We did this theme last year and our ward loved it. We live in a very diverse area, and our ward members are from all around the world or have lived all around the world. So we thought it would be neat to have ward members decorate a table with items they have from around the world. The decorations ranged from small flags and books, to dolls and other toys, to Christmas decorations they collected while living or visiting there, etc.
For dinner that night we had ward members sign up to bring a main dish or a dessert from a certain country. We had enchiladas from Mexico, Lumpia from the Phillipines, Shepherd's Pie from the UK, Red Cabbage from Germany,as well as great desserts - crepes from France, Swiss cookies, etc.
We also had a sing along from the Reader's Digest Christmas song book. We sang 4 or 5 different songs from different countries, like "Bring A Torch Jeanette Isabella" from France, "Christmas in Killarny" from Scotland, "O Tannembaum" from Germany, etc. We had a flute, violin, and piano play along. We had a missionary in our ward at the time from Hungary so he got up and sang a Christmas song in Hungarian.
A sister in our ward from Spain even made a piñata for the kids at the end of the night!
For this Ward Christmas Party idea, we took the title for a simple hymn "Away in a Manger" and followed that theme through the night.
We wanted to make the dinner delicious but something simple for our ward members to contribute. So we had "bars" - salad bar, soup bar, baked potato bar, dessert bar, and everyone's favorite - the hot chocolate bar. We just asked everyone to contribute either a soup, a dessert, or to cook up some baked potatoes, and the ward provided the salad, the toppings to the baked potatoes, and the hot chocolate. We set up long rows of tables and as everyone arrived they placed their food on their designated table. Everyone enjoyed the meal, and it put less pressure on everyone to prepare, but it made it feel less like a pot luck and more like a nicer meal. Plus who doesn't like warm soup and hot chocolate on a cold night?
This year we are going to follow this theme again, and one thing we will add is a Nativity Room, probably the Relief Society Room. We will have reverent Mormon Tabernacle Christmas music playing, and ask the members of our ward to bring their nativities to display in there.
For our presentation, we had the Primary children act out the story of Christ's birth, read straight from the scriptures. When a hymn would fit in the story, we would have the congregation sing one verse of the hymn, which was all typed up and on each table. To view the play, click here. Our ward's favorite part was the three Sunbeams we had as the Wise Men.
This Christmas party idea is similar to the first Grinch idea I posted, but just slightly different. For the first idea, click here. The play used the same script but adapted it a little to fit their ward party better. Here are the links to their play:
Another difference is that for their spiritual message, they played President Uchtdorf's Christmas Devotional talk on a screen in the gym before dinner, which I think is a nice touch.. For a link to the talk, click here.
My ward Christmas party for 2011 was "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." I was torn about doing this because the Grinch isn't focused necessarily on the Savior. But then I remembered President Uchtdorf's talk from the 2010 First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and wouldn't you know it - it was all about the Grinch! So we based our party on his talk. You can find his talk here.
Our menu consisted of all "Who Food." -Green Grinch Salad -"Roast Beast" (pot roasts) -"Who Hash" (party potatoes) -Green Grinch Beans -Mint Brownies, Green Christmas Cookies, "Who Pudding" (chocolate pudding)
Our decorations were simple. In watching the more recently made "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" movie with Jim Carrey, we noticed how greatly lights were used. So we decorated with lights all over the walls and stage. The tables were decorated with bright green table cloths, accented with red. Each had a small wrapped present on the table for the centerpiece, which was used in our play later on that evening.
For our play, we cast my 9 year old daughter as Cindy Lou Who. Her hair was quite easily done. We put a plastic cup on her head, brushed her hair up around it, and tied it off with a hair elastic. I curled the ends. I also left a little bit of hair down at the bottom so I could braid it up in little loops.
One of the youth in our ward was the Grinch. I was worried about scaring little kids with a big elaborate costume and lots of makeup, so instead I found a Grinch snow hat at Walmart and a green Grinch shirt, and he just wore some tan pants and I think it looked fine. :)
I told our cast members to wear anything bright, flashy, and Christmas-y. One thing about Who's - while they are wacky, they always look neat and tidy. I downloaded the minus track for the Grinch soundtrack on iTunes here.
Here is an image of the boxes we put together for Cindy Lou's scene in the store and she's uncovered under a bunch of presents.
And here is an up-close video clip of that scene. It was kind of heavy so she struggled to hold it up!
The play was really easy to put together. One night I sat down and watched the Jim Carrey version of the Grinch and just typed out the entire movie. I edited it (I decided we didn't need the whole Grinch/Cindy Lou relationship) but left a few other parts in there briefly so we could include more people with speaking parts for the play. You can download a free copy of the script here. Grinch Script
We had two rehearsals and one run-through before the party. I ran the music from the front, and we had some stage crew helping out as well. Props were lots of presents, a backdrop of a fireplace, a log, some canned food, a little play kitchen, a cup, a little Christmas tree, and a big bag. When the Grinch "stole" Christmas, we had the Who Choir sing "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" while the Grinch ran around to each table and grabbed the centerpiece present and put it in his bag.
