway. And then
we used six more crayons from the cheap boxes I got on “Back to School” sales,
for a total of 12 crayons in each.
Rudolph’s Apothecary-I purchased most of the hygiene
kit products from Dollardays.com and they came in boxes of 96-shampoo, mouth
wash, deodorant, and the bars of soap had 100. Then from Dollar Tree I ordered
their toothbrush/toothpaste combo (had 108) and picked up 10 packs (10 each)
razors at the local store. Bagged in gallon Ziploc bags. Had several medium
size boxes wrapped in Christmas paper for the other donations to go in. (Make
sure they aren’t large boxes or they get too heavy to carry)
Post Office-I purchased 4-5 packs of predesigned
Christmas cards from the Dollar Store. Also cut up 8 ½ x 11 cardstock and
folded in half to make cards-we probably used about 50 of these. Then from
Oriental Trading I purchased the snowflake stamp set (pre-inked) and a large
bag of adhesive foam winter-type stickers (we used 1/3rd of the
bag). Then each table had pens, colored pencils, crayons, scissors, scrap cardstock,
glue sticks, etc. (I think only one person used the scrap paper and glue
stick). Had a main table set up with “mailboxes”
for each person we were writing to so they could be personal messages.
Holly Tree Ornament Shoppe-We had four different
stations for ornaments. The first was a Fruit Loop wreath (made on pipe cleaner
and hot glued bow on). We used 1 ½ boxes of cereal and probably 60-70 pipe
cleaners (come in packs of 100). Next was a snowflake made from small popsicle
sticks-3 sticks glued on top of each other a different angles, then spray
painted white and a hole drilled for hanger (don’t drill again as split too
many-hot glue ribbon hanger on next time). These were decorated with adhesive
small jewels from OTC. Although the packet said it has like 500 jewels, it only
made about 20-30 ornaments. So the rest of the ornaments we used markers and
glitter glue to decorate. I think we made around 40 of these. Third ornament
was a paper pieced snowman. It only took glue sticks to assemble and a marker
to decorate face. He was the least one made. Had 57 kits and only used about
20. I think he was too hard for younger kids (but the cutest ornament I think).
Last were salt ornaments in various shapes. These were buggers to make. It was
easy to make the dough and cut out, but they took a week to dry (have to flip
daily), and they are brittle if you get too thin. Used a skewer to make hole in
dough for ribbon hanger, after we cut out and before they dried. I tried to
stamp some images on the dough before it dried, but my cheap stamps didn’t work
too well. I had about 60 and we used them all. They decorated them with markers
and glitter glue pens from Dollar Store. (Glitter glue took a while to dry so
we placed them on small plates and into a small Ziploc for easier transport
home.) We let them make 2 ornaments and take one of them home, with the other
decorating the trees for the needy.
I had six small artificial trees that I let them decorate
and take to the homes. I’ll collect them after Christmas to use again.
(If I did this again,
I’d forego the snowman ornament and do the beaded candy cane ornaments instead)
(Prior to the event,
we had the families picked out and drivers assigned to deliver the trees-they
were all under 4’ tall so easy to fit in mini vans)
St. Nick’s Magic Moments-We had a professional
photographer set up all his equipment and take beautiful photos that we
uploaded to a generic Google site for easy download. We handed out small candy
canes after pictures. (We purchased a
Santa suit last year)
North Pole Sweet Treats Co.-I had a stack of goodie
boxes left over from years past that we used (I know OTC sells them cheap too).
We had each family bring a plate of treats to be boxed up. I provided gloves
and hand sanitizer and we put tissue paper in each box and let the kids pick
treats to fill the boxes, in assembly line fashion. Then we let the kids
decorate sugar cookies (assigned 3 women to each bring 3-4 dozen sugar
cookies). I made 8 batches of Wilton’s buttercream frosting. Some was left
white, and then tinted some red and some green. I had some bowls filled so they
could spread ice them, and then I filled 6 pastry bags with tips for finer
decorating. Then we had 4 large containers of sprinkles. I probably had enough
frosting leftover that I could have gotten by with 6 batches. And I have about ½
of the sprinkles left (I bought the 4 set from Michael’s with a coupon). We had
small plates and Ziplocs for the kids to put their cookies in so they didn’t
drop them and make a mess of the carpets. We asked the HP and RS for names of
families, prior to the event, who could use the treats, and we had a sign up
for people willing to deliver them. So a sister worked on a list and assigned
delivery people to each box and it went smoothly.
Additional Info:
I found a 12’ Christmas tree at the Church and we put that
in the center of the gym, so it looked like town square. We used the overflow
for the Post Office, the Stage for the Ornament Shop (so we could use the small
trees as decorations on the stage), and the YW room for the food (serving the
hot cocoa bar from the open countertop in kitchen). Then used the YM, RS, and
Primary for other shops.
We had Christmas music playing throughout the entire
building through the breakfast and activities. It took a little to figure out
sound system. Had to play music on Ipad in Chapel and had it hooked to the
sound system box-also had to have back curtains open ten feet to trigger sensor
to allow music to play in gym-we figured it out, but it did take a little trial
and error.
Decorated the gym with snowflakes hanging from fishing line
on hooks. Didn’t have a budget for centerpieces so I just brought my
decorations from home. Used glitter and ribbon and large bows for long tables.
Each “shop” had a cute sign outside its door. Hung
snowflakes and such in each room to make festive.
We had to do a morning activity due to scheduling conflicts,
but I think it worked out really well and it allowed us more money for
activities as breakfast is cheaper. The children liked the idea of coming in
their pajamas and many adults did too. It was a huge success and many comments
that it was the best Christmas party they have ever attended.
My sister also did a Ward Christmas party this year. I asked her to write down what food she used so I might have an idea on amounts if I ever had to do a ham dinner. Here's what she said:
Ham-bought 132 lbs, had about 30 lbs left (wanted to have extras to give to less fortunate in ward)
Mixed vegetables-big bags from GFS-14 bags, had 2-3 bags left
Rolls (set out on tables)-from Sam's-4 wheat, 6 white, about right
Fruit-50 lbs. of mixed, cut fruit-needed more
Baked Potatoes-10 bags (#10 each) from Sam's-had 2-3 bags left over
Fed around 200 people
