Nate and I were put in charge of a committee to put together our ward's Christmas party. We decided to do a Polar Express themed one and it turned out amazing! My committee was pretty awesome and all did such a great job in their different areas of the party. It took a lot of planning and a lot of time and effort but was all worth it because it turned out so great. This past week was very busy with all the planning and we literally spent all day yesterday at the church setting up and making sure everything was perfect. :)
Nate made this amazing invitation! He is pretty creative.
Here is the train schedule I made and an approximate timeline.
All set up- It turned out so beautiful and I am very glad that I put the Jones in charge of the decorations because they were so amazing and perfect!
The conductor's booth where everyone came in.
This is at the front of the room where the conductor read a story for the program and where Santa sat.
There was a train track that went around half of the gym that the kids absolutely loved running on.
The tables were so cute. Green tables cloths, white napkins, clear utensils and there was a variety of centerpieces- big plastic candies, poinsettias, greenery and red bows, and colorful ornaments.
The amazing train- fog even came out of it. Towards the end of the party the kids even got to go inside of it which they loved.
We had dinner consisting of lasagna, bread sticks/garlic bread, and salad. Thanks to all of those that provided food! And also we had a hot chocolate station.
I was in charge of the kid's craft room (Santa's Workshop)
I had fun decorating. For the peppermints I just used small paper plates and some red paint and I looked on Pinterest for a pattern to cut out all the pretty snowflakes. I also used Pinterest for all the crafts that they did.
Craft One-fruit loop candy canes and wreaths.
Craft Two- cotton ball Santa beard.
Craft Three- I glued and painted three popsicle sticks together and the kids got to decorate their "trees" with sparkly stars and sequins. Also they could tie a piece of yarn to the top if they wanted to hang them up.
The fourth table had coloring pages, mazes, cross word puzzles, and word searches. Also at the front of the room I had the Polar Express playing for those kids that weren't in the mood to be crafty.
Bishop did such a great job dressing up like a conductor. It was awesome that he was willing to do this and here he gave out tickets to everyone.
The amazing tickets that Nate made. I have a pretty incredible husband! :)
There was A LOT of people there! We sent up four extra tables that we originally thought in the setting up process but even more people showed up so we had to set up more tables in any open area that we could find. We figured there was close to 250 people there.
We started with an opening prayer and song and even had a train whistle to get everyone's attention and while everyone was eating there was three musicals numbers. They all did an amazing job and I am very grateful that they were willing to share their talents.
After dinner the kids went to Santa's workshop and were busy crafting away.
The kids got about 15 minutes in the craft room and they all lined up on the train tracks and the conductor got to punch all of their tickets. Then all the kids sat on the floor in the front while the conductor sat in the chair and read them the book I Believe in Santa Claus. I scanned each of the pictures and projected them on the wall so everyone could see the pictures. Then after he was done with his remarks a young women and young man in the ward sang the song "When Christmas Comes to Town" from the Polar Express. They did a beautiful job and it sounded great! Then we had a closing prayer and a special visitor came to see everyone.
Santa gave each kid a gift bag that had a bell with a little saying about believing on it along with some candy. I was glad that Paige didn't recognize Santa even though we see him all the time. :) Going up to him was very scary for her but she was fine as long as I held her. When we got home that night though she was said her favorite part of the party was seeing Santa and seeing him run on the tracks and the fact that he knew her name was pretty amazing to her. :)
I wondered if any of these boys recognized him. :)
Doughnuts were also served during this time for dessert. The night went very smoothly thanks to everyone that helped. I could not have done it without the help of my committee and everyone that help chip in that night with everything going on and cleaning up. It was such an amazing evening!
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