Breakfast with Santa

For many years one of our family’s favorite traditions was having Breakfast with Santa in the beautiful Georgian Room of Meier & Frank in downtown Portland. We would get dressed up in our holiday finery, Beaverton High School would put on a wonderful musical show, Santa would visit each table and we drank lots of yummy hot chocolate!

Several years ago Meier & Frank became Macy’s and the Georgian Room and Breakfast with Santa was no more.  A sad day.  Since our kids had gotten too old for this event any way I decided that it was time to reinvent Breakfast with Santa!

So we decided to host our own Breakfast with Santa.  We invited 3 of our neighbor families, two of which had young children.  We usually hold it the Saturday before Christmas so that my college kids are home and can join us.  Everyone is invited to attend in their pajamas!

The menu is the same as we enjoyed in the Georgian Room – pancakes, little sausages, fruit, juice and hot chocolate.  This year we are throwing an egg dish in for the adults!

Jim is always in charge of cooking the pancakes.  Yummy, fluffy, sour cream pancakes.

 

The kids line up for them!
 

There is plenty of hot chocolate and whip cream – the rule is you can have as much whip cream as you want, no limits!

 

 

This year we will be having a hot chocolate bar with lots of fun toppings and mix ins!

After breakfast all of the kids work together to create gingerbread house masterpieces.

 

 

Usually, just as they ae finishing up their decorating there’s a knock at the door.  Guess who it is? Santa of course!
 

Santa brings a gift for each of the kids – big and small and they all get a turn on his lap!

 

Last year we were in the middle of Arctic Blast 2008 and Santa had to make his way through the snow, good thing he has those reindeer to help him!!

 

Our Breakfast with Santa usually lasts most of the morning as we enjoy lingering, spending time together and just hanging out.  It is our Christmas gift to our neighbors and we get as much enjoyment out of it as they do!

Some of the neighborhood girls.

 

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Banner and Party Bags- Elle’s Studio Giveaway

I’ve been having fun decking the halls at our house this week. It is quite a job with 25 boxes of Christmas decorations!

Each year I always like to add a few new things to my decor. This year I created a quick and easy holiday banner!
All I did was download the file from Elle’s Studio, print it on card stock paper on my home printer, did a little cutting and taping and I have a new darling holiday decoration.

 

Banners are an easy way to add a festive touch to any party or holiday!

They can be hung lots of places – a fireplace mantel works.

or a stairway…

 

If you don’t have either of those a window will work or a plain old wall!

I strung the banner on some ribbon and then tied on some additional pieces of ribbon in between each word to add a little extra touch!.

 

Elle’s Studio has several different holiday banners to choose from and is sponsoring our first ever giveaway here at Your Homebased Parties!  Thank you Elle’s Studio! 

Just leave a comment below and you may win two FREE downloads!  The giveaway will be open until Tuesday, Dec. 8th, 12 midnight PST.

You will want to check out their darling holiday party bags too.  I am using them this year for the holiday candy I give away to friends and neighbors!   Check out Your Homebased Mom for the recipe for the lemon bark I put in these bags!

 

I used their cute Halloween party bags for the candy corn bar at my Halloween party this fall.

So leave a comment and then click on over to Elle’s Studio and check out all the other great things she has!