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Okay. I’ve finally written it up. Here are some great ideas to help spruce up a holiday party. There’s no reason that holiday events should be boring!

CELEBRATION ENTRANCE
When the doors open for the guests to arrive into the ballroom, a preselected “Welcoming Team” will be inside shaking jingle bells and maracas with big smiles on their faces to let them know that we are going to have a great time tonight! The DJ has some great upbeat Holiday music playing as everyone comes in.
 
CENTERPIECE GIVEAWAY
The centerpiece giveaway will present 3 winners per table. One for musical chairs, the second for the Snow Flake Contest, and the third to actually win the centerpiece. This is done with a candy cane. Each table will have one large candy cane. When the DJ starts the music the guests are to pass around the candy cane. When the music stops, whoever has the candy cane (thinking they will win the centerpiece) actually wins participation in the upcoming Christmas Musical Chairs Game (below), etc.
 
CHRISTMAS MUSICAL CHAIRS
TRADITIONAL VERSION: The first winner from the centerpiece giveaway is the participant from that table. This is the traditional musical chairs done with Christmas music, such as Rockin Around the Christmas Tree. If there are 15 players (one from each table) then 14 chairs will be lined up. The music starts and the players are to walk around the chairs. The DJ stops the music and the players are to take a seat. One player will be out. This continues, removing one chair per play, until the final winner takes the prize.
 
DJ DON’S CRAZY CHAIRS VERSION: This version is done in such a way that nobody is really ever out of the game. Everyone continues to participate throughout the game. There are many twists and turns in this version, such as certain dance moves (Christmas Macarena, the Twist, YMCA, the Stroll, etc) during the walks around the chairs. Don introduces many different activities and moves, such as circle eights, hula hoops, human obstacle courses, and much more. There are many spontaneous surprises in this Crazy Chairs game, but there is always a grand champion, who will win a grand prize (provided by client, of course).
 
SNOW FLAKE CONTEST
Each table has a pair of scissors and one sheet of paper for the second winner of the Centerpiece Giveaway, who will be the “Snow Flake Artist”.
The DJ will announce the beginning of this activity. While a holiday song (Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow) is being played, the Snow Flake Artist is to create a snowflake and print his name on it on one side but no one is to unfold any snowflakes. He only has a couple of minutes to create the snowflake.
All snowflakes will then be collected and spread out on a table or taped to a wall with the names underneath (not visible). Each snowflake will be numbered. The DJ will give the guests 10 minutes to observe and vote on the best snowflake, by dropping a number in the hat. The survey is tallied up. There will be a first, second and third place winner. The winners will then get a prize (present, gift card, etc.)

SCAVENGER HUNT
Before the party begins, there are to be a collection of holiday nick-nacks, such as a snowglobes, santas, elves, etc. Should be about 15. They should be scattered randomly around the room. They are not to be centerpieces or major decorations, but merely just there (almost invisible). Cheap dime store novelty items are fine. You can always find cheap stuff at the Salvation Army Thrift Store for this.
When it’s time to play, the DJ will ask for about 15 players who want to be in the scavenger hunt. They will be called out to the dance floor. The DJ will instruct them that he will announce an item and will choose a player to go find the item. That player has one minute to find it. The rest of the guests are asked to not say or point or hint as to where the item is. The minute begins. The player has to find the item within a minute. Such music as “Sabre Dance” can be played. If he finds it, he gets to keep the item. The next player will be given his item to find, and so it goes.
If a player cannot find an item, he does not get the prize but the next player gets a minute to find the prize.

REINDEER ANTLERS
This is a quick, silly, but fun game. Divide into two or more teams and hand each team a pair of panty hose and a bag of small balloons. The object is to blow up enough balloons to stuff the legs of the panty hose and then put the antlers on a team member’s head to signal a winner. 

