Throwing a friendmas celebration is a wonderful way to come together and get festive, especially if you are away from your family over the Australian holiday season.
Don’t usually celebrate Christmas? No problem! Friendmas is for everyone — it’s really just an excuse to spread a bit of holiday cheer and spend some quality time with your mates. If this sounds like a good time to you, we’ve gathered 5 tips to help you throw the ultimate friendmas party!
Play Kris Kringle
Also known as ‘Secret Santa’, Kris Kringle is a fun, Christmas gift-giving game, and this is how you play it:
First, agree on a price range for gifts, for example, $15 — $20. Then, in the lead-up to the party, players write their name on a piece of paper, fold it up, and throw it into a hat or bowl. Once all the names are in, each person draws out a name without telling anyone — because they just became that someone’s Secret Santa! Players then buy and wrap a gift, label it with the name of the lucky recipient, pop it in the gift pile, and when they are handed out and opened at the party, each person tries to guess who their gift is from!
For an extra twist and a longer game, check out the rules for variation sometimes known as ‘Stealing Santa’ or ‘Dirty Santa’, and for a more sustainable game, make it a rule that gifts need to come from an op-shop, be homemade, or be plastic free!
Below, check out 10 of our best ideas for fun Kris Kringle gifts under $25.
@insiderguides Looking for Christmas gifts that won’t break your budget? We’ve got you covered with 10 awesome Christmas gifts under $25 💰🎄 #fyp #Christmas #christmasgifts #christmasshopping #giftsunder25 #secretsanta #kriskringle #internationalstudents ♬ Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee
Put up decorations
Decorations are an easy way to set the festive mood for your friendmas gathering. Your friendmas decorations can be as simple (and cheap) as stringing up some tinsel from the supermarket, or you could go all out and put up a Christmas tree!
If you feel like getting crafty, there are endless DIY guides available where you can find inspiration to make candles, wall hangings, table centrepieces and more — when it comes to Christmas decorations, the possibilities are endless!
Check out this DIY Christmas craft that recycles old toilet roles!
@origami.studio WoW! Christmas Craft #tutorial #diy #christmas #christmasdecor
Enjoy some classic Aussie Christmas food
Christmas in Australia is HOT, so maybe you want to kick your friendmas off with breakfast before taking the party down to the beach for the day! Some great Christmas breakfast ideas in Australia include granola, french toast and pancakes – all of which you can top with seasonal fresh fruit, or for something savoury, try baked eggs, eggs benedict or corn fritters.
If you’re sticking around for lunch or dinner, celebrate with some classics! Traditional Christmas food in Australia includes prawn cocktails, potato bake, glazed ham (which you can serve hot, or cold), natural oysters, and anything you can cook on a barbecue!
For dessert, cold, refreshing fruit platters and bowls of cherries go down a treat — but the ultimate Australian Christmas dessert is the iconic pavlova (recipe below)!
@hungry_aussie HOW TO MAKE LEMON PAVLOVA 🍋 #lemon #learnontiktok #baking #bakinghacks #easyrecipe #recipe #desserttiktok #pavlova #meringue #lemonpavlova #food
Get merry with festive drinks
Cocktails are a great way to celebrate any occasion, and friendmas is one of them! Christmas cocktails in Australia become more popular each year, with an endless supply of themed recipes online, like Christmas pudding martinis, or you can stick with summer classics like Aperol Spritz.
Don’t drink alcohol? No problem! Try creating some refreshing festive mocktails, like cranberry sangria or peach melba punch. You can also serve eggnog — arguably the most famous Christmas drink of all time — with or without the alcoholic content. If you don’t want to make eggnog from scratch, you can find it in your local supermarket with the rest of the flavoured milk drinks.
@bevsbybeverly #dryjanuary2022 #mocktails #nonalchoholic #beverages #mojitos #pomegranatejuice #noalcohol #mocktailrecipe #drinkrecipes #nonalcoholcocktail
♬ Howl’s Moving Castle – Merry Go Round of Life – Vitamin String Quartet
Sing along to Christmas hits
Music is an essential element of any party, and friendmas is no exception! To set the mood, you could opt for traditional Christmas songs, or really get the party started with fresh takes on the classic genre from some of today’s most popular entertainers, including Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber!
Check out this festive Spotify playlist covering pretty much every Christmas song to ever exist.
