Ward Christmas Party

David and I were asked to be in charge of the  2024 Thanksgiving Meadows Ward Christmas Party. We were happy to take the lead but joked that hopefully they knew what they were getting into (we also planned the Ward Christmas Party 5 years ago in 2019). We followed through on the "if you ask us to plan, we will plan the party we want" idea and created the most amazing party that is was everything we always hope for in a ward party. Obviously, we are biased because it is exactly what we would want - but we figured that you aren't ever going to please everyone, and this was our chance to give a different ward party experience. We invited 4 couples to help us on our committee, but David I had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted and we just needed help making it happen. 

David and I spent some time talking through our vision for the "perfect" Ward Christmas party and it involved having fun, feeling the spirit, opportunities to connect with ward members that you don't normally connect with, opportunities to move around and connect with multiple people, and NO tables! (I have beef with tables at our Ward Christmas parties because it feels so limiting and there really aren't enough tables for everyone to sit at anyway.)

 

We wanted it to be fun and festive, but also for it to be easy and inexpensive. Liz Myntti helped me come up with the idea to create "Christmas Tree Kits" and ask 25 families in our ward to decorate a paper Christmas tree to hang on the wall. Erika Pike was the mastermind on the Christmas Committee and she created all of the paper gingerbread houses to finish it off. Liz wasn't on the committee, but she is a good friend and is SO creative, so she helped us a lot. Her family was having a Christmas party the week before and said that they were putting together 400 snowflakes to hang for their party. We got permission to keep them up for the week but it ended up being kind of a disaster. A random guy came to the church and decided that he wanted to play basketball so he cut them down. Then he "tried" to hang them back up but did it poorly and they were SUPER low. The Mynttis went back over to the church and rehung them. THEN we found out that the SNAP activity that week was dodgeball, and they weren't willing to change their activity or move to a different building, so the night before their activity we went over and cut them all down. Then Friday morning at 5 am, David and I went over to work on hanging them back up. It was not going well and we spent the first hour just trying to untangle the first string. We were both trying to be optimistic, but it was starting to seem more and more impossible. We knelt down and said a prayer, recognizing that the snowflakes were not the most important thing about this activity, but that we needed help because we literally could not do it ourselves. After that, we pulled all the snowflakes off the strand and started from scratch. By 8 am, we had about half the snowflakes hung back up. 

That afternoon we called in any person who said "If you need any help, let me know!" to come and help us decorate. It didnt' take that long because it was mostly just hanging things on the walls - but they helped get the last of the snowflakes up and the whole thing looked just magical. I was so grateful for each person who came and sacrificed their time, because it would have been so hard to do alone. We loved the way the decorations turned out! 

Christmas Party Vision:

Draw people closer to the Savior - Connect ward members together

Fun & Festive

Three parts: FUN, FOOD, FALALA

(Originally this was called Fun, Food, and Music - but I like Falala better.)

Time: 8:30 am - 10:30 am

Part 1: FUN 45 minutes of games. As people entered the building, we had committee members stationed at each door instructing families to go to specific rooms to start playing Pictionary. (the goal was to have each door alternate which room they were sending people to so that we got a good mix of families and equal group sizes.) Each room had a "Game Room Host" in it that was prepped to run the Pictionary game and help people understand what to do as they arrived. This was SO fun. Honestly, I wasn't sure that people would buy in to the Pictionary game but every single room was cheering, laughing, and engaging with each other.

The team that won pictionary was given 2 "Christmas dollars" and the team that lost was given one "Christmas dollar".

After 30 minutes of pictionary, we moved back into the big room for a giant round of "Rock Paper Scissors" where they used their "Christmas dollars" to keep track of who won. Everyone played "Rock Paper Scissors" and the person who won got to take all of that persons dollars. This went on until there were four finalists. (There were four colors of Christmas dollars). Then we pulled them up in front of everyone for the semi final and final rounds. We hoped that people would cheer for their team, and they did. The whole hall was cheering and laughing and it was just perfect. Also, Lucy was the finalist for her color (she was hanging with some ward friends while David and I were managing the party). Sweet girl! My friend said that she just kept wining and winning and putting each new dollar into a little pocket on her jumper. 

