Test Your Favourite Meals Together In Preparation For December

Christmas in July is a perfect opportunity to test out new recipes and revitalise the classics to get the menu just right before the December celebrations commence.

You can even encourage your guests to each bring their favourite dish for everyone to try out. You never know, you might find a new recipe to add to your Christmas cookbook!

Tip: To add another layer of fun, set each dish out and do a blind taste test to try and guess who cooked each one. Whoever guesses correctly gets the biggest serving of dessert and bragging rights.

Have Everyone Dress Up!

When sending out your invites, don’t forget to set a festive dress code! Encourage your guests to pull out the Santa hats, reindeer antlers, and daggy Christmas jumpers to get in the spirit. You can even have a fun prize for the most creative costumes.

Not sure what to wear? Here are some ideas:

• Santa
• Mrs. Clause
• Rudolph and the reindeers
• Elves
• A Christmas tree with tinsel and baubles
• A present (wrap yourself in a giant bow and don’t forget the gift tag!)
• A candy cane (all you’ll need are some red clothes and some white ribbon or masking tape)

Set Up A Festive Photobooth

Capture memories of your Christmas in July celebrations with a DIY photobooth. You can use your mobile phone to take the images, all you will need to do is find something to prop it up on (like a bookcase or desk) and set the self-timer. For the background, you can pull your Christmas decorations out from storage and decorate the wall with tinsel, fairy lights and baubles. To ensure that you don’t leave any marks on the wall, use Blu-Tac or Command Hooks.

Create A Hot Chocolate Station

There is nothing better to help you warm up in winter than a mug of delicious hot chocolate. To add some fun to a classic recipe, set up a hot chocolate station across your dining table or kitchen bench filled with all the ingredients your guests need to set up their own customisable drink.

What you will need:

• Hot chocolate mixes (lactose and lactose free depending on the dietary requirements of your guests)
• A range of milks (full cream, skim, soy, almond, oat)
• Classic toppings (whipped cream, marshmallows, shaved chocolate, cinnamon sticks, fudge and caramel sauce, chocolate chips)
• Fun toppings (hundreds and thousands sprinkles, candy canes, crushed Peppermint Crisps, cherries, M&Ms)

Put On Your Favourite Christmas Movie Or Two…

Grab your hot chocolate and settle in to watch a festive movie marathon. Whether you are a fan of the timeless Santa Clause franchise, or the more obscure Christmas movies like Die Hard, a movie marathon is the perfect opportunity to put on a classic and get in the Christmas spirit in a pile of blankets with the heater or fireplace on. If you know the movie well enough, you could even set up a bingo board for your guests to watch out for pivotal moments in the film to win a prize.