Background on the event:
My birthday is January 6th. Growing up my mother disliked letting me have birthday parties because of the weather. Mother Nature was never invited but frequently she stopped by for a visit that day. So usually I got to have one friend come over for a playdate. Now I know why. Don't you just hate when your mother is always right.
Luckily the snow was light this year and most of my friends drive SUVs. We had been off the two weeks prior to my birthday. I knew the kids would be crazy so I asked some friends if they wanted to come over for Pizza and Wine and cake. I'd much rather chill out at home then go out for dinner for my birthday with all that craziness at school. Thankfully my friends were equally interested in the idea. So as the snow fell (lightly thankfully) we had some relaxation and great laughs. Thanks for joining me ladies.
Theme: 3 Kings
Since my birthday is January 6th we have always celebrated The Epiphany that day. A rememberance of the visit of the Magi (or 3 wise men) to the infant Jesus. So that sort of became my theme to decorate the apartment.
I found a beautiful box of Christmas Cards on clearance that had the nativity on the front of a well decorated box. Thank you
Rite Aid. I took one of the cards that depicted the wisemen and cut them out. I pasted it to a black piece of construction paper to make a lovely wall decoration. I also found 3 really pretty pouch boxes. They are probably designed for jewelry box gifts. But they were perfect to hold a print out of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. Whenever I have friends over I enjoy thinking up creative favors for them to go home with. They laughed this time - "Wait it's your birthday and you are giving us gifts?!" What can I say - that is fun for me. So I bought a bag of Rolo's (wrapped in gold papers) and found little green gauze gift bags that I had from another event around. I made little bags of gold for my guests. At our $1 Zone, I found very pretty airfresheners. They were a ribbon with a bead on a hook. I sprayed them with an extra shot of cinnamon (I couldn't find a frankincense like spray - they should have smelled more pine and lemon - but thankfully my friends wouldn't hold that against me with snow making it hard to get around to find things). And my favorite favor to give them -
Tom's of Maine toothpaste makes one with Myrrh. Thankfully the larger
Mrs. Green's on Central Avenue had enough boxes in stock for me to pick up for favors.
Okay I went overboard on cake. In my mind - three Kings - three cakes. Each cake would have had a crown. And I bought paper shinny crowns for my friends (who thankfully put them on without any prodding - Love you guys!). I drove by a bakery that I didn't realize we had in Larchmont - La Parissienne. I called ahead and ordered a traditional
galette de rois. We had some great laughs discussing the history of this cake and finding out who would have the feve inside their piece. We ordered in pizza and opened some wine (of course I had wine bags in the traditional colors - gold, green, and purple) to round out the evening. Nightsky blue table cloths, star confetti, purple, yellow, and green napkins and plates and Voila.
The front door received a wreath with gold, green, and purple masks and ribbons. The Epiphany does usher in the Carnivale season after all. Below are some photos of my setup:
If you are looking for a party to banish the Winter Blues after Christmas and New Year's consider a 3 Kings Party for January 6th.