FROSTY THE TOILET PAPER SNOWMAN
The DJ will divide the guests up into teams of three, hand each a roll of toilet paper or two and let two members of each team cover the third member in white from head to toe to create a toilet paper snowman. When finished, they can stick a carrot in the mouth to complete the snowman.
From there, the guests can vote on the best snowman.

THREE DICKENS GHOSTS
Three teams of 3 players play in this game. Each team will be given two chairs and a sheet. Two players will be ghosts with the third player being the “Assistant”. Team one is the Ghost of Christmas Past, team two is Ghost of Christmas Present and team three is Ghost of Christmas Future. The two ghost players will sit in the chairs which are back to back. The team’s Assistant will remain standing by. The DJ will cover the ghosts with a sheet… hence there will be 3 Dicken’s ghosts on the dance floor. A little holiday music can be played in the background, such as “Linus and Lucy”. The DJ will tell each covered team mate to remove something on them which they absolutely do not need and hand it to their Assistant. The guests will remove a shoe, watch, ring, belt, tie, etc. The DJ will ask again for each player to remove one item on them they do not need. And so it goes with the players removing items, until somebody realizes that it’s the sheet they did not need on them. This will be the winning Ghost. An appropriate prize can be a copy of Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” book or DVD.

CHRISTMAS JELLY BEAN GAME
This game is done on the dance floor with teams. While this game can be played at any event, with kids or adults, we make it the “Christmas” game because we use red and green jelly beans.

We start by establishing our teams of even numbers of people. In other words if there are 14 players, it can be 2 teams of 7 – boy, girl, boy, girl. 20 players can be 4 teams of 5, etc. Remember to use even numbers of opposite sex players: boy, girl, boy, girl, etc. The players form lines and each player has a plastic spoon in his mouth… handle in mouth, spoon out. One team is given a green jelly bean, the next a red one. The first player has the jelly bean on his spoon. When the music starts, the team players have to pass the jelly bean from one player’s spoon to the next until it goes down the line. If someone drops the jelly bean, he simply picks it up and puts it back in his spoon, then passing it on – this only slows things down. The bean goes to the end of the line and back. The first team who completes the pass wins a small bag each of green and red jelly beans.

PIN THE STAR ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE
This is a version of the classic kid’s game, “pin the tail on the donkey”. There is a Christmas tree poster pasted on foam board, which is on a wall or eisel. Contestants are blind folded and handed a star with a pin. They are to be spun around once and directed to the tree. They are then to pin the star. Each contestant gets his turn. The winner is the one who pins the star closest to the top of the tree.

FOR A RISQUE ADULT PARTY: HOLIDAY YAM CONTEST

This is done with large, long sweet potatoes. Teams are formed (as with the Christmas Jelly Bean Game). Contestants are again lined up boy, girl, boy, girl. The first player will have a yam between his legs above the knees and below the waist. When the music starts, he must pass it on to his next team mate, in between her legs. The yam continues to be passed on down the line and then must come back. If the yam falls, it must be picked back up and put back into play. Occasionally if a yam falls it can break, making it that much more difficult to pass. This game is hilarious! Naturally the winning team gets a prize.

In events which are not holiday parties, I’ll use large cucumbers.

FOR CORPORATE PARTIES: THE “HIGH 5 TEAM”
At many holiday parties that we do, there are awards presented to top employees of the year, such as top salesman, 20 years of service, etc.

Rather than having a boring announcer present the awards (while everyone else is yawning), we prefer to select a “High Five Team”. This would consist of about 6 of the most noisy, party-motivated employees of the company. Often times the party planner herself is one of the most outgoing. So this team will be orchestrated to form 2 lines for the award recipients to walk through. The Team gives them congratulatory high-fives as the person comes to get the award. There should be a photographer in place to take a picture of the person receiving the award next to the Boss/President/Owner of the business. The announcer then introduces the next person. All the while, the DJ is playing appropriate introduction music for the recipients.

This is a very up-beat, lively way to present those awards. The guests will have a ball.

I hope these ideas are helpful… Don

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