Christmas in July Party

On the 4th of July after the kids were in bed Tony and I were outside sitting on the back of our car watching fireworks going off from houses all around us.  I had the idea to throw a party to get to know people a little better so while we sat there I told Tony about my idea and he thought it sounded great.  I thought it would be fun to do a Christmas in July theme so I talked about some of my ideas- he even came up with the idea for white elephant gifts.  So after realizing it was doable with our schedules I sent off this invite via facebook.   

It's ironic I included "cool off at the B family's house" because it never seemed to get cool even with the air blasting constantly all day.  I think with all the bodies in the house and the heat warning advisory it never got under 80 inside.  blah!  Anyways...my objective in throwing this party was to make it as "summery" as possible.  Not too Christmassy.  I didn't want to come off as some crazy Christmas lady.  And anyway, who really wants hot chocolate when there's a heat index of 115 outside?  So I used summertime things and did a Christmas spin on them.  Since "July" is still part of the theme, you gotta make it summery.  We had "Cold Hot Chocolate" (chocolate milk), CHEERies (cherries), reindeer food (carrot sticks), a snowman (melons), "Yellow Snow" (Piña coladas), ice cold cranberry juice, etc.  They tell you not to eat yellow snow but we sure did.  I had an idea to make "dirty snowmen" with marshmallows dipped in chocolate and graham cracker crumbs; because nothing is more Christmas than sugar dipped in chocolate (especially shaped like a snowman) and nothing is more summery than s'mores.  But I ran out of time and just did s'more bites.

I crammed us all in the front room and turned the dining room into a play room.  I was actually so happy I did- and with 14 kids there total it was a good thing!  I had a christmas album in the record player, lights up, the gift exchange, and of course we had a winter wonderland photo booth.  I've discovered the only way I can get a picture of everyone is to do a photo booth.  I initially wanted to do frozen hot chocolate but realized it's not something you can really make in bulk and have out for a long period of time.  I had another idea involving peppermint ice cream but it's hard to find in July, last minute.  I appreciated everyone who came and brought a treat to share- it ended up being a great night!  Here are some pictures of it...

After all was said and done we turned on the TV to the last five minutes of this:

 I thought it was fitting.