Ideas for the Best Winter ONEderland Party

My first son was born on July 5th, let’s just say he was the grand finale of the fireworks show! A true summer baby! His birthday parties are always so easy to plan because they can be held outdoors, and they take place during the height of summer. An outdoor BBQ, a pinata, yard games, ice cream, water ballons, fireworks, etc. The possibilities are endless!

My second son was born on January 29th, 2021, on the coldest day of the year! Literally! And during the pandemic! A polar opposite experience to say the least. So, when it came time to planning his first birthday party in January 2022, it was tough! We couldn’t celebrate outdoors, unless we planned for an actual polar bear or an Antarctica theme! Ha ha. Also, during this time, large gatherings were taboo with the pandemic still underway. The parental guilt was setting in…. I felt torn because I still wanted to celebrate the event to its fullest, like I did for my other son when he turned one.

It felt like the odds were stacked against me to make the day special, the pandemic, cold winter weather, indoor event, flu season, etc. Then I thought, this stuff should not matter, what matters is his birthday! It was something to truly celebrate! The other things are just external factors.

Then the idea came to me, why not capitalize on winter! Winter is also beautiful and special in its own way! In true 9House fashion, I started brainstorming what I could do to make this event spectacular! Winter ONEderland would be the theme!!

The Winter ONEderland party was small, but super fun to plan and went off without a hitch! Most importantly the birthday boy LOVED it! It was something truly special for the memory books!

If you are contemplating hosting a Winter ONEderland party or just a winter themed party in general, below are some ideas to help you and generate inspiration:

*Color Scheme: Settle on a color scheme for the event. Think winter! Think cold! Whites, creams, silvers, grays and even blues. Deep colors could also be added for that pop! For my Winter ONEderland party, I chose white, gold, silver, and a pop of light blue! Because I was throwing the party for my son I chose the light blue color, but I’ve seen Winter ONEderland parties for girls use pink or purple. The main colors in the palette are the whites, creams, silvers and grays because they exemplify winter, but the small displays of color (blue, pink, purple and gold) can show masculinity, femininity and add drama. Greenery can always be added because it’s neutral. It can also give a pop of color and provides definition where needed. Stick with the winter theme colors and decide what pops of color you want to add. Have fun with it! Below is photo to show how I decorated my foyer sideboard with the color scheme I chose.

*Scenery/Decorations: Now that you settled on a color scheme for your Winter ONEderland/Winter themed party, it is time to get creative with the decor! Prior to settling on my decorating approach, I looked at Pinterest for inspiration! I recommend you do the same. Pinterest, Google images, Instagram squares, magazines, etc. With any decorating project, it is always good to look at ideas first to aid in your creativity. Think about it as fueling up your brain with ideas before you take on the task.

• Cake table: The cake is considered the focal point of an event. We often see cake or dessert tables at elegant events like weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, charity balls, galas, etc. So why not use that same concept in your home to make things look more elegant! I always create an area in my home to showcase the cake for my kids’ birthdays! It’s super fun to do and after all, the cake can be quite an expensive item for a party or event. Why not show it off? For the Winter ONEderland party, I used my foyer buffet for the cake table! I used the following items to display the cake and at the same time create a charming winter scene:
  • Faux Fur Pelt – I placed the cake on a faux fur pelt because the white fur looked like snow! It made the whole scene look very winterlike and added drama to the table! Link to the pelt I used: https://amzn.to/3PPblTa.
  • Mini Bottle Brush Christmas Trees: I used these little snow-covered trees to decorate the cake table. They synchronized perfectly with the larger snow trees I had and made for a very quaint snowy forest scene. Link to the mini bottle brush trees https://amzn.to/3U5OMfw
  • Snow Covered Pinecones: To further add to the snowy forest scene, I added some snow pinecones! I also used the pinecones for the hot cocoa bar and tablescape since there were 25 in the package. Link to pinecones used: Snow Pinecones – https://amzn.to/3VNhp2k
  • Winter ONEderland Banner: A hung a Winter ONEderland banner on the mirror to formally announce the event! I used the extra snowflakes to decorate the buffet. Link to the banner – https://amzn.to/4aLocOCht
  • Balloons: What is a party without balloons? Not a party ha ha. I had helium balloons in white, gold and pale blue, complements of Party City. Tip: Always get balloons delivered! It makes things so much easier and driving with balloons in the car is scary! I also added a silver number one balloon near the cake to further advertise the event as a first birthday!! Link to the balloon: https://amzn.to/4aJzfaN

