TROPICAL CHRISTMAS

Hi y'all, 

In New Zealand our Christmas is in summer so this year I decided to theme our family Christmas as a 'Tropical Paradise'. There was a lot of looking through Pinterest to get ideas. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and I had a lot of helpers to set up.

I got the tutorial from the blog 'Hostess with the Mostess'

http://blog.hwtm.com/2014/03/diy-giant-paper-flowers-tutorial/

I stuck the paper to the small plastic plates which helped with the flower petal shapes. 

Because the theme is tropical I found a net made of string at look sharp in Papatoetoe for $8. It was quite long and I hung it up with three 3M hooks. Then I bought coloured pegs and pegged printed family photos that people could take home for their own families to look at. The older black and white photos were the most popular. 

Tables were set up outside to keep everyone together.

Tiki torches kept out of the way till night time.

A few of the flowers fell off but it served its purpose for the day. Everything was a bit of a rush so I didn't secure them as well as I should. I stuck the plastic plates to the wood with a hot glue gun.

Leftover paper flowers were chucked in the garden.

We played bingo and everyone had to bring $10 worth of groceries to play. I just downloaded a bingo number generator app and people who didn't want to play were calling out the numbers and gathering the prizes.

The pineapple punch glass dispenser was bought from Kmart for $25. 

1x White wine

2 Cups vodka

4.5l juice

Frozen juice makes the punch stay cold and doesn't water it down. You can freeze the juice in plastic cups or yogurt containers or anything really. 

TROPICAL CHRISTMAS IDEAS

Punch

Umbrella straws

Tiki torches

Flowers

Fishing net

Bingo

Themed food- Prawn twisters, chop suey, rice, roast ham, salads

fruit skewers, fresh fruit and ice cream.

The bingo was a nice substitute for buying presents for the family. Everyone had a really great time.

Merry Christmas 2014!