For our daughter's fifth birthday, she wanted a Christmas/Holiday party. (This worked out well because her birthday is about 2 weeks before Christmas.)   I made the invitations myself. Using my computer, I created the following to cut out and paste on the cards: Jingle Bells Jingle All The Way Won't You Please Help Celebrate Emily's 5th Birthday? There'll be lots of fun and games for everyone beginning at 1 o'clock by 3 o'clock we're done." In the party information I made sure to include the theme information (Christmas) food that would be served (snacks and cake) as well as a note that parents were welcome to attend. Decorating was pretty easy since it was a Christmas party and we had already put up our decorations for Christmas. I did purchase a bulletin board decoration set at the local teacher's store. It had a Christmas tree with ornaments you could personalize so I put the names of the kids who were scheduled to attend the party on the ornaments. I taped the Christmas tree on the wall opposite our front door so it was seen right when people walked in. As everyone arrived they received a Christmas Stocking (empty) with their name on it (used permanent marker to personalize). These stockings were bought at the local dollar store and were used throughout the party to hold prizes and the craft. In addition gifts were placed under the tree. I also gave all kids a name tag and any parents staying also got name tags. (This really helped me remember everyone's name and parents -who were mostly moms- commented how helpful it was because they did not know everyone. How many times have we been to our kids school maybe talked to a mom or dad but did not know their name? This eliminated the guessing and constant "what is your name again?" questions.)  We began the party with a craft. I purchased an awesome sand art kit that had Christmas tree and Santa Claus shaped bottles and lots of sand. (kidsserenity.com). It was relatively inexpensive and came with everything I needed. (Shipping was inexpensive as well.) I think it really helped to start with the craft because that way no one missed anything if they were a couple of minutes late. As each child finished the craft the craft was placed in their stocking.  Once everyone had arrived and finished their craft we moved on to playing a couple of games. Please note: For all of the games I did give all of the kids a prize. This is because at age five I did not feel comfortable only rewarding the winners - everyone who tries and participates gets something and then no one is upset.  We played "pass the present". This is similar to Hot Potato except it was a wrapped present that was passed. When the music stopped the kid holding the present unwrapped the present. The last present held a prize for all the kids (a Christmas-themed goody bag item purchased on the party store). Each kid placed the  prize in their stocking. (We had a Santa decoration that played music so I turned it off and one to make the music. This was cool because not only was it Christmas music but a Christmas-themed item creating the music.) Next we played pin the nose on the snowman. This was a pre-made game purchased at the party store (about $1.50). (The noses were actually carrot shaped stickers - so no actual "pining" was involved.) I did spin each child five times (because it was my daughter's fifth birthday.) Each kid got a prize regardless of how close they got. Again it was a Christmas-themed goody bag item.  Next we played Santa Buckets. I purchased three plastic buckets (1.50 each at WalMart) that had a Christmas theme. I lined up the buckets just like Bozo buckets and placed prizes for each bucket in the bucket. Then we used bean bags (my daughter had from another game) to toss into each bucket. Kids got a prize for each bucket attempted. (The prizes were small prizes from the party store.) (The nice thing is the buckets came with lids and can be reused for another purpose another year.) Next we took a break and had a snack. The snack was pre-packaged apple slices with grapes (found in the produce section of the grocery store) juice boxes and pop corn (I bought one of those large Christmas decorated popcorn tins at the WalMart.) The paper plates and napkins had a Christmas theme. I did have snacks for the parents as well (dip chips veggie tray and snack meats and also soda pop and coffee to drink).  My daughter really wanted a pinata but I did not want kids swinging with a bat in the house so I purchased a pull-string pinata. Instead of using one of the pre-packaged pinata filling kits I filled the pinata with small candy canes and also some party favors purchased at the party store. The kids all lined up and chose a string. I gave them all snack-size baggies to fill. (This was to prevent any one kid or a couple of kids from hoarding while someone else got very little. It worked really well.) To hold the pinata I used a loop holder that used the Command tape so it came right off and I had no extra holes in my wall. The bag of goodies went in the stocking.   Next the kids played a couple of games of Christmas Bingo. Although I had a pre-made game (purchased at WalMart) there are a couple of Internet sites you can use to make Bingo cards for free (and they have Christmas themes) -for example www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/. The second game we kept calling until everyone got Bingo. Everyone got a small prize (plastic goody bag rings from the party store).  We then played a game of Santa says. (This is Simon Says except you say "Santa says" instead of "Simon says".) My daughter started by being Santa. At the end of the game everyone got their next prize (I found scratch and sniff holiday board books at the Target dollar spot. )  We then sang "Happy Birthday" and ate cake (I purchased a holiday decorated cake from the grocery store) and ice cream. I had Christmas themed napkins and plates for this as well.  The party ended with the opening of the presents by the Christmas tree. At the end my daughter stood up and thanked everyone for coming.   For thank you cards I made the cards. I printed out "Jingle Bells Jingle Bells Jingle All The Way. Thank you for coming to Emily's 5th Birthday." on my computer and pasted the saying on each card. The party was planned for 2 hours and ended up being 2 hours and 6 minutes long.   "