For our little Playgroup's Christmas party, we decided to do a Dora Christmas Adventure. Since the party was for all the kids, the other mothers gave me some money to contribute to the cost of the adventure so we could make it special for them. INVITATION I found an animated Christmas ecard online that had music. I sent one to each family with all the details. I also sent an email to each of the mums so that they definitely got the details if for some reason the ecard didn't work (which did happen it got caught in the junk filter of one family).  DECORATIONS We had Christmas decorations up all around the house from when you walked up the front porch to the outside deck. I also had a green cardboard cutout tree attached to the wall with a life size talking Dora that I'd dressed in a child's elf costume that I'd picked up from a junk shop. In Dora's lap was my daughter's stuffed Boots toy. We also attached painted ply cutouts that I'd created earlier in the year around the yard there was Backpack, Benny, Tico, Isa, Map and Swiper was hiding in the rocks. We set up a blowup pool (a very cool kiddie pool with a slide and rainbow and a variety of little activities) in the backyard (obviously we have a summer Christmas in Australia). We tied candy-cane trees to the lattice on our fort and we had a Reindeer pinata that we'd made hanging from a tree. The tables were decorated with Christmas tablecloths and ornaments. ACTIVITIES When all the kids had arrived we started up the Dora the Explorer theme music and called all the kids over to Dora. I had a letter sitting in Dora's lap which I picked up and read to the children. The letter said Thank you for your lovely letter. I hear that you have friends visiting you today. I would love to drop by later and have a cookie and see how you have decorated your tree this year. Looking forward to seeing you soon! Love Santa�. I then shrieked Oh no! Dora's not ready! She hasn't decorated her cookies or tree yet! Will you help her to get ready before Santa comes? All the kids yelled their answer Yes� back. I then distributed the Backpacks that I'd made to the children. The Backpacks were purple gift bags that I'd purchased to which I had pasted the eyebrows, eyes and mouth of Backpack. On the back I had hot glued purple ribbon so that it could be worn as a backpack.  I asked the kids if they'd sent their letter to Santa yet and told them that we'd better quickly write a letter to Santa before we began. Inside their backpacks was a letter to Santa (from the junk shop), an envelope and a pencil topped with a Christmas eraser. We sat down with the children and wrote out their wish list for Santa. When they'd finished we put them in the envelope and then put them in a little mailbox that is one of my daughter's toys. I told them that we'd have to keep an eye on the letterbox to see if Santa came and took the letterbox and put it on the kitchen bench. I also got the mums to use the pencil to write their child's name on the gift tag attached to the bag. I asked the kids where we needed to go to start our adventure. They didn't know so I asked them Who do we ask when we don't know which way to go?� and they yelled Map!�. I started the Map theme music while the kids fished out their maps from their backpacks. I had created my own Map to fit our theme that looked just like one of Dora's maps. The first stop was a gingerbread house, the second stop was a bridge over water with ornaments and the final stop was Santa standing in front of Christmas trees. The first place we had to go was to decorate the cookies. We got the kids to sit at a table and then gave each child a gingerbread house (I had premade one for each child during the week). I gave each child an icing writer tube (from the Supermarket it was much neater than if I'd given them an icing bag each) and placed plates of lollies up and down the table for the kids to use to decorate their houses  - there were Skittles, Mini M&Ms, mini marshmallows, tree marshmallows and mini snakes. I also presented a plate of undecorated cookies to the kids and asked them to decorate at least one for Santa too. They then put them on a special tray that was to be for Santa when he arrived. They got to decorate as many cookies as they wanted. We kept the Gingerbread houses for them to take home at the end of the party.  At some point the kids noticed that the letters had disappeared which was very exciting for the kids although my son was very upset that Santa hadn't stayed to visit us so I had to say that he must have seen we weren't ready and would come back when we were. Next we had to decorate the tree. In order to get to the ornaments, we had to go through the river (they walked through the kiddie pool) and up the fort. I pointed to the candy cane trees tied to the fort and said to the kids Look! Santa must have left each of you a lolly! Take one and put it in your backpack�. Their little faces lit up when they saw the lollies! They pulled one off and then slid down the slide. On the way to the table, the Swiper music came on and my husband took the Swiper cutout and chased the kids around with it, trying to get their lollies. They shrieked in delight and turned around and said Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, no swiping! Swiper, NO SWIPING!� We went back to the table and one of the mums had laid out Christmas ornaments for the kids to decorate. There were two ornaments per child - a foam and a cardboard Christmas shape. The foam one was to take home and the cardboard one to decorate for Dora's tree. I told them to look in their backpacks for materials to decorate the ornaments with while the Backpack theme song played in the background. I had put a bag (a Christmas snap seal bag) in each Backpack which contained a couple of glitter pens, Christmas confetti, Christmas foamies, Christmas stickers and a Christmas stamp. When they were finished decorating, they brought the cardboard ornaments they'd made for Dora over to the cardboard tree and we stuck them on with sticky tape. We then realised there was no star for the top of the tree. I told them that the reindeer would be able to reach one for us and asked where we could find a reindeer. They pointed out the pinata so we went down and they took turns beating it. I made the pinata with two balloons that I'd covered in newspaper and painted brown and attached antlers, legs, eyes and red pom pom for the nose. Once they broke it, they filled their backpacks with lollies and we took the star that fell out to Dora and stuck it to the tree.  Then we got the cookie tray and a glass of milk and put it out for Santa. While we were waiting for Santa to arrive, we got all the kids to sit in front of the tree with Dora and took some photos of the group. When Santa arrived (my hubby dressed in a Santa suit) he had a present for each of them in his sack a makeup kit for the girls and a Hot Wheels car for the boys as well as a little favour bag for each child. Santa then ate one of the cookies the kids had made and drank his milk before leaving. After Santa left we brought out the food and put on Hi-5 Christmas carols and the kids spent the rest of the time swimming in the pool and playing around the yard.  PARTY SNACKS The other mothers brought a plate each I asked them to make it Christmas themed. So there were cupcakes, white Christmas treats, sandwiches cut with Christmas shapes, Christmas cookies, fruit, Christmas lollies, chips, etc. CAKE The kids are at that age where they love a cake for a party so I made a carousel cake. Instead of horses, I made reindeer cookies to attach to the poles. The cake was white with silver Christmas trees decorating it around the base and one on top. All the kids stood around it for a photo before we served it up with ice cream. The cake was a jaffa chocolate cake. FAVORS The favor bags contained a personalised book that I'd printed for each child from northpole.com, a colourful candy cane, a mini camera and little reindeers filled with Skittles (plastic shot glasses hot glued together and filled then decorated). The kids had an absolute ball! It was absolutely worth the effort that went into the party!