Buddy the Elf Party

They are to be greatly pitied. For theirs is the greatest burden to bear. Those with December birthdays.

The receivers of the dreaded “joint birthday and Christmas gift”. Tolerating decidedly non-birthday decor festooning the parlor and decking the halls. Always assuming their guests are going to be mostly partied out from work holiday obligations, family gift exchanges, and all the trappings of the season. Some, bear the burden better than others.

My son decided to fully lean into it with this Buddy the Elf themed birthday party.

First of all, we had to procure the guest of honor. We snagged this Buddy cutout. He was essential and we couldn’t have managed the party without him.

Next, we set to work on the food. Obviously we stuck to the four main elf food groups:
Candy
Candy Canes
Candy Corns
and Syrup

Which, is why I’m posting this in October. Do yourself a favor and snag a few bags of candy corn while it’s on shelves during the Halloween season. You’ll thank me in December.

What better for an Elf themed party than spaghetti for dinner? I made some signs with cute sayings, had garlic bread, Caesar salad and normal toppings for the spaghetti, but also all the Elf fixings for the very daring, which ended up being just the kids. I have no idea how on earth Will Ferrell ate that monstrosity. So gross.

I made mini spaghetti piles out of Chow Mein noodles, an idea I got from Cookies and Cups and they turned out adorable!!

I continued the Buddy’s spaghetti theme with the cake. This one is a visual feast and SO easy to throw together. I found the idea on a blog post from Alison McKnown, and also got some of my printables there.

Start with a regular chocolate cake. You can make your own, or grab one from your favorite bakery. This party was back when Costco still sold their decadent chocolate cake in a two layer version. Man those were the good old days. Now it’s a short squatty thing. Still delicious, but I miss the taller version, which is what I used for the base of my cake.

Take some white frosting and a piping bag with a medium round piping tip. I’m pretty sure I used a Wilton 6 or 7. Squiggle that frosting all around the top of your cake, replicating spaghetti noodles.

Now don’t come at me, but I didn’t exactly copy Buddy’s spaghetti from the movie. I decided to make a couple tweaks to incorporate the 4 food groups and also the film references about going through the sea of swirly-twirly gum drops. If you want authentic, you’ll include: maple syrup, chocolate syrup, mini marshmallows, M&Ms, and crumbled chocolate Pop-Tarts. My toppings added candy canes, candy corns and gumdrops to the list of sweetness overload. I think it added a needed pop of additional color and texture.

It was amazing.

I’ll let you in on a secret. Like Buddy, I know Santa. And, I convinced him to make a special visit to see the birthday boy. Buddy was beside himself with excitement. And the kids LOVED the opportunity to let the Big Guy know what they were hoping for come Christmas. Santa showing up unexpectedly created the perfect opportunity for all the adults to all yell “Santas here!!!”, and generally freak out. Hysterical and so fun.

We also had some activities for the kids to do at the party, I made a snowball toss game, hid little Buddy the Elf cutouts around the house to find, they decorated gingerbread houses and, ate a whole tub of chocolate chip cookie dough. If you know, you know. For the game, I just found some images online, taped them to the front of buckets, and got these amazing fake snowballs to toss in!

You don’t NEED to be celebrating a December birthday to enjoy this theme. It would be a wildly successful holiday party without anyone turning another year older. Enjoy! And remember, The Code of the Elves: