Disclosure: I have received free products courtesy of Disney Parks, MomSelect, American Tourister and HP in order to host the Disney Side@Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own. (You can always count on that!)
Our DisneySide @Home Celebration was an AMAZING success. Just to recap, thanks to Disney Parks and MomSelect, our family received a phenomenal host package with decorations, party supplies, games and prizes. #DisneySide is a new concept launched by Disney encouraging guests young and old to get in touch with their “Disney Side”–whatever that means individually for them–and to share it with others! It could be wearing Mickey ears with pride at a staff meeting or displaying your favorite vacation memories at work. It might be introducing a toddlers to their first Disney movie in theaters or savoring a cup of coffee with your best friend as you share magical vacation stories. We were encouraged to harness our Disney Side and then “Let It Go”… empowered with all the choices of what would best reflect our unique Disney Side. Once my family realized we could choose whatever theme we wanted for our party, we went with a Frozen Winter Wonderland inspired by, you guessed it, the Disney movie, Frozen!
It all started with an invitation…So I did both an evite invitation and also HP photo invitations, and even though I was a complete novice at it, using HP Photo Creations was soooo easy! I chose a winter theme and them wrote my poem inviting friends from far and near to join in the #DisneySide excitement!
Friends from far and near
We extend this invitation with good cheer
The Disney movie FROZEN is the inspiration
So be prepared for a festive wintery celebration
A party to celebrate your Disney Side
Everyone’s included, no need to hide
February 16th from 2-4
Remember: “You’re Worth Melting For”
Whatever the weather forecast that day
It will be snowy and icy and frosty inside
The Boswell Castle will be the place to be
Food and games, crafts and yes, even karaoke!
So “Let It Go” and dress in your best Disney attire
Don’t have any? Don’t be “Bashful”-be inspired!
Think winter colors, fire, or ice
Having you there would be ever so nice
“Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”-yes or no
Please RSVP so we can ensure we have enough snow
At the end of the party, I’m sure you’ll say
“The cold never bothered me anyway!”
While we were super excited about doing a Frozen party, I was surprised how little winter themed party items were still in stores. It was all cleared out to make was for Valentine’s Day stuff! So I went to my usual go-to spots (Party City, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s, Target, even Walmart) to find snowmen, snowflake, Frozen decor–ANYTHING wintery and came up mostly empty handed. Dilemma! OK, I can overcome this, I’ll just order my party favors and decorations online. No problem! I stumbled on Oriental Trading: jackpot! It was a goldmine of goodies.
Keep in mind that the forecast called for snow in our little corner of South Carolina, which usually means a few flakes, maybe some ice, and possibly a day out of school. Instead, we got Snowmageddon (which we call 3 inches of snow here in the South). 4 days of no school here. Perfect time to have a Frozen party, right? (One friend on her RSVP said, “when I look out my window I’m thinking that you must have Elsa’s cell phone number!”) And due to the weather, my Frozen favors are delayed–shouldn’t be a big deal, right? Ordered them in time, added a few days cushion in. Well, not so much. UPS confirms my suspicions: my package of decorations and party favors is decidedly NOT going to arrive in time. (In fact, it came the day after the party!)
So, on to Plan B…actually, Plan B turned out even more magical and Frozen themed than I had even envisioned, so sometimes things just work out for the best! Between handmade snowflakes, wintery tablecloths and capes befitting of Anna and Elsa, I discovered some perfect supplies at church. I remembered we also had some leftover wall scene setters from our kids musical a few years back, so I recycled those. And a good friend’s catering business had all the necessary elements for a stunning food display: shimmering snowflakes, draped fabric, and silver platters created the perfect backdrop for the festive food. Most of our decorations were mine or borrowed–from the Cinderella Castle my daughter got when she was 3 to my son’s plush Olaf to the fabrics and ornaments and snowflakes. Oh, and not putting away my lighted reindeer from Christmas in storage yet made it easy to have our very own Sven!
Of course, no party is complete without delicious food to nosh on, so we feasted on cupcakes, chocolate dipped pretzels and sugar sprinkled marshmallows, cheddar popcorn, and of course reindeer food (aka carrots). 
Plus a hot chocolate bar, lemonade (my daughter said we should label it “yellow snow”) and “Arctic Punch” (ginger ale and white grape juice with an icy blue ice ring) for liquid refreshment.
As far as our activities, the photobooth was the BOMB! It was positively the BIG hit of the party, hands down. After looking at recommendations online, I selected Pocketbooth as the photobooth app we would use. I only wish I had figured out that you could change the setting to color BEFORE the party! Oh well–I still love the end results:
I ordered preprinted photo booth favors from etsy vendors littleforests and UponATime Designs, laminated them, then taped them to dowels and placed them all in an old trunk. After covering the trunk with some of my favorite Disney quotes and decorating the Photo Booth room, the scene was set. I have to admit that this was the most fun to organize and to send our afterwards as a party favor!
The living room became a makeshift craft room and provided ample space for our “build your own (edible) snowman” and for coloring your favorite Frozen characters as well as crafting the perfect runDisney encouragement signs. Funny, no one took their Olafs home (just sayin)
The Frozen trivia contest (did you know that Disney princess Rapunzel attended Elsa’s coronation?) followed by a few more basic Disney questions got the competitive juices flowing. And then we did karaoke to our Frozen favorites, “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” and “Let It Go.”
I am a skilled borrower, and Pinterest was an excellent resource for some cool goodie bag treats, such as Snowball Playdough and Frozen Hot Chocolate recipe with cocoa bag! But I also found myself having to step away from Pinterest after I had flagged my favorite ideas and made my decisions because hey, the party was only 2 hours long! If you find me on Pinterest (Hint, I’m on there as Sherry Boswell), I have a whole board dedicated to #DisneySide party with tons of links to Frozen themed ideas (and I claim absolutely no credit for any of them!)
I have to admit–I did stress out and get a little compulsive about this party, but I would do it over again in a heartbeat! Most of my stresses though related to the Oriental Trading delivery fail and the number of people we actually ended up having (over 30) and if I was going to have enough space and wondering if I should have moved it to our neighborhood clubhouse instead. But that would have been a mistake–my home was absolutely the right venue for this! I think this may be the start of an annual Disney party tradition! And to borrow a line from Mary Poppins and put a twist on it: the Frozen party was “fantastically fun in every way!”
Disclosure: I have received free products courtesy of Disney Parks, MomSelect, American Tourister and HP in order to host the Disney Side@Home Celebration. The opinions expressed here are my own. (You can always count on that!)