** Quick Note on 12/8/22 :: Etsy deactivated every listing in my shop without warning or reason. There is no appeals process to this type of action, so I am working, slowly but surely, to get listings back up. Please check HERE for the printables I have been able to get back up thus far! Please email me, laurel @ thehiveblog . com, if you’d like to purchase any I haven’t gotten to get back up yet. Thank you SO MUCH for your support! 🙂 **
Year five of Christmas With Cousin Eddie is in the books!
Over the weekend, we hosted our fifth annual(ish) Griswold Christmas bash! (I say “ish” because we took a year off the year Wilson was like 2 weeks old… Price wasn’t sure he could pull it off by himself!) 😉 So it has happened five times in the past six years!
There were aspects that have been the same since party 1.0. But each year we try to add just a little bit more to the shindig!
Here’s a list of our tried and true party favorites plus our new additions!
Let’s start with menu and bar! (Printables are now available for sale of all the food labels on my etsy shop!) Here’s what we had going this year…
– Aunt Bethany’s lime jell-o (with Cheerios in place of cat food)
– The Jelly of the Month Club spread!
*** UPDATE! Printable Jelly of the Month Club labels are now available in the Etsy shop! View the listing here! And all other food/drink labels are now available here!**
– Trailer Trash snack mix
– Puppy Chow (inspired by this scene)
– Everything but the Kitchen Sink cookies (because they just seem like something Eddie would make/eat!)
– “A real nice surprise” of salsa with… SURPRISE… Pineapple!!! And boy was it good!
– Some spectacular eggless nog, made from this recipe! (served in the moose mugs seen in this classic scene, of course!) Although the mugs they use in the movie are actually plastic, for some reason, most moose mug makers go with glass! We ordered 12 plastic ones (over the course of several years) from a company that has since shut down. Such a bummer! I’ve had bad luck finding any other good looking plastic ones, but you can get some cute glass ones here and here!
– A big batch cocktail, which this year was called Mele Kaliki-Vodka (instead of Mele Kalikimaka! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, watch this scene!)
I will definitely share the recipe for this yummy concoction in the next couple of days! It was a hit, for sure!
… “Big Trees” (which were in fact little chocolate/pretzel trees) inspired by terrible neighbor Todd! “Hey Griswold! Where do you think you’re gonna put a tree that big?”
… The white MnMs serving as Tylenol!
… The Wild Turkey Old Fashioned bar! This was inspired by Eddie’s little family update in what I call “the eggnog scene” about his daughter in the clinic getting cured off the Wild Turkey! It just went way too perfectly with Clark’s famous quote, “Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We’re all in this together!”
So we set up a little Old Fashioned station with the obvious bourbon choice- Wild Turkey!
We even put out a little Old Fashioned recipe, which is our household’s favorite variation of the classic drink! We hope Clark doesn’t mind that we just assumed it’s his favorite variation, too… 😉 (You can find the original recipe here!)
Now onto decorations!
The squirrel in the tree was one of our very first features to think of at our very first party! Price found this disgusting stuffed squirrel at deer camp, so instead of rotting away at deer camp, he slowly rots away in our attic with an annual escape from hibernation to accent our tree for this party! I did tell Price this year that I think we’re going to need a new squirrel next year… This dude’s tail completely fell apart when I took him out this year! Like I said… disgusting. I think this little guy might be a good option for next go-round! Mainly because he will not rot…
Every year, the squirrel sits next to our “little full, lotta sap” banner!
Last year, we started these little word bubbles for people to take pictures with, and this year we added six or seven new quotes to the mix! These always end up being pretty fun to have on hand 🙂
** UPDATE! These quote bubbles, plus some more, are now available as printables in my etsy shop! View the listing here! **
The fried cat started making an appearance several years ago and is, for some reason, one of my favorite decorations!
I made the cat out of some fuzzy white fabric and black felt. All from the local craft store! This project was very easy and very inexpensive!
One thing we added this year, that I have been dying to add for years now, is one of these twirly things that Eddie breaks all the fan blades off of during the eggnog scene! This year we just went for it and ordered one from Amazon. I LOVED having it as part of the party this year! And to be honest, it’s so pretty, I think it might leave it out all Christmas! Why not?! (Just gotta keep the kids from going Eddie on it and breaking it!)
Another new feature this year was this adorbs little blue and white light up trailer! I thought it was pretty cute, and super fitting, so I went for it!
A few years back, some friends gave us this autographed picture of Mary talking to Clark, so we have it out every year! It is one of our most prized party decorations! 😉
Lastly, let’s talk about costumes…
Price ordered his costume several years back, and of course I can’t find where he ordered from (it was an official Christmas Vacation costume!), but here is a black dickie, a great white sweater, and some perfect green pants! Don’t forget the mega hold hair gel! 🙂
My look this year was inspired by Clark’s look when he got stuck in the attic! I already had a floral printed nightgown from a tacky christmas party years back (which “almost didn’t fly” because it wasn’t the two piece pajama set like what Clark wears, according to some party goers… But hello!! I was clearly the female Clark! So a nightgown was more girly!! ha!) with a turquoise turban, some pink gloves, and a furry jacket that I already had. I searched high and low for a brown fur that was more accurate to what Clark wore, but came up with nothing. So gray had to do! But it was all good!
And that about wraps up our party recap! Overall it was really fun! We had a blast, as always! 🙂 I posted more people pics on Facebook, so if we are friends, you can check those out! 🙂 We had some great costumes!
If you want to peek at recaps of past years, here is 2015, 2013, and 2012! We did one in 2011 but it was pre blog! 🙂 {{ UPDATE! 2017 CWCE recap here! }}
Thanks a TON for stopping by today! I hope you’re having a great week!! Merry Christmas! XOXO!
>> See recap of CHRISTMAS WITH COUSIN EDDIE 2017 here <<
>> See recap of CHRISTMAS WITH COUSIN EDDIE 2016 here <<
>> See recap of CHRISTMAS WITH COUSIN EDDIE 2015 here <<
>> See recap of CHRISTMAS WITH COUSIN EDDIE 2013 here <<
>> See recap of CHRISTMAS WITH COUSIN EDDIE 2012 here <<
