Remember when I said I was going to share how to host a Favorite Things Party?
And then remember when I forgot to share?
I mean, there was the cruise.
And Christmas.
And the winter storm.
And the Real Housewife marathon I watched when it snowed.
And then I thought it was too late. Who wants to hear about a Favorite Things Party now? Christmas has come and gone and I thought the sharing time had come and gone.
And then a brilliant IDEA STRUCK.
Galentine’s Day.
Right?
What better way to celebrate for Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day or just to celebrate friends than a Favorite Things Party? Who’s with me?
Here’s how to host and all the details and the how to and even a few of my favorite things.
Let me start with a disclaimer.
This is how Favorite Things Parties have worked that I’ve attended and this is how we created the Favorite Things Party this Christmas, but these rules and these ideas are flexible. You can tweak them to work anyway you want them to work.
Here’s just the basic framework of how a Favorite Things Party works.
Feel free to create your own party and your own rules.
How To Host a Favorite Things Party
1. Invite between 5-10 guests. At our Christmas Favorite Things Party we had 15 which made it a little more challenging, but that’s the number of girls we have in our family. I think the party works best if it’s a smaller number.
2. Ask each guest to bring three of their favorite things. You could have a theme (like their favorite things that smell good or their favorite kitchen things or their favorite kitchen gadget) or just lean into a favorite thing that they truly LOVE.
The key is that you want them to bring THREE OF THE EXACT SAME THING.
Also—the gifts should be unwrapped.
Does that make sense?
3. Set a budget. I think $10 is a good budget. That way if each person brings three things they would spend $30 total. If that’s too much, you could always set a smaller budget like $5 instead.
4. When the guests arrive, have them place their gifts on a table in the center of the room (like a coffee table).
4. Now at this point you are probably doing the math and thinking “What?” each person brings three gifts and places them in the center on the table, but you have 10 people—“How does that work?”
Simple.
Each person writes their name down three times on three slips of paper and you put them in a bowl.
5. Then have everyone sit in a circle around the center of the table.
6. Pass the bowl with the names to the first person. They draw a name.
Let’s pretend they draw KariAnne’s name.
I reach for one of my three gifts from the center of the table and stand up and explain why it’s my favorite thing and then hand it to the person who drew my name.
7. Then the bowl is passed to the next person and they draw another name and that person stands up and explains their favorite thing and gives it to the person who drew their name.
And so on.
If you draw your own name? Just put it back into the bowl and re-draw.
8. You continue around the circle three times until you draw all the names out of the bowl and everyone will go home with three gifts.
Three of their friends’ favorite things.
Okay.
I know that was kind of confusing so let me restate it super simply again (and let me know of course if you have any questions in the comments).
- invite between 5-10 people
- everyone brings 3 of their favorite things
- gifts are unwrapped
- put everyone’s name in a bowl three times
- draw a name that’s not yours and get a friend’s favorite thing
- go around the circle three times until all names are drawn
And now?
You may be wondering what kind of gifts we brought?
Here are some examples of my favorite things (in the $10 range) I would bring to a My Favorite Things Party.
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CLICK ON ANY OF THE PHOTOS TO SHOP
Here are examples of things that would work perfectly at the party.
- candles
- make-up
- bath products
- products that solve a problem
- ring light
- phone holder
- silk pillowcase
// heart cactus (similar) //
It is SUCH a fun party.
You could send an evite to everone to invite them to the party and serve a Valentine’s charcuterie board and instant party.
The party kind of plans itself. Having everyone explain how much they love their favorite things and share all about them is so fascinating.
And even if you don’t draw that person’s name? It still gives you ideas of new products to try.
I hope this was helpful and let me know if you have any questions.
Happy Galentines (and Valentine’s Day).
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