Part 2: FOOD

(Our vision: no tables, easy to eat food, two locations to get food)

The Lymans and the Derbys were in charge of the food and they did a great job with our vision. They ordered Kolaches from Hruska's which are delicious breakfast rolls, then had some fruit and other easy to eat items like granola bars and fruit snacks. We set up food in the regular food room AND the YW room. We had people go out the north doors and wrap around the back hall. Ben Lyman stood in the hallway to direct people and hand out paper bags and the line split into two. Our goal was to get everyone food as fast as possible - and it totally worked! Making the meal simple, structuring the line, and giving two places to dish up meant that everyone had food within ten minutes and they could sit in our randomly assembled chairs and visit with each other while they ate. This was a smashing success.

 

Part 2a: Nativity Walk

We had Nativities Set up in the Chapel for people to walk through after they were done with their food but before the music portion started. I loved this so much. We had ward members allow us to display their nativities and we had Christmas music playing in the background. Both Kevin and Wendy came to help us with this portion so we would always have an adult in the room but that we didn't have to ask one of our ward members to miss the party.

"We are glad to come together to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This special display of nativities, lovingly shared by members of our ward, offers a beautiful reminder of the humble beginnings of our Lord. Each scene reflects the profound love and peace that Christ brought into the world on that holy night.

As you walk through, may your heart be filled with the hope, joy, and wonder of the Christmas story, and may we all be inspired to worship Him more deeply this season."

Part 3: MUSIC

We wanted this to be part fun, part spiritual. The Fowles put together a program that was exactly what we hoped for! We started with some fun Christmas song games like name that tune, finish the phrase, and a sing-off battle. Then David bore beautiful testimony of the power of Christmas Music in helping us feel the spirit at Christmas and we had three beautiful musical numbers from ward members. We ended with a brief story about the song "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and the ward sang the first verse together. It was perfect.

I am just so grateful that everyone in the ward really bought into the whole experience. It made it so fun that everyone was so energetic and willing to participate. In the book, The Art of Gathering, it talks about how a good gathering has a structure and that the host gets to create the scaffolding, however, whether participants decide to buy in can make or break the gathering. Our ward really showed up and I feel like the party was full of connection, full of fun, and had a beautiful spiritual element that helped point people to the Savior. 

We got several messages like these: 

Many of the people who were sending us messages about it being "the best ward party" they've ever been to have been to a LOT of ward Christmas parties and it was just so kind of them to take the time to reach out to us and express that. It meant a lot to us and we were glad that other people found joy in the party the same way we did. 

It was a lot of work, but there were a lot of people helping - and honestly, it turned out exactly the way that we hoped it would. I tried to put as much detail into this post as possible without making it too cumbersome, because when we get to plan another ward Christmas party (2029?) we would do basically the exact same thing.

 Merry Christmas TM2!

Sue

Sue's birthday is December 2nd. (She was born December 2, 1951)

As we approached this day, we knew that it was going to be pretty tender and we made plans for how we wanted to celebrate it. We wanted to go to See's Candies and let all of the kids pick a chocolate, then take them our to dinner at El Farols (Sue's favorite Mexican restaurant in SLC). We invited the rest of the Peaden Family and made out plans. As the day got closer, plans changed a little bit and we adjusted. 

David met up with us at lunchtime for a trip to See's Candies. Sue loved this shop and their chocolates. Each year at Christmas-time she would pick out a box for each child with their favorites (at least, she did this for them as adults - I don't remember when it started for their family). She almost always had a box of chocolates by her bed, and even when she was struggling to eat anything - she would lean over and nibble on a chocolate to get her calories. We let each of the kids pick a chocolate to try, and then we filled a 1lb box to share at Christmas-time. 

After a normal dinner at our house, we drove to the Renchers house for a birthday party for Sue. Aubrey made a cake and all the kids got to help blow out the candles. 

The kids took turns playing their Christmas songs on the piano. This was one of Sue's favorite things.


And then we played some games together, also one of Sue's favorite things. 