• Decorate with Stuffed Animals: Every home with children is known to have a lot of toys, especially stuffed animals!! A free way to jazz up the Birthday decor is to look through your child’s toybox! I found some polar bears, a yeti, a penguin and a snow tiger! These guys fit in nicely with the overall decor! The kids loved it! It looks so cute and it costs you absolutely nothing!

• Tablescape: We had a small crowd for the Winter ONEderland party, so I was able to use my dining table for some of the guests. Keeping with the winter theme, I used a white tablecloth, silver and white plates placed on silver chargers, pale blue napkins and blue drinking glasses. I placed a snow-covered pinecone on each plate too! It turned out really beautiful.
  • Plates – https://amzn.to/3VUOLMK
  • Pastel Blue Napkins – https://amzn.to/4cLwdEQ
  • Silver Chargers – https://amzn.to/3Uhh1bz

• Banner: To really celebrate my son’s first year, I hung up a photo banner to showcase his month-to-month progression from newborn to one year old! The pictures were so darling, and the guests enjoyed looking at them during the party. Link to the banner – https://amzn.to/49wJUVb

*Food/Drink – One of the most important things you need to have at a party is……, you guessed it! The food and drinks!! I chose to run with the whole winter theme and have the food and drink items tie in with it all. I listed some ideas below to garner your inspiration:

• Chili: For the main course, we served chili. Get it? Chilly? Ha Ha. It’s filling and a little goes a long way! It was a great complement to the overall winter theme. Served in elegant disposable white and silver bowls: https://amzn.to/49pOyVg
• Hot Cocoa Bar: We also served our guests cocoa with an epic hot cocoa bar! It was a grand slam! The guests loved creating their own unique cups of cocoa and it was super fitting with the winter theme. Check out my post about making a hot cocoa bar here: How to Create an Epic Hot Cocoa Bar

• Cake: Appropriate for the Winter ONEderland theme, was the adorable polar bear cake! The cake, made by a local bakery, was not only super cute, but super delicious! Everyone loved it, especially the birthday boy! A cake like this would be very fitting for a Winter ONEderland or winter themed party. Some other ideas for cakes could be a snowman or penguin cake, a cake with snowflakes or woodland animals on it, a princess Elsa or an Olaf cake, etc. There are numerous things you can do here for the cake. Have a blast coming up with your idea. Look for inspiration in the places I suggested above, Pinterest, Google, Instagram, magazines, etc. Or you could look through your local bakery’s portfolio for ideas.

• Snowflake Cookies: Suitable for the Winter ONEderland theme and a perfect complement to the polar bear cake were the snowflake cookies! Made by the bakery who made the cake! I placed them on a silver charger to synchronize with the color scheme I chose. I also added some white chocolate pretzels to an apothecary jar near the cookies!
• Donut Tower/Croquembouche: In an effort to make a charming snow tree, I used a Styrofoam cone, toothpicks and donut holes! It turned out quite cute and I used this as a centerpiece on the table. The original plan was to use white powdered donut holes for a snowy look, but in January of 2022, there seemed to be a shortage of this item. I looked everywhere and even had family members look for me…no luck! So, I improvised with glazed ones. True story!!! Not quite the look I was going for, but it still turned out great and created the wow factor for the party! I would recommend using the white powdered option as they are more winterlike. Link to the tower I used https://amzn.to/43PPZev

There you have it, some ideas for a Winter ONEderland or winter themed party! I hope this post both helps and inspires you if you are planning on doing something like this. Have a blast planning! Most importantly, on the day of the party, soak it all in! Make memories!

Enjoy!