Christmas Party Ideas: How To Host The Ultimate Friendmas

Whether you’re hosting a Christmas get-together before you head home for the main event or forgoing family lunch for a spectacular feast with friends, there’s nothing better than friendmas. Without nagging parents to worry about, hosting Christmas chez vous can be as creative and stylish or as laid-back as you’d like.  

Stuck for inspiration? Here’s our guide to hosting the ultimate friendmas. (Just add mulled wine and throw on one of the best Christmas movies of all time…) 

There’s something sophisticated about sending invites to your friends in the build up to the main event. Make the invites as elaborate – or humorous – as you’d like, and you could even leave a space for dietary requirements, if you don’t know them already. That way you’ll avoid any awkward upsets at the Christmas dinner table!

Assuming you’ll want to host the jamboree at your own humble abode, there’ll be plenty of decorating and food prep to lose yourself in. But if you’re short on space you might want to reconsider the venue, and instead decide to host the supper at whichever friend has the biggest space. There’s nothing fun about squeezing 10 people around an intimate table for two. Or, if you really want to push the boat out, club together to hire a private venue space, and even a private chef to prepare the lavish feast. 

Whether you want to go tacky and garish – think multi-coloured tinsel and flashing plastic Santas – or understated and chic, hosting Friendmas means you have free reign on the décor scheme. Tacky will guarantee a few giggles, particularly if you have Wham's Last Christmas playing in background, but if you want to make it classy and sophisticated, invest in as many candles as you can find, that way your lighting will be soft and ambient. 

Festoon your table with scatterings of confetti and festive foliage, add individual place settings with photographs or adorable little gifts for a personal touch, and of course make sure your Christmas tree is decked out in suitably festive attire. If you really want to get your guests in the festive spirit, make sure you have Christmas classics playing in the background – Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey!

Want to make this year the most stress-free ever? Outsource catering so you can focus on what matters: having fun. If you live in Sydney, check out our list of the city’s finest food caterers. Trust us, Salt Meats Cheese is a hit every single time. 

Sitchu Recommends: Catering Project's Ultimate Christmas Feast

The festive season is fast approaching and it’s the perfect time to surround yourself with friends, family and of course, good food! But the pressure to organise a Christmas feast to delight all your guests can be extremely stressful, and that's where we'd like to introduce you to Catering Project's The Ultimate Christmas Feast. This limited edition offering features 14 indulgent dishes to feed 15-20 guests. Show-stopping honey and maple glazed ham, a spectacular deluxe seafood platter and a delectable DIY pavlova are just some of the package deal, ensuring everyone is bound to walk out of Christmas with a full and satisfied stomach! 

Click here to find out more

If you want to prepare the whole shebang yourself, you’ll certainly have your work cut out – just be sure to write yourself a schedule. We can almost guarantee that you won’t stick to it, but having some kind of order – no matter how chaotic it becomes – will help you get back on track when you’re just about ready to scream. To make life easier, assign different jobs to your friends so they can lessen the burden for you. It’s fun to know you’ve all chipped in anyway. 

If you’re the host, it makes sense to prepare the larger dishes in your oven, but smaller side dishes are easy to transport so it’s worth asking your friends if they’re happy to get on board. Cocktails, drinks and desserts are perfect pass-the-buck dishes, that way you might even have time for a mulled wine and mince pie before your guests arrive.

Christmas jumpers, elf outfits, Santa suits and sparkly sequins – Christmas is a time to eat, drink and be merry, in a hideous Christmas jumper and flimsy paper hat. Make fancy dress mandatory, so your dinner table will look like an invite to the Mad Hatter’s tea party. 

There’s no point forking out on gifts for every single person, instead, choose a budget and pick a name from a hat. It’s actually pretty amusing delving into the delights of what you can buy for under a tenner. Our advice on the present front? Humour wins every time.

Stuck for ideas? Check out our kris kringle gift guide!

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without an obligatory games round, but instead of standard charades and Monopoly, make game time part of your festive plan. Pass the parcel and musical chairs are always a winner when paired with a few glasses of Prosecco, or if you’re feeling particularly creative, you can host your own Christmas pub quiz. Trivia goes down a storm at a festive get-together, especially when you’re the quiz master! 

Other games worth a gander include: guess that tune; karaoke; the name game; and charades. Or, if you want a game guaranteed to make the group laugh, go with Pictionary or Cards Against Humanity – riotously funny after a few festive tipples.

Put a fancy-dress box together filled with ridiculous props – think masks, hats, wigs and capes – then scatter disposable cameras around the room so that people can snap away throughout the night. It’s so much more fun not knowing what the picture is going to turn out like, especially when props are thrown into the mix! Plus, waiting to have the pics developed means you’ll have something to look forward to once the night is over.

Once you have the props sorted, scatter disposable cameras around the room so that people can snap away throughout the night. It’s so much more fun not knowing what the picture is going to turn out like, especially when props are thrown into the mix! Plus, waiting to have the pics developed means you’ll have something to look forward to once the night is over. 

Looking for more festive inspo? (‘Tis the season, after all…) Be sure to check out our round up of Sydney’s best Christmas tree farms. Once you’ve set up your own tree, it’s time to jump in the car and drive through the city’s best Christmas light displays!