Deck The Halls Christmas Party

Get into the holiday spirit with a deck the halls Christmas party! This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BakeInTheFun #CollectiveBias

Deck The Halls Christmas Party! Throw a fun Christmas party with an ornament decorating station and of course sweet treats like these M&M's® Holiday Cake Bars! #BakeInTheFun #SweetSquad

How soon is too soon for holiday cake bars, Christmas wreath donuts and ugly sweater sugar cookies? Some say it’s never too soon for throwing a Christmas party, some wait until after Thanksgiving. We usually have our deck the halls themed Christmas party the weekend after Thanksgiving. This gives us enough time to enjoy the Christmas decorations and all the fun that comes along with it, without spoiling Thanksgiving.

Deck The Halls Christmas Party

We’re throwing a Christmas decorating party with fun recipes, ornament decorating and of course – we’ll deck the halls to get ready for Christmas! If you’re looking for a deck the halls Christmas party theme ideas, you’re in for a treat. Plus, we’re bringing you the chance to win a KitchenAid Mixer – see the contest widget below!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Deck The Halls Christmas Party

It’s just not a deck the halls party without amazing Christmas themed desserts, right? For our holiday party, I’m making a Pillsbury„ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix bars, Pillsbury„ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix donut wreaths, and ugly sweater sugar cookies with lots of Great Value Milk to go around!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Deck The Halls Party Idea Milk Mugs

I’ll be using M&M’s® White Peppermint and M&M’s® Hot Chocolate in the holiday cake bars. I’ll also use Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Vanilla Flavored Frosting, M&M’s® Holiday Milk Chocolate and M&M’s® Holiday Peanut to decorate them. Drooling yet? You should be.

I decided to go with an all out M&M’s® party when I found out about the great initiative at Walmart. For every two 9.4oz or larger bags of M&M’s® purchased, up to a gallon of milk will be donated to the PourMilkLove.com drive!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Christmas Party, Deck the Halls Decorating

It’s estimated that one in six children rely on Feeding America food banks each year, so buy your M&M’s® at Walmart this year – no exceptions!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Milk Donation at Walmart

Although it is in demand, milk is not often donated to food banks. This means children and families in your community may be missing out on the essential nutrients supplied by milk. The Great American Milk Drive will deliver a gallon of milk, packed with all of the goodness, like protein and 9 essential nutrients, to a family in need in your local community. Shop Walmart for your M&M’s® and make your deck the halls party an event that will pay it forward to a family in need! You can also donate here if you wish.

Lets get started with our Deck the Halls party by baking up some amazing Holiday Cake Mix bars using Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix! You know me – super simple and super tasty! This recipe is one the kids can definitely help you with.

Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix Bars Recipe

You’ll need a box of Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix, milk, egg, canola or vegetable oil, peppermint extract, M&M’s® White Peppermint and M&M’s® Hot Chocolate, as well as M&M’s® Holiday Milk Chocolate and M&M’s® Holiday Peanut for extra fun and decoration on top. I’m going to split the batter and use M&M’s® White Peppermint in half and M&M’s® Hot Chocolate in the other half.

We’ll being by gathering up all of our ingredients.

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Ingredients for Holiday Cake Bars

Next we’ll add everything into a single bowl (see recipe below).

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, M&M's Funfetti Holiday Cake Bars

Mix well with a mixer, the batter will be very thick and sticky, somewhat like bread dough!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, M&M's Funfetti Holiday Cake Bars Recipe

Grease a 9×13 pan – I like to use butter.

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Greased Cake Bar Pan

Spread batter into 9×13 pan and top with your favorite M&M’s®.

PRO TIP: Spray a spatula with cooking spray to make spreading the batter a cake-walk!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, M&M's Holiday Cake Bars Recipe

You may be wondering why I have frosting in the photo above. Well, that frosting went to good use in these fun Christmas Wreath Cake Donuts recipe which we’re also serving up at our deck the halls party!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Easy Holiday Cake Bars Recipe


Do these holiday cake bars look delicious or what?

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Christmas M&M's® Holiday Cake Bars

Cake Mix Donut Wreaths

Click the picture or the link to find this fun recipe for Cake Mix Donut Wreaths. We used Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix along with Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Vanilla Flavored Frosting and colorful M&M’s®.

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Christmas Wreath Cake Donut Recipe

Ugly Christmas Sweater Sugar Cookies

We rolled out a batch of sugar cookie dough and used a ugly Christmas sweater cookie cutter we found at Walmart to cut them into the shape of ugly Christmas sweaters. We decorated them with Pillsbury„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Vanilla Flavored Frosting and the sprinkles that came with the frosting as well as M&M’s® Holiday Milk Chocolate.

