Walking in a Winter ONEderland

The birthday dust has settled. I've finally sorted through the pictures, found a home for the new toys and have a few minutes to sit down and recap the details of Jackson's first birthday.

While planning for this party, I tossed around various theme ideas for weeks. Drew & I are both December babies and I know how easy it is for those birthdays to get lost in the Christmas shuffle. I didn't want that to be true for Jackson and was initially avoiding all things that even resembled the holidays. But when the Winter Onederland theme came to me it was too perfect to refuse. Turns out it's not an original idea as a google search turned up all sorts of Onederland parties. But I decided to run with it anyway.

Through my internet searches, I had the good fortune of stumbling upon Carli at Dimpleprints. Carli creates custom invitations, announcements and party packages and her products are amazing! I explained what I had in mind and she designed the invitation. I loved it so much it ended up serving as the inspiration for the entire party. I then proceeded to order cupcake toppers, favor tags and a happy birthday banner from Carli. Oh yeah, and my Christmas cards too. Take a peek at her etsy shop when you have a minute. You'll swoon.

Now on to the party details.

Invitations
Here are the invitations, designed by Dimpleprints.
And here they are addressed and ready to mail.
Decor
The good thing about choosing a theme that is "in season" is the availability of coordinating products. From Michaels I bought foam snowflakes and used them as labels for various things. The Dollar Spot at Target was a gold mine. I found little snowflake pails to fill with goodies on the beverage bar. I found favors for the kiddos that matched the theme perfectly. I already had snowflake shaped place mats that I hung from the ceiling. I reused the ONE letters from the invitation photos to decorate the food table. I framed the invitation and a photo of Jackson to accessorize the tables. I also purchased balloons for the highchair, favor table and front door.
Food
For the most part, the food on the menu was white. It included a cheese ball that I decided to shape into a snowman at the last minute. Ritz has snowflake crackers (again, the benefits of planning a seasonal party) that were perfect. There were also tortilla roll-ups, dipped pretzel rods, Chex muddy buddies served in paper cones and penguin olives. Wait untill you see the penguin olives! Of course, there were white and chocolate cupcakes for dessert.

Here is the food table.
And here are some close ups.

Beverages

When I decided on the Winter Onederland theme, I knew immediately I wanted a hot chocolate bar. It included whipped cream, chocolate syrup, marshmallows, chocolate chips, toffee crumbles and peppermint sticks as toppings. Of course, there was Bailey's and Peppermint Schnapps available as well. I also wrapped water bottles with snowflake paper and served Berry Lemonade Jones sodas (mostly because they were the perfect color!)

Here is the beverage bar.

And here are some close ups.

Favors

For favors, I decided on homemade hot chocolate in cone-shaped favor bags. I also made #1 lolly pops using a candy mold and blue and white candy melts. The kiddos got a pair of snowflake mittens.

Here is the favor table.

And here are some close ups.

Another one of my favorite elements was courtesy of my sister-in-law, Jackson's Aunt Abby. She made (I'm not kidding...she totally MADE this) Jackson a special birthday shirt to match our theme. How cute is that?!

Speaking of the birthday boy, here he is enjoying his birthday cupcake.

And opening presents. Turns out it's easier to open things when you actually climb on top of the box.

Boy did he get some cool stuff!

As thrilled as I was with how the party turned out, I did learn one lesson. Next time, I will hire a photographer. Or at least assign someone (who is more skilled than I am) to be in charge of the photos. Would you believe I don't have a single picture of our family on Jackson's first birthday? What was I thinking?! (Note: Click here for my entire photo album - all 114 of them.)

So there you have it. A Winter Onederland.

I wish I could say I came up with all of these details myself, but I should give credit to some of my favorite party bloggers who provided inspiration for this party and so much more!
The TomKat Studio for leading me to the famous cupcake stand, Everyday Celebrating for her creative and totally do-able ideas and Hostess with the Mostess for being just plain fabulous. These, and all of my favorites, are listed on the blogroll to the right.

Jackson won't remember a single minute of his first birthday, but I would do it all over again in a heart beat. I had so much fun planning and executing this party. And it was wonderful to have a house full of family and friends to celebrate with us as our little boy turned one.

It truly was a Onederful day!