Oh What Fun, Michael is One! A Christmas Themed First Birthday Party

How fitting to be posting a Christmas themed first birthday party on Christmas Eve, Eve! Michaels birthday fell on the day after Thanksgiving this year and with the late start to the holiday season, it felt right to kick it off with a Christmas party! It was so much fun to decorate for this because I love the Christmas season and the timing definitely made it easy to find lots of items for the party in stores and online. Plus, the venue was already decorated beautifully with trees and poinsettias and they were having their light up night on the evening of the birthday party!

This was such a fun event, I tend to do a big bash for the kids first birthdays (you can see Doni’s here). It’s such a big milestone that deserves to be celebrated after a hectic year! I wouldn’t change a thing about this party, except that Michael was feeling a bit under the weather. He was still a smiley and happy little boy and he has the sweetest disposition that I wish I could bottle it up and hold on to forever. We had such a crazy year with selling our house, moving and designing the new house on top of regular life things, so it felt nice to dedicate an evening to celebrate our little Mikey with lots of family and friends! We had a great dinner, Santa came to visit with the kids, we built gingerbread houses and finally we watched the venues light up night from floor to ceiling windows, I couldn’t have asked for more.. it was perfect!

I worked with some fantastic vendors for the party, and including Confetti Carousel (check out their website here!) came through with the most fabulous organic balloon garland that was the perfect backdrop for our cake smash. They were so wonderful and accommodating that I cannot recommend them enough! I sent over a digital copy of our invitation and she was able to match and arrange the colors perfectly. They also use very high quality balloons which is SO important. The last thing you want is for your balloons to be popping in transfer before your party even starts. We literally were shoving these into the back of an SUV and I couldn’t believe how much they endured without any damage! Confetti Carousel also offers full party planning services and even more decorations, so you could totally sit back and relax while they handle all the details!

Scroll down to see lots more images from the party and for links on vendors and items I ordered online.

Christmas First Birthday Party. Balloon Garland by Confetti Carousel, Pittsburgh

Thanks to everyone who helped me out with this party! It was definitely a bit stressful with balancing Thanksgiving and coming in from out of town with everything and everyone in tow. My mom baked so many cookies which totally made the dessert table and made the icing for the gingerbread houses at the last minute because for some reason I didn’t do it ahead of time. And it was her idea to have the santa hats, and santa gifts for the kids which were so adorable! My mother in law helped grab things last minute and brought in cookies and decorations because there was no way everything would fit in our car in one trip! And thanks to my brother for volunteering to play Santa, the kids absolutely LOVED it and were so excited, although my one little niece (who is very intuitive) did manage to figure it out.