This idea will work for both a Christmas party as well as a birthday party during the Chrismas season and it can modified to make it "yours".  This party was for teens in my church but will be great for younger children and even adults will get a kick from it.    Decorations We turned an entire wall in the room into a giant fireplace using red cutting / art paper (the 8" by 11.5" size)to form the brick wall portion of a fire place, we then used black paper of the same size to form the actual fire area and then got creative by using brown paper that we rolled up into logs which were in our fire; the fire can be created by cutting out red wrapping tissue into tongs of fire. it's really easy to do- just keep the image or picture of a fireplace in mind or view and get volunteers.  Really gave the room a warm feeling and changed the look of the room totally.  Finally, we hug tiny stockings with names of all the teens on the fireplace. We also had regular Christmas decor in the red, green and gold to give it that festive holiday look. it was inexpensive and the teens had a great time putting our stuff from the dollar store up.   The christmas tree served as the collection point for all the gifts from our secret santas which revealed during the party.  Food Everyone brought in food from all over the world that had to do with Christmas or some other holiday. We had food from America, Africa,Europe, Jamaica and India - really tasty and a colorful spread. Costumes Yes, we had costumes! We showed up dressed as people or things that are associated with the Christmas story or season.  People were dressed as Joseph, Jesus, Mary, Gifts, manger animals, santa claus, mrs. claus, wise men, christmas tree, etc. it was really colorful, different and exciting.