Christmas Eve Shenanigans 2016

The Boswell side of our family (Brad's parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) has a really unique Christmas Eve tradition: we choose a Christmas movie and have a THEMED party. I use all-caps here because it is SO THEMED OUT. Rather than having a more traditional meal and gift exchange, we dress in costumes, bring movie-related gifts for a Dirty Santa swap, create and play a trivia game, and have a menu planned around foods eaten in the movie. 

We do it up right, y'all.

Movies of years gone by include: A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Christmas with the Kranks, The Santa Claus, and The Grinch (the Jim Carrey version). Every year, it seems to get bigger and better. Here, enjoy some shots of Boswell costumes from The Grinch in 2014:

This year's movie was Home Alone, and Brad and I were the game makers. We lobbied for this job and took it very seriously. 

I should take a moment to note that when I say that "we create and play a trivia game," I mean WE CREATE AND PLAY A TRIVIA GAME. The precedent was set many years ago and must be upheld. What kinds of trivia questions are we talking about, you ask? Here's one from the cutting room floor: At what time does the power go out, causing the McAllisters' alarm clocks to stop working? 

Answer: 4:37 am.

And yes, folks knew this answer. We take our trivia oh so seriously. In fact, each year, study guides are created and poured over. One of Brad's aunts made a 10-pager this year. Another aunt made her personal study guide and also called Brad’s Mamaw and Papaw with a question-of-the-day for 2 weeks before the game, so that she could help them study, too. Tim didn’t have much time to study before he got to Tennessee (he’s a doctor at the MAYO CLINIC, remember?), but he took detailed notes while he watched/studied the movie at my in-laws’ house, because it is necessary to prepare in this way. For example, he made a point to pause the movie at this point

The inside of Buzz's trunk

to take note of the contents. I had actually done the same thing when creating questions for the game, so he was right on the money. We ended up not using that question, but he was definitely on the right track. Brad and I used a digital format for the game this year (rather than poster board), and I have to give Brad props for tweaking the free template we found so that, instead of Jeopardy music, ours played music from the movie. Everyone drew for teams, and the "Kevins" duked it out against the "Wet Bandits." We had six question categories: Names, Numbers, Lists, Air Travel, Devilish Details, and Strange Things to Say, and we also introduced the first ever “surprise team face-offs” where, on certain questions, teams battled it out within a time limit for the points (rather than alternating questions like the rest of the game is designed). It was really fun and everyone did incredibly well. The Kevins won, and the prizes were new toothbrushes, which were approved by the American Dental Association, per Kevin’s requirements.

Our game. Doesn't that look so fancy and legit?

The Kevins and their toothbrushes

The menu this year was so terribly unhealthy, as most of the food in the movie was chosen by Kevin, an 8-year-old boy. But because we are committed to our tradition, we ate pizza, macaroni and cheese, shrimp cocktail, ice cream sundaes, and chocolate-covered donuts. Oi.

Brad's plate.

For the gift-giving part of the party, we each bring a gift that is inspired by the movie, and we have a Dirty Santa-style swap. Over the years, everyone has gotten pretty good at choosing gifts that are themed AND something you might actually want to go home with, rather than a more White Elephant-style option. This is super for me, because I HATE getting useless gifts. I have a personal rule that I won’t take anything for the gift exchange that I wouldn’t be happy to go home with, so the gift I took this year was a blue-green throw blanket (inspired by the one Kevin uses to hide as a shepherd in the church nativity scene). It was soft and pretty and awesome, and I’m happy to say that Barbara ended up going home with it (quite happily). It fits perfectly in her living room. Brad took an alarm clock with a back-up battery and assorted cool features (inspired by the alarm clock that failed to wake up the McAllisters). We ended up going home with the alarm clock (Brad really wanted it, so after my first and second gifts were stolen, I chose that one), and a new iron (like the one that smashes Marv’s face). Some other gifts that showed up this year were bottles of Tide, an awesome battery-powered toothbrush with extra heads (I chose that first but it got stolen. Multiples times.), a winter hat with a pom pom on top, an adult Home Alone coloring book + colored pencils, a picture frame with a picture of Buzz’s girlfriend (it was a nice frame), toilet paper, a duffel bag, and fabric softener. Not a bad year at all!

The pile of presents. Tim brought the gift that looks like a snow shovel. It wasn't at all, but we all gave him kudos for wrapping it to look like one!

Ashlen opened it. The curiosity was just too much!

Aunt Donna got some of the household items in her gift: fabric softener, Tide detergent, and toilet paper.

This was actually stolen from her, believe it or not.

The iron. And, you can see me wearing the second gift that I opened (and liked) and had stolen from me. I think the pom pom hat works for me, no?

Super fun adult coloring book (and colored pencils).

The costumes get better and better each year, too! This year might have been my favorite yet, even though I had not had high hopes. I kept thinking everyone was just going to dress in crazy 90’s stuff, but everyone was so creative! Well, minus me. I wasn’t terribly creative, but I did have to do costumes for myself and both girls. I dressed at Kate (Kevin’s mom) in her jammies the morning that they rush to the airport, Claire wanted to dress as Kevin (her choice!), and I decided to dress Lily as a lamb from the nativity scene that Kevin hides in outside of the church. I pretty much try never to spend money on these costumes and was pretty proud of what I cobbled together. Brad was more ambitious and creative and decked out as Johnny, the crazy gangster in the movie Angels with Filthy Souls that Kevin watches over and over. He even made his own Tommy gun out of a cardboard box.

Kevin and lamby

 

Kate and Johnny

Bill dressed as Old Man Marley

 

Barbara dressed as the Christmas tree Kevin sets up all by himself

Jenny and Chris dressed as Marv and Harry, the Wet Bandits

Donna and JD dressed at Kate (the dressed nicely version) and Harry

 

Papaw dressed as Kevin

Claire dressed as Kevin

 

Tim dressed as Kevin

 

Mamaw dressed as the pizza delivery guy from Little Nero’s

Rachael dressed as “Buzz, your girlfriend…WOOF!” 

The final four contestants for the costume contest. Rachael won! 

 

Nikki wasn’t in costume, exactly, but she wore this fun, themed shirt

And here are a few fun comparison shots for you:

It was a great time and another great THEME party in the books. We’ll skip next year (it’s an “outlaws” year…meaning the married grandchildren will be at the spouse’s homes for Christmas), but we’ll get it back in gear in 2018. We haven’t chosen a movie yet…any recommendations?? I’m pulling for Eloise as Christmastime, personally.

Screen shot from the movie...

Nikki's version for the party.

*Jenny took most of these great pictures from the party. Thank you, Jenny! And many thanks to both Jenny and Donna for the planning of the party. It was so so great!