Rustic Mountain Lumberjack Themed Birthday Party

Rustic Mountain Lumberjack Party Details:This is what Allison said about planning/styling the party-

“This birthday party was to celebrate my son’s sixth birthday. He had not had a birthday party since his twin sisters were born and for the last year he had asked multiple times if he could have a party at his house. His birthday is December 6th, so in an attempt to have my Christmas decor work with the party theme I suggested a snowball fight. To my surprise he went for it.

When I asked my son what he would like to serve at the party he suggested pancakes and hot chocolate, that sent the snowball fight theme in a more rustic camp house/hunting camp theme and also set the time of day for the party. With the more rustic elements suddenly this party became so much fun to get ready for. My father brought his cast iron fire pit and gridle to make pancakes on during the party. Then for the rest of the menu we served powdered sugar donut holes (snowballs), sausage balls, water (melted snowballs), wintery woodland birthday cake with the most adorable bottle top tree and vintage deer, and a coffee and hot chocolate bar. On the hot beverage bar we served 5 different types of marshmallows, 4 coffee syrups, splenda, sugar, mocha, and cinnamon.

We ordered “hunt’n cabin” pop up tents to act as forts for the snowball fight and then I ordered snowballs! You’ll note that we live in Alabama…central Alabama…not known for any winter weather mix. And if it does snow in Alabama, well, no one drives anywhere! So to amazon I went. That is wear I happened upon these fantastic indoor snowballs. Can’t say enough great things about this fun product. They survived the rain that came down mid party and laundered fantastically.

I started to choose plaid tablecloths, but really wanted a lighter color pallet and then lucked out that my mother in law owned several forest green and white gingham tablecloths. From there I choose several fun vintage pieces to add in to the decor. I found weathered jingle bells to hold my menu cards and I hand wrote items to match the invitation design, which I had created based on the hunt’n cabins that we had ordered, and the idea of a Lincoln log cabin.

The craft we chose for the party used the bark of a palm tree and turning it into a deer or rudolph, to hang for Christmas. Last New Years we were in Pauley’s Island, SC after a storm and we collected all of the fallen pieces.I then used my daughter’s lemonade stand and turned it into, Earl’s Taxidermy. The kids each added eyes, a nose and different decor to their own deer.

I had so much fun decorating for this party that I worked the snowballs into my Christmas decor and had a lot of the decorating done in advance of the party and got to leave it up through Epiphany. Even our three elf’s, Spanky, Girl, and Mama surprised Riley by creating their own snowball fight.

Because RIley’s birthday is so close to Christmas we asked guests to bring canned goods in lieu of birthday presents. I have often added, “no gifts, please” to the invitation but I realized people do not like to come empty handed. Riley is blessed with a lot of family that wants to bring presents, so this was the perfect solution. His kindergarten class even won the food drive contest because of his donations.

*When looking through the pictures you may note that Rapunzel snuck into the decor…twin three year old girls feel no party is complete without a princess!

The biggest piece of advice I can give to party planners is, EDIT! It is so easy to get excited about all of the amazing party wares on the market. You see them and you want to buy them all. However, sometimes the simplest things make the biggest impact. Don’t choose to many colors, or too many patterns. Just because you love a product, doesn’t mean it fits with the rest of the decor. The same goes for too many kitschy ideas on Pinterest. Sometimes more is less”.

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