Winter ONEderland Birthday Party • Happy Family Blog

I am excited to share my friend, Christen's adorable Winter ONEderland Birthday Party themed party. Their personal story made this party even sweeter. They have been married for 17 years. Infertility and a breast cancer diagnosis lead them to use a gestational carrier (surrogate). They lost a baby at 8 weeks before Deakin. When Deakin finally arrived, they had been trying for him and praying for him for a a decade. He is their miracle baby and they could not be more thankful for him. When it came time for his first birthday they knew they had to make it amazing!

Winter ONEderland Birthday Party Theme

Deakin's mom started thinking about the theme when he was about 3 months old. She was inspired by Alice in ONEderland parties. She wanted to create a more masculine version with the ONEderland theme. Thanks to Pinterest and a secret page, so people wouldn't think she was crazy. Deakin's birthday is in September so she wasn't sure the Winter ONEderland theme would work. She ran with it and decided to make it snow in September in Atlanta! 🙂 Once she had the theme in mind, it evolved. Thanks to Etsy she found an invitation that she loved. That provided the colors for the party. Once she had that, she spent a ton of time on Pinterest.

Details

The party was on Deakin's actual birthday. It was at their home and they hosted about 60 people there, including kids. The highlight of the party was the 1st year video Deakin's mom made. They played it on repeat on the TV in their living room. It was so special. They spent hours and hours working on it.

ONEderland Winter Birthday Party by Happy Family Blog

Originally they were planned to have a balloon arch at the front door, connected to 2 balloon snowmen. They moved it into the foyer, in front of the opening to the dining room. This turned out great because people saw it during the whole party. Not just when they came in.

For other decorations, they hung 75 snowflakes from the foyer and dining room ceiling to create a winter feel. It took a friend and Deakin's mom over 3 hours and 2 bottles of wine to get that done. It was a much bigger project than they originally expected. They also created a paper pom poms and streamer backdrop for the cake and smash cake.

Beer, soda, melted snowman (aka water), and capri suns for drinks were served. Theme colored straws, and had personalized cocktail napkins added to the decor.

The big detail was the SNOW!!! Deakin's dad and granddad built a 6' x 20' frame to contain the snow. They covered the exposed wood with quilt batting and attached a white tarp to the bottom. On the morning of the party, they attached the snow backdrop to the fence and laid out the pit. Then they got to work mixing the snow. They had 180 gallons of snow in the pit. The snow is a powder that you mix with water and it expands. It's really cool. They finished it off with 12 "beach ball" penguins.

DIY

Katie, a family friend started helping Deakin's mom with the details of this party about a month and a half in advance. She worked on it every free moment they had. Deakin's mom found a photo cutout prop on Etsy and showed it to her. She said she could make it. It turned out incredible for the Winter ONEderland Birthday Party.

The following were also DIY

Cake background
Spray painted 75 snowflakes with glitter spray paint
Photo banner on mantle
Snow pit & background

Food

Originally Deakin's mom was going to be super creative with the food, and have things that went with the Winter ONEderland Birthday Party theme. But she started getting overwhelmed so she decided to call in her caterer friend and have her company do the food. BEST DECISION EVER. Once the decorating was done, she was able to enjoy the party and not have to worry about food. It was such a weight off my shoulders.

She knew she wanted the menu to have something for everyone - especially kids. This was, after all, her son's birthday party! So they created a menu that included candied bacon, buffalo chicken dip, Vidalia onion tarts, chicken tenders, mac n cheese, kale salad, Angus beef slider station with multiple toppings, mini BLTs, homemade potato chips. It was delicious! She had cute little food cards that said what each thing was to tie in with the theme.

Cake

The cake was 2 layers - top was chocolate and bottom was vanilla. It had a standard buttercream frosting. It was made by a local lady who does incredible work. Deakin's mom found the cake on Pinterest and sent her a pic. It had fondant striped, snowmen and penguins. The smash cake with a vanilla cake decorate like a snowman head.

They set up corn hole in the yard. Deakin's mom used her vinyl cutter to make a snowman for each board. To made "snowball" bean bags for tossing, perfect for a Winter ONEderland Birthday Party.