We miss Sue. She was such a wonderful mother and grandmother and we will forever be grateful for her presence and her impact on our lives. I think that this birthday party is exactly the party that she would have wanted for us - gathering together in someones home to spend time together as a family. She would have loved it. (She probably did love it!) 

I process my emotions differently than most of the Peadens and I love them for how much they love me. Amy is particularly sensitive to my emotional needs and I am grateful for the quiet conversations about feeling sad and for the heartfelt hugs from her. I ended up leaving early with the little kids so that David could stay and play games with the other kids and I was glad, because all I wanted to do was sit on the couch and cry. It was harder for me to chat and laugh and play games, but then I felt dumb because she wasn't even my real mom. But she feels like my real mom. The love I have for her is so strong and the loss I feel is as if I had lost my own mother. She is my real mom and I am grateful for her love and her influence on my life and on my own motherhood. It's okay for people to process that grief in different ways and I think this evening was an important gathering in helping us all in that process. 

We were so glad to celebrate Sue and her life and love. 

David: I was so grateful that we could go to See's as a way to remember my Mom. I will miss her so much and I hope that doing some of the things she loved is a good way to honor her. Especially during the few days before Christmas I think I felt missing her the most. I missed going to my parents house and all of the memories that brings. At our family Christmas party my Dad had each of us pick some Village Dickens pieces from her set and I was filled with sadness missing her be there. I am grateful to have the support of Shantel and my family and I feel the sting is so much less knowing that we will see her again. 

Update from Shantel:  

I listened to this beautiful talk by Elder Holland and loved its message so much: Christmas Comfort - https://video.byui.edu/media/t/0_gdiah3ma/13418722. It was a beautiful message about the loss of his father, the pain he experiences, and the peace that he finds in the Savior at Christmastime. It felt extra relevant to me this year and I was so grateful for the message of love, peace, and hope. 

"Birth, and life, and death, and salvation—the whole divine experience in all its richness and complexity—these are God’s Christmas gifts to us, all of them, and we receive them as a package—a Christmas package. I learned something about eternal life that Christmas as well as something about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. With new eyes then, that morning, I went back to look in on my father, the great gift giver who was starting to make his way out of the world on Christmas Day. He was doing so on the wings of the greatest gift ever given: the Atonement and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ."

I am adding this note after Christmas and wanted to add that although I had been really worried about Christmas being really hard and sad, it ended up being really tender and beautiful. In part, I think that Sue's spirit was with us this Christmas filling us with her love of Christmas and love of family, but I also think that we did a good job of processing and celebrating her life. It was good for us to celebrate her birthday and to let ourselves feel sad. It was good to talk about her and make all of her favorite Christmas baking goodies to share with our friends and family. It was good to use her favorite Christmas things for our secret names this year. We felt her presence with us and it was beautiful. 

Christmas Set Up

We set up Christmas a little early this year because of our planned trip to Colorado for Thanksgiving and because Thanksgiving was so late this year! (Nov 28!) We decorated the Sunday before we left and it was so fun to come home from our Colorado trip to our house already decked out and feeling like Christmas! 

I love the day we start decorating for Christmas. The Christmas music playing from the Google Speaker (and David trying to help the algorithms understand what kind of Christmas we like), the kids wearing santa hats and running around. Pulling out decorations that we inherited from Grandma McAllister and from Sue. The handmade ornaments from each of the kids over the year. The glow and the excitement and just ... all of it. 

This year, we made a timelapse video of us setting up our tree - So I have very few actual pictures! I took a few screenshots, but maybe the blurriness adds to the effect, ha. 

Lucy doing the honors and putting the star on top of the tree. 

I also tried to screen shot the video of this, but I couldn't get any good shots - but this year, after we were done setting up the tree David and I were sitting on the couch because the kids said they wanted to show us something. We were expecting some sort of Chrsitmas song performance - so I pulled my phone out to record and instead they came running in with cotton snowballs to attack us. We were laughing and throwing snowballs and it was just so perfect and lovely and I hope that my kids grow up with beautiful memories of Christmas at our home.