Last year my daughter was almost 2 at Christmas and could spot a Santa 100 yards away on a busy street, but she couldn't grasp the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. This year she's almost 3 and much better at understanding things. I created this party for her and her friends as a fun way to teach them the real reason we celebrate Christmas and about the importance of giving. There were 8 kids at the party that were between the ages of 2 and 4 and there was one other 8 year old girl. To keep costs down at an expensive time of year, I set a budget of $100 and ended up spending $125. INVITATIONS: I sent invites that I printed at VistaPrint.com. They have really low prices on printed invitations (and other things), a great layout designer that let's you customize the invites to your tastes and printing on the back is included for extra information. If you join their website mailing list, they constantly send you emails with free offers for invitations, cards, etc. I only paid $3 for shipping. On the front of the invitation, I had a picture of the Nativity. It read Let's Eat Cake and Celebrate...HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS� and then the party details...Sunday December 7th from 3 to 5pm. I chose a late Sunday afternoon so we wouldn't interfere with everyone's busy holiday schedule. I also put on the bottom "Parents see reverse for more party details.� On the back I gave pretty specific details of the party. Since this was a religious party I wanted to give parents extra details so they could decide if it was appropriate for their child. The back read Join us for loads of fun celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus and then I explained the order of the party. ** Welcome Snacks & Activities ** Nativity Story Time: We'll read a couple nativity stories (written for toddlers & preschoolers) and talk about the importance of giving. ** Gifts for Children: Please bring either a new or gently used toy for donation to a local charity that helps less fortunate children. ** Gifts of Food: Please bring non-perishable food and baby items for donation to a local food bank. We will hide the food items around the backyard and send the children on a hunt to help us collect the food for those in need. The more items the merrier the hunt! ** Gifts for the Animals: We will give to all of God's creatures and will make peanut butter and bird seed pine cones as our gift to the animals. ** Party Games & Cake: The party will end with some classic party games and the children will sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. ** I also put on the bottom Religious beliefs are different for each of us and we all celebrate in our own special way so if you have any questions about what we've planned please email me.� DECORATIONS: We held the party outside (we live in Florida) on our back patio. We decorated the area with red and white streamers red and green balloons and these dangling silver stars I found at the party store. I also got a large Nativity scene meant for bulletin boards that we attached to the wall with tacky putty. The nativity scene came with cardboard presents for the children to color. I got it from Oriental Trading (they have lots of Happy Birthday Jesus party supplies and crafts). On a large table we had a large wrapped box for the parents to put the toys they bought for the less fortunate children. It was surrounded by smaller presents we were using for a game that had the kid's party favors inside. ACTIVITIES & GAMES: For the welcome snacks I had sub sandwiches chips and dip cubed cheeses and crackers fruit veggies and dip and tortellini pasta salad. I made coloring books for the kids to color while waiting for everyone to get there and eat. It had about 8 pages that told the story of Jesus birth and on the cover I put a piece of star scrapbook paper. I attached a nativity sticker sheet so they could decorate the covers of their coloring books. Each child also had to color a present for Jesus. For story time I had one of the moms (a 2nd grade teacher) read the children two stories. The first was Baby's First Nativity by Muff Singer and the 2nd book was God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren. The first story was the story of Jesus birth told in way that's entertaining to toddlers. The second book is a cute story explaining God's presence in our lives. It shows that Santa is good because he teaches us about generosity and kindness but the important part of Christmas is really about God and His gift of Jesus. After story time we had the children stick their presents that they colored for Jesus to the wall by the nativity scene. For the Gifts for Children we just thanked all the kids for bringing toys for other kids that don't have a lot of toys. In the future I would like to do more with it but I thought with them all being so young there might have been tantrums and fighting over the toys. We just kept the toys out of sight in a giant wrapped gift box set high on a table. For the Gifts of Food activity we had a couple of the dads hide the canned food all over the back yard while we were doing story time. We placed a large bin in the center of the yard and told the kids we needed their help collecting food for those less fortunate than us. The kids loved this activity and really got into it. I was surprised thinking that the fun of the hunt would be keeping the items but that was definitely not the case. For Gifts for the Animals activity all the kids got to make birdseed pinecones. I gave each kid a project box that was the lid of a shirt box. In it I had a pinecone with ribbon already attached to hang it in a tree a small cup of peanut butter a small Ziploc of bird seed a plastic spoon and a brown lunch bag to put the pinecone in when they were finished. Putting everything in the boxes helped keep the mess down. They had to spread the peanut butter all over the pinecone and then roll the pinecone in the birdseed. For the classic party games we had a pinata and a version of a cake walk or musical chairs. We attached different holiday pictures around a large table. We played Christmas music and had the children walk around the table. When the music stopped they had to stand by the closest picture. We drew from a hat one of the pictures and whoever was there got to pick a present from the center of the table. They also removed their picture from the table. We kept going till all the pictures were gone and every child got to pick a present. After that we did the pinata. I got the pinata from the dollar store. It said girls rock� on it but I just covered that part with Christmas wrapping paper. I also got the candy 75% off clearance at the after Halloween sales. Finally we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and all the kids blew out the candles. The cake was a Christmas tree cupcake pull apart cake that I got from Sams Club. The night before I also made ice cream balls (a great timesaver when trying to get everyone their cake and ice cream fast). To make the ice cream balls I took a large scoop of vanilla ice cream and formed it in a ball with my hands. I then rolled it in green and red sprinkles and placed it on a cookie sheet. I could only make about 10 at a time before my hands got so frozen I had to take a break to let them thaw out. I put the ice cream balls on a cookie sheet in the freezer to harden and then transferred them to a large bowl. When it was time to serve we just took the bowl out of the freezer and gave everyone their sprinkle scoop. FAVOR: The present during the cake walk present game was the favor I gave to all the kids. In each wrapped box the kids received a book called The First Christmas retold by Gaby Goldstock that I got at the Dollar Store. It told the nativity story in rhyme and was perfect for them. It wasn't a board book but hopefully the parents kept the book in a safe place until it was time to read. I also made a Christmas song CD that had a bunch of classic Christmas songs sung by their favorite Disney Muppet Chipmunk and Charlie Brown characters. The first track on the CD was Linus reading from the bible that explains Christmas to Charlie Brown. I also included a couple small playdohs an angel lollipop Happy Birthday Jesus stickers and stampers (both from Oriental Trading) and a star ornament (4 for $1 at the Dollar Store). The party was a huge success the kids all had a blast and hopefully learned that there's more to Christmas than just Jolly Ole St. Nick. My daughter knows the birth of Jesus now perfectly because we read from her Nativity story books every night (her choice not mine). Mission Accomplished!"