This past weekend I hosted a Gingerbread House Competition and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with some of my closest friends and family. I used to attend one every year at a friends house and I found that I missed the tradition dearly so I decided to have my own.

I just love to be a hostess, and I had so much fun planning all the details for this event! When throwing a party I love to try a couple new recipes and yet have old standbys available that I know that my guests will love!

After some pinning and looking through old family recipes I decided to put together a hot chocolate bar! I got the hot chocolate recipe from my Mamaw’s old recipe box, we tried it out a week ahead of time and doubled the chocolate which was a huge hit with everyone! I’ve also created a free download of the recipe for you to try here.

After weeks of having fun planning and shopping for all of the fun things for the hot chocolate bar; I was able to find three different flavors of marshmallows, chocolate spoons and even a cookie cutter that will allow the cookies to hang onto the mugs!

I haven’t met a cheese I didn’t like, so naturally I had a cheese plate available. But the hit of the night turned out to be these mushroom puffs recipe that I found from Southern Living!

Personally I tried not to have a lot of sweets on hand other than the candies and goodies for the hot chocolate bar because I just knew that everyone would be eating the candy and frosting that they brought to use while they made and decorated their gingerbread houses. The designer in me had fun creating signs and place cards for all of the goodies.

With Christmas music playing and laughter filling the room the night was definitely a fun one! Because this was a competition I had picked up a prize for the winner, which was a $25 Starbucks gift card!  In order to vote and to keep it fun, we decided to have a secret vote, so we all left the room and one by one we went back in and voted for our personal favorite using buttons as a marker for our favorites!  The only rule was that we could not vote for ourselves!

And the winner is…. ME! I was shocked! I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my own competition! I can’t wait until next year’s gingerbread decorating competition, so who is going to take the title from me next year??

What are your Christmas party traditions?