Christmas Office Party "Santa's Campground" 2015

Guests were met at the front door by Santa's Camp Counselor.  If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you will see his bulletin board with directions for the party.  Each person had a packet of six coupons with the name of each of the six games on it in different colors.  If they won the game, they placed the coupon in the acrylic tumbler for the raffle prizes later in the evening.

I chose this photo to show you how the window panels make the office cozier.  We made a pit of the eight lobby chairs with tables in the middle.  Look closely behind the councelor and you will see an elf riding a bicycle on the camp road.

                  The above photo gives you a better idea of the conversation pit.

 This photo doesn't do justice to the two big cabin panels, but it does highlight the boxwood tree I made in my flower arranging class.  The band, "Irresponsible" brought free sunglasses.

My centerpieces were from my collection of wooden boats.  I actually got this one on Amazon.  It is made for American Girl dolls.  I like the elf better.  Speaking of elves, there were four large lake panels.  Above are the first two with the elves playing in the lake.

 The second two panels of the lake were of the gazebo with our dancing elves.  We placed the band by these.

I have been saying for years that a live band is a must at a big party.  The office payed $1200 for "Irresponsible" out of Northern Virginia.  This band was so good that a LOT of people were dancing, which was unusual.  Maybe it was because the 15 month old baby that was captivated by them was dancing and oh, so adorable.

The games were in the middle and back of the office by our kitchen.  Every campground needs a camper.  I found this one on-line by Land of Nod.com.  I had a collection of dogs from my niece's cruise themed bridal shower last year.  If you know anything about me, you will know that I like to reuse my props in new ways each time.  So, the dogs came as Santa's dogs who had jumped in his sleigh as he traveled around the world.  The GAME:  Feed the Dogs.  I got the plastic bones on Amazon.  The just fit the double dog bowls in a stand I found at Home Goods.  I already had the beach chair and Santa.  He didn't leave home a lot because I didn't really like his original feet.  So, I bought him a new pair of boots at Target in the kids' section.  I wish I had take a picture of the two year old hugging him.  But I am constantly moving during the party.

This is the second "Land Canoe" I've built with my hubby.  I bought a full size inflatable canoe on Amazon.  I also bought two wooden dollies and some deck planks at Home Depot. We cut and screwed the deck planks (tapering them at each end) to the dollies, then used industrial wide hook-and-loop tape to the boards and canoe. 

                            
 
 Once the kitchen was emptied of all the tables (they were used for dining at the front of the office), the room is quite wide.  Two people in the boat, two people PUSHING the boat, made it a moving target game. I used four golf chipping nets because they stand on their own.  Each contestant had a bucketful of soft balls and "guns" that they flung balls into the nets as they rolled on by them.
                                  

The Skunk Shuffleboard game was a HUGE success.  Momma skunk was in her tent (American Girl tent on Amazon.com).  Each of her babies was hot glued onto a square block of wood.  Each wood piece had only the soft side of Velcro glued on it.  See the tile floors.  They make wonderful sliding surfaces.  I used just an empty mop handle as the pushing stick.  The object was to get at least three of mom's babies returned to her under her platform tent.

Oh my goodness, baby bear is stuck at the top of the target tree.  We must ring his bell to let mom know so that she can help him. (For the kids).  The adults used big PVC bows and wooden arrows with rubber tips as Target Practice.  When I found these round foam circles on Amazon, I actually didn't know how I was going to use them.  I thought and thought and thought, until I finally decided to use my step ladder.  Then I wondered if the opening were too small, but I saw lots of people getting arrows through the holes, so this game was a success.

We used the building's lobby this year for the Trike Races.  We had two tents out there to keep the campground theme going.  This was a timed race and a lot of fun.

I reused the snowball shooters from two years ago.  But I found tiny squirrels and birds, which were just the right size for flinging.  I used my large wooden backboard again, but this time with a nest (really a plant liner).  I made a cardboard tree and placed it inside the backboard.  The object of this game of Squirrels in Trees was to get the squirrels or birds back in their nest.  Easy??  No.
Fun?? Yes.

 Finally, we had a Fishing Pond.  I bought an American Girl dock on Amazon.com.
 It was BIG and just the right scale.  I found this wonderful paper that looks like water 
and rolled it out in one of the back halls.  I put my Pottery Bar wooden sail boat you've seen at my other parties by the dock with an elf in it.  I found easy fishing sets for the kids, and a much more wooden set on Etsy.com for the adults.  A lot of people went fishing, so this game was a success.

I will post more photos as people send them to me.  Yes, I know it was dangerous to have architects take the land canoe outside on the parking lot hill, but it was highly entertaining and no one got hurt.  

I hope your next party is as fun as this one was.

--Jani