I just hosted my Annual Girl’s Night and Favorite Things Party! I usually have it in December but we always have SO much fun that we all talked about doing a “Christmas in July'“ favorite things party to get us half way through the year. In December we usually wear Christmas Pajamas, I provide silly fuzzy socks, and food has ranged from pot luck style to this year I catered in one of our favorite local taco spots.

REMEMBER

It doesn’t have to be expensive and you don’t have to go over the top with this party. I did a pot luck last year, charcuterie board and appetizers the year before that and this year decided to cater for the ease of time and clean up. Pot lucks are amazing. Assign a couple girls dessert, some an appetizer and some drinks.

The entertainment is there already with the gift exchange! I love this event each year to expand my circle and deepen the friendships.

You guys, these parties are SO fun and SO easy to put together. Here’s how to throw a favorite things party!

1. Decide what the gift price limit should be.

   Everyone will be purchasing 3 of the same item. So if the gift price limit is $20, they’re spending a total of $60. I’ve heard of people doing a $10 limit but the items weren’t the greatest. We’ve always done $20 and it’s worked out great.

2. Start Planning

   Who will come? What will you eat? Will it be a pot luck where everyone is responsible to bring a dish or will you cook or cater? You can pick a fun drink! I usually pair the tasty drink with the food or theme. This year we had tacos and Mexican food so I made tasty margaritas. None for me this year! Start thinking about your favorite thing to wrap up. And decide if you’d like to throw in extra “raffles” for your girls. I love spoiling and gift giving so I usually pick up a few of my other favorite things, wrap them up and after all the favorite things swapping has happened we all throw our names back in the bowl and a few more gifts are given. You DO NOT have to do this. If you warmly welcome everyone into your home and go out of your way to ensure that everyone is feeling welcome and included - EVERYONE will leave with the fullest heart.

3. Invite your girls! I send a text usually a month to a month and a half in advance with all the details. This is what I sent this year:

   “Hi friends! It’s time for our Annual Girls Night + Favorite Things Party! I’m looking at August 10th at 7! Does this work for everyone?

   Here’s how it works:

   Bring 3 of your favorite thing. The item you choose should be no more than $20. If you have a favorite lip stick, bring 3 lip sticks, each individually wrapped. They can be three different shades but they will all be lip stick. I personally love my pineapple cutter, so I would wrap up three pineapple cutters. Get creative but don’t tell each other what you brought, it keeps the game exciting! Each of us will come home with 3 different items at the end of the night, hopefully 3 new favorite things!

   I’ll have dinner and drinks for us! In ‘Favorite Things’ tradition, I’ll have fun comfy socks for each of us and a couple extra goodies to raffle! I love you so much friends and can’t wait to have a fun girls night together! “

4. Prepare for the Party

   You’ll need to write everyone’s name down, including yourself 3x on a sheet of paper and cut each of them out, fold them up and put them in a bowl. You’ll also need to write down numbers 1-X depending on the number of people coming, don’t forget yourself, cut these numbers out and put them in a separate bowl .

   When everyone arrives for the party, each person will draw a number which tells them what ORDER they give their favorite things. They will also pick 3 names from the bowl and this tells them WHO they give their favorite things to.

5. ENJOY!

   That’s literally it! Have so much fun with this! I’d love to hear how you did it and what other ways you loved on your people!

FAVORITE THINGS GIFT IDEAS

• silk pillowcase

• your favorite lipstick

• Laneige night time lip mask

• hair turban

• your favorite coffee cup + a Starbucks gift card

• your favorite pajamas

• workout bands

• favorite candle

• favorite water bottle

• favorite oversized sweatshirt

• anthropology hair clips

• favorite hair product

• dry shampoo

• favorite sunless tanner

• hair waver