A successful Christmas 2! Improvements and thoughts.

I’m two weeks removed from what I think was a very successful Christmas 2: Christmas in July. We had 35 guests participate in the Secret Santa and 4 extra people just stop by to enjoy the entertainment and food. We only had a few bowls of food leftover and everyone left with a full belly. I do have a few ideas for changes or improvements that I can implement for next year’s CH2 and hopefully use at Thanksgiving 2.6 later this year.

            The food component had only one issue I can think of and it is entirely my fault. I do not like buying bottled water, (you know the environment and all) and so, I didn’t think to buy any bottled water. I was so caught up in the food portion of the event that I neglected to either ask for someone to bring water/soda/juice or buy a case or 2 for the event. I will not have this happen in the future. Also, semi-food related was my need for an additional large cooler. I had 2 with drinks split between alcoholic and non-alcoholic. In the future I will have a 3^rd or even a 4^th cooler available. I don’t know that I’ve ever had 40 people over the house. In my head I was always thinking 30. The extra 10 people weren’t accounted for in my drink calculations.

            I am happy to say that the pre-made cocktail experiment worked out very well. I filled 4 dispensers with the red, green, gold and white cocktails. The white drink wasn't all that popular, but the other 3 dispensers were totally empty at the end of the evening. I think 3 out of 4 clearly shows that this is a good idea.
I think for Thanksgiving 2 I will just replace the white with a blue drink to the menu. People love blue food, especially at a party. During the week prior I started creating spherical ice cubes for use with the cocktails. I received many compliments on the idea. On a similar note, I went to a charity gathering the following Saturday and they too had a pre-made cocktail. Clearly, this was a good idea to latch onto.

            The music component of CH2 I am undecided on. The backyard had music playing in the background for almost the entire day. I can't recall if any comments on it, therefore I need more feedback from guests to see if anyone even noticed that there was music. This is something I will have to work on. I want it to be present, but not overwhelming. I want it to be like the music heard in a mall during the holidays. Subtlety is the key. I will take any suggestions under advisement. 

           Finally, like I did for the last several gatherings I have thrown, I took a poll and asked my guests a few questions. Here are some of the suggestions I received that I will be trying to incorporate into CH2 next year. A fancy main dish was suggested. I like this idea as long as I do not have to make it .I am busy enough so, next year I will personally ask the few people I know who like making fancy foods and who are capable if they would like to contribute to this fancy dish idea. The goose was such a hit at TH2.5 that perhaps, we will have one next year brought to us by a guest. Another idea that came up was to try and come up with a game of some sort. I could turn the gift giving section of the event into a game. I may try and find or come up with trivia questions, Family Feud or Double Dare type of game. Hopefully, I can take these ideas plus any others that come up to continue to improve CH2.

                Now with Thanksgiving 2.6 coming up in 131 and I am putting all of my focus towards it. I still have many steps left to do for TH2.6, but if it goes half as well as CH2 it will be a very impressive day.