A Merry Little Christmas Shower

In early December my daughter and I hosted a Christmas-themed bridal shower for a very sweet young lady. We’ve been friends with her and her mother, Missy, through years of homeschooling, tea parties, and even a trip to the Biltmore Estate together! My daughter will be one of her bridesmaids, so we wanted to throw a shower for our lovely bride-to-be. This shower was so much fun to plan and prep, thinking of goodies and details the bride would enjoy. She is so sweet and grateful for any little thing people do for her, that honestly, she would have appreciated peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

When I host a gathering, I try to finish preparations a few minutes before guests arrive so I can take pictures of the details. About 15 minutes before we expected our guests, I went around and snapped photos of tables and decorations. Then my daughter and I waited for everyone to arrive. When 2:00 came and went and nobody was there, it hit me that I had put 2:30 on the invitation! Y’all, that entire morning I’d had 2:00 in my head even though I’d planned it for 2:30. So, we had 30 whole minutes to sit and rest before the party started. I’ve never been ready for a party that early, lol!

We served some Christmas goodies to match the season along with some teatime favorites since the bride and her mother are our special tea friends!

The chicken salad butter horns included wintry additions of chopped pear, toasted almonds, and rosemary. Cheese straws are a must at a southern bridal shower, and I used the same recipe that was served at my own wedding.

Fruit skewers were arranged into a wreath with sprigs of rosemary for a festive presentation. The fruit dip was a mixture of cream cheese, marshmallow fluff, orange juice, and cinnamon.

I made Andes mint cookies and my daughter made eggnog chai cookies. I love this long wooden tray for lining up cookies.

Gingerbread scones were served with clotted cream and orange curd. I’m crazy about lemon curd the rest of the year but at Christmas I switch to orange curd as it goes so well with winter flavors.

The cupcakes were my Southern cream cake recipe topped with snowy sprinkles and sugared cranberries and rosemary.

For beverages, we served chilled punch and hot tea.

For the punch, I mixed *about* equal parts of pear nectar and ginger ale and then added a few splashes of lemon juice. I made an ice ring with cranberries and rosemary for added flavor and color which made it very Christmassy.

Our tea blends were Nutcracker Sweet and Snowflake, both of which are favorites we enjoy at our Christmas teas each year.

The groom was able to pop in for a bit to fix a plate and help her open gifts!

On the invitation, we asked the guests to bring gifts for the bride that she could use in her holiday home. She got a wonderful assortment of decorations and dishes! Below is her Christmas China she selected. Isn’t it beautiful!

And this photo is blurry, but these are her everyday Christmas dishes. So fun and festive!

Missy is very creative and a great seamstress and scrapbooker. She hand made the couple’s first Christmas stockings, the mistletoe, and the holiday photo album you see below! I realized later that I accidentally snapped this photo while the album was front side down. The front cover was gorgeous!

As guests departed, they could pick up a bell with a tag that read, “Christmas bells to wedding bells!” and then the date of the wedding. The foam board sign was made from a super cute design I purchased from Etsy. I was able to customize it and have it printed locally. After the shower I gave it to the bride to keep.

This bride and her groom are the sweetest couple and so perfect for each other! We just adore them and can’t wait to see them get married this spring!