My daughter is a Christmas baby and we usually try to separate her birthday from the holidays but this year for her 5th birthday we decided to embrace it.  This was a ballerina, "Nutcracker Suite" party. The invitations were heavy paper folded. The front was a nutcracker "wallie" (these are wallpaper stickers I found online, ebay)on the front. I enhanced the nutcracker by adding fur to his hat I found at Hobby Lobby. Inside the words were printed on vellum, which was attached to paper with tulle ribbon (used hole punch to get ribbon and vellum together) Invitation read, "Hear ye, Hear ye, come one, come all, the Nutcracker prince is having a ball. He is inviting princesses and fairies across the way to celebrate Hannah's fifith birthday.  A morning of magic, surprises and treats, join us for a birthday to the Nutcracker Suite." DECORATIONS: The house was decorated for Christmas, and we bought a few extra nutcrackers this year.  My mother-in-law had an old sliver metal tree we used in the "ballroom" I had some mesh play canopies that I hung from the ceiling with twinkle lights everywhere.  FOOD: I really played up the sweets theme. I had a chocolate fountain (Costco $40) with all kinds of snacks for dipping. Everything was covered in frosting, cookies, lollipops, etc.  Her cake was great. I made three layers from different sized pans and covered with pink frosting.  We decorated with gumdrops, sprinkles, colored marshmallows.  We had chocolate nutcrackers lined up standing guard. We dipped lollipops in frosting for trees and covered with sprinkles.  We had so much fun making. PARTY: When the kids arrived, I had a girl from the neighborhood painting "fairy faces", lots of good ideas online.  She was also my assistant and she was great with the girls, helping everyone get ready.  I gave her $10 and she was very happy! Then each girl got into costume. Instead of a goodie bag, I found closeout ballerina costumes online.  You can get some great deals after Halloween and for $4 each, I couldn't make a goodie bag that cheap.  The moms could not believe the kids could keep them, they were so nice. Each girl got into costume and then we made a crown, (template online) and I had cut from foam in advance, they decoreated with jewels, glitter glue, erc.  I had tied in back with tulle ribbon. Now, our princesses were ready . GAME:  After every princess was ready, we told them the nutcracker had been captured and we needed all our princesses to help find him. I had gotten a really big nutcracker at TJ Maxx for $9.  I had clues written on notes around the house and the scavenger hunt ensued. While my assistant was reading the kids notes and led them upstairs, I had gotten another girl from the neighborhood to some dressed as  the Sugar Plum Princess.  She was in a cute costume (Halloween discount, $5).  The last clue led them to her.  She was under my tulle and mesh tents and you should have seen the girls faces when they saw her. She did a few ballet moves and then she took the birthday girl's hand and we started, the dance of the sugarplum princess. Each girl then took turn dancing a solo with the Sugarplum princess.  I had to play the song over for each girl and they all sat quietly waiting for their turn. After that,  we ate cake and sampled our treats, danced much more and settled down to watch, Barbie Nutcracker. The party was 3 hours. Most Moms dropped off, while they did some last minute shopping, otherwise you could cut party short and not do movie.  I am a working Mom, so I really try to do homemade parties for the kids so we can connect and be creative. We had as much fun planning this party as we did that day. Five months later, my daughter still pulls out her invitation and asks me to read it to her, although she has it memorized by heart now(: