Favorite Things Party + Printables

Plan the perfect Girl’s Night In with a fun and casual Favorite Things Party! Here are all the details to make your night a SMASHING success!

Here are a few more adult party ideas we think you’ll love – High School Reunion Valentine Party, The Best Adult Party Games, and Couple’s Dinner Party Ideas.

What is a Favorite Things Party

A Favorite Things Party is a fun excuse to gather your girlfriends together and exchange gifts. You each bring an item to the party (all similar in price), eat yummy food, chat, relax, and do whatever it is you and your friends love to do. It is a perfect Girls Night IN!

How to Plan a Favorite Things Party

The Guest List

I’d suggest inviting 10-20 girls. Too small of a group and the gift exchange goes way too fast, but too many could turn your girl’s night into a slumber party… and you don’t want the gift exchange to take too long!

Favorite Things Party Invites

Make sure you include the standard info (date, time and place) but you also want to include some details about the gift exchange.

Let’s talk about the gifts, shall we?

On the invitation, you can specify a price limit that each guest should stick to. You could also specify a certain theme if you’d like. For example, you could have everyone bring their favorite treat, their favorite beauty product, their favorite kitchen gadget, etc. You can most definitely keep it very generic and simply ask your guests to bring their “favorite thing”. That way you’ll get a variety of products, which is always so much fun!

The Set Up

Guests will arrive and mingle for a bit, so consider having a variety of your favorite foods ready to go – finger foods, cupcakes, brownie bites, veggie sticks, fresh fruit, crackers, a couple of your favorite dips, etc.

The Schedule

After mingling for a bit, do a short round of introductions, and then start the gift exchange.

How to Exchange the Gifts

There is no right or wrong way to exchange gifts, but I like doing it White-Elephant Style. You can have everyone write their name on a piece of paper and put it in the bowl, or you can use our number cards in the printable pack. Here’s How –

Print off 2 sheets of numbers from the printable pack and cut them up. Attach 1 number to each gift and put them in the center of the room, then put the other set of numbers in a bowl.
Pass the bowl around and one by one, each guest draws a number from the bowl and then gets to open the corresponding gift. When they open the gift, the person who brought it explains why it’s their favorite item, and then the bowl is passed to the next guest.
Each guest can opt out of picking a number and steal a gift from one that has already been opened.
We usually allow each item to be “stolen” twice, meaning the 3rd person to have their hands on it gets to keep it and it cannot be stolen from them for the rest of the night.
The host will continue drawing names out of the bowl until everyone has had their chance to get a gift. This can take about an hour, depending on how chatty your group is and how many people you have at your party.

And Then What???

After the gift exchange is over, guests are welcome to stay and mingle and indulge on more yummy foods. Before each person leaves, they’ll get a goody bag with a few more of the hostess’ favorite things- a fun-sized snicker bar, a notepad and pen (’cause I am a list maker!), a facial mask (’cause I love to be pampered) nail polish…just a few extra items that will let them know I appreciate them coming!

…how is that for a night of fun???