The Sandra Snowflake Party

My friend Kate and I invented Sandra Snowflake Day in 10^th grade. It is a winter holiday that brings smiles to my friends’ faces. And, I'll be honest, questioning looks from friends who are wondering about my sanity.

Here are the basics:

Sandra Snowflake Day is the last Monday of January.

Celebrating this holiday requires lots of paper snowflakes, yummy sweet treats, and the realization that there is always something to celebrate.

Sandra Snowflake Day was founded on the understanding that the end of January (particularly the last Monday of the month) desperately needs an occasion: A reason to have a party, celebrate the winter, and share some good cheer with friends.

I admit it is a little insane to invent one's own holiday. However, finding reasons to celebrate, and taking the time to do so is the crux of The Occasionist. And Sandra Snowflake Day is an excellent experiment in starting traditions from scratch. This year there seemed to be a whole lot of people who needed convincing that Sandra Snowflake Day was indeed a holiday (if only in my world), and that it required celebrating. So I decided to throw a big old party, and hopefully make some new Sandra Snowflake traditions.

This year’s party had a little bit of arts and crafts, and a lot of white!

The White Menu:

Cauliflower Crostini

Ricotta Crostini

Fresh White Winter Veggies and Buttermilk and Mint Dressing

A Selection of White Cheeses and Baguette

Popcorn

White Bean and Sausage Soup

Homemade Grissini (bread sticks)

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Coconut Macaroons

Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses

Spanish Cava

Most of my dishware is white. White goes with anything, and can be used for any color scheme your occasion requires. Seeing as this party’s theme was white, I had my pick of most of my dishes and tried to use different shapes and sizes.

I used some more inventive containers as well. The grissini are in a metal urn, spray painted white. And the fresh vegetables are lined up in square glass flower vases. You can use any container for food (just make sure its surfaces are food safe): vases, baskets, lunch boxes. So be creative in displaying your food.

I have a set of nesting snowflake cookie cutters that I used for the sugar cookies. The nesting cookie cutters take up less space so they can be stored away more easily. A few friends came over the day before the party to decorate cookies, drink tea and catch up.

For our Winter Wonderland I hung snowflakes by fishing line over the farm table, and attached them to our front door.

The farm table was set up with white paper and scissors for snowflake cutting. Guests taped their snowflakes to our living room windows for added effect. Snowflake making turned out to be a more popular activity than I had expected. Nearly everyone took their turn with the scissors. For a party with a lot of people who didn’t know one another very well, snowflake cutting was a good icebreaker. (Although I think I’ll be finding tiny bits of paper around my apartment for months!)