Holding a ward Christmas Party and/or Dinner can be a BIG project, so here are some tips and resources to help you prepare a ward/branch activity, whether it's a full blown Christmas Party or just Christmas Dinner.

Christmas Party With Dinner: Here are some great foods to have with your Christmas Dinner

• Turkey and/or Ham
• Gravy
• Mashed Potatoes
• Stuffing
• Vegetables
• Cranberry Sauce
• Rolls (with butter on the side)

• Drinks
• Dessert
• Salt and Pepper on the side

Non-Food Items: (Note, for those who don't wish to use paper/plastic items they are invited to bring their own dishes which they can take home and clean.)

• Paper Plates (large for food, small for dessert)
• Plastic Cups
• Plastic Utensils
• Napkins
• Table Clothes (borrowed from multiple ward Relief Societies)
• Serving Utensils
• Trays for serving the food (you can place food on a tray for each table instead of serving individual plates)
• Baskets for rolls
• Bowls for Cranberry sauce
• Small dishes of butter
• Pitchers for water/juice
• Extra garbage cans and bags

Auxiliary Assignments: Each auxiliary (Relief Society, High Priests, Young Women, etc.) can be given one of the following tasks.

• Cooking the food
• Serving the food
• Kitchen cleanup
• Table and chair setup/take down
• Decorations: nativity scenes, tree(s), Christmas lights, garlands, balloons, etc.)

Additional Assignments (Optional):

• Table Sign-up Coordinator (everyone sees this person to sign-up the number of people that will be attending and to be assigned a table)

• Entertainment Program with musical numbers and Christmas stories
• Nursery Area for young children (here are some Christmas Craft Ideas or a Christmas Word Search)
• Santa Clause, who visits and passes out small bags of treats (one option is to have the children get packed up in their cars while they wait for Santa, when they are ready they put on their car's lights and Santa comes to visit them before they go home)

Table Decorating Contest: One fun activity is to have people decorate their assigned table in a fun and festive way. This helps lighten the decorating load of the Activity Committee. You can assign the local missionaries as the judges and give out prizes for different categories, such as best overall, most original, most festive, etc. Make sure to give a prize that can be shared if a table has more than one family. A gift basket with Christmas music, fruit, treats, and other goodies works great.

Organizing a Christmas Activity can be a lot of work but it's worth it as you help bring your ward/branch together by holding a wonderfully fun Christmas party.