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Ugly Sweater Christmas Cookies

Deck The Halls Christmas Decorating Party

To begin our table set up we’ll start with a nice white table cloth and drape a colorful Christmas-y table cloth at a kitty-corner to the table, leaving a triangle edge on the front of the white cloth. We’ll party with our food on one side and our ornament decorating station on the other. We’ll try to keep the glitter away from the food! 😉

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Holiday Christmas Party

Christmas Cookies, Cookie Bars and Donuts

To one side of the table we’ll lay out our dessert spread. We’ll have our cookie bars, fun ugly Christmas sweater sugar cookies, Christmas wreath donuts and of course milk to wash down all the deliciousness!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Deck The Halls Party Idea Milk Mugs

I’m using decorative platters and a clear decanter for the milk. For the milk, I’ve used a nice carafe and for the guest cups, I’ve decorated mason jar mugs with festive holiday ribbon. The whole feel is quite nostalgic, don’t you think?

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Christmas Party Mugs

Christmas Ornament Decorating Station

Everyone loves things that twinkle on the tree, so we’re rounding up the materials and setting up a Christmas ornament decorating station where all of our guests can have a little fun and take home an ornament for their Christmas tree! The ornament decorating station is only limited by your imagination! Use any kind of ornaments you think your guests will like and any kind of decoration which pairs well with those ornaments. For instance, if you use wood ornaments, acrylic paints and brushes will do well.

Deck the Halls Christmas Party Ornament Decorating

Ornament decorating station includes:

  • Ornaments
  • Glue
  • Glitter
  • Glitter Pens

Deck The Halls Christmas Decorations

Today we’re decorating our fireplace and mantel for Christmas. We’ll replace the clock with a wreath and replace our autumn decoration with Christmas decorations!

We accumulate new decorations each year, so we pick out which ones we want to display on the mantel and the rest of the Christmas decorations get spread throughout the rest of the house.

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Decorating Deck The Halls Christmas Party

We’ll also put up our Christmas tree and decorate it with ornaments. When we travel, we like to buy Christmas ornaments that will remind us of the destinations we’ve visited. That way, when we get old – and we all will – we’ll be able to reminisce and remember all the fun times we had traveling!

Deck The Halls Christmas Party, Mt. Washington Cog Railway Christmas Ornament

This is one of my favorite ornaments, one we got when we visited Mt. Washington in New Hampshire – we took the Cog Railway to the top and there was a little gift shop up there. Although it was summertime, they did have a few Christmas ornaments, so we picked up this little wooden train to remind us of the trip up Mt. Washington on the Cog Railway!

What are some of your favorite holiday recipes?

Related Recipes:

Holiday Cake Mix Bars Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Deck The Halls Christmas Party

Holiday Cake Bars
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • Pillsburyâ„¢ Funfetti® Holiday Cake Mix
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
  • 1/4 cup M&M’s® White Peppermint
  • 1/4 cup M&M’s® Hot Chocolate
  • 1 overfilled teaspoon peppermint extract

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
  • Stir together cake mix, oil, egg, milk and peppermint extract
  • Split batter, add and mix in M&M’s® White Peppermint to one half of the batter and M&M’s® Hot Chocolate to the other
  • Spread batter into greased 9×13 pan w/M&M’s® Hot Chocolate on one side & M&M’s® White Peppermint on the other side
  • Bake for about 20-23 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean
  • Allow pan and bars to cool completely before removing; cut and serve
Author: Scrappy Geek
Course: Dessert

Join the Conversation

  1. 5 stars
    What a fun way to kick off the holiday season! I love the ugly sweater cookies!! (client)

  2. Hi Debbie,

    Thanks for your question! I split the batter and keep it split when I add it into the pan. That way I have Peppermint Hot Chocolate on one side and Peppermint with M&M’s® White Peppermint on the other side of the batch. Just a little fun to have with two flavors of M&M’s® in the bars 🙂

    Merry Christmas!

  3. Love these great holiday recipes. One of my favorite things is baking goodies for Christmas.

  4. I think the Peppermint cake bars would be great!

  5. My favorite are the Peanut Butter Kiss cookie recipe, and my grandmother’s stuffing recipe. Both have to happen for it to be the holidays. Everything else is up for debate.

  6. In the funfetti bars, what is the purpose of splitting the cake batter and adding peppermint M & M’s to one batter and hot chocolate M & M’s to the batter if you’re going to throw it all together in the same 9 x 13 pan?

  7. All of them good, the ones that looks like there was candy wrapped up in sugar cookie dough with sprinkle on top looks delicious and pretty

  8. I LIKE TO HAVE A CHRITMAS PARTY, MAKING THESE COOKIES AND TEAS.

  9. Pamela Gurganus says:

    My favorite recipe is the holiday cake batter fudge!

  10. Your post has made me so excited for Christmas. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

  11. What a fun party set up. I love your photos!

  12. 5 stars
    Oh what total fun. I love these ideas for yummy holiday parties. Thanks so much for sharing and for the chance to win 🙂

  13. valmg @ From Val's Kitchen says:

    Those bars look lovely! I love the color. I want to try the Hot Chocolate M&Ms.

  14. That sounds like fun! Holiday treats always fuel creativity!! 🙂

  15. Our church is having a ‘church decorating Christmas party’ next week…might be nice to bring them a few treats to fuel their creative spirit!

Comments are closed.

Close
© 2021 Scrappy Geek ScrappyGeek is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by
Send this to a friend