In December, we threw my daughter’s 4th birthday party! She is obsessed with Jack Skellington and all things Halloween and with her being a Christmas baby, it was the perfect combination to throw a party with what might be my favorite theme of all time!!
I spent months planning and shopping- literally starting in August for her December birthday party lol, but I knew I’d have to grab all the Halloween-y things early or else they’d be long gone come Christmas time!
I did a lot of shopping at Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Target, Amazon, Michael’s, etc just collecting things that I loved for the party.
I’m sure if you’re here on my blog and have been before, you know my favorite holiday happens to be Halloween, so *girl math* everything I bought is for sure going to see the light of day again, annually, for Halloween!
Please enjoy a little photo diary of our party and I will link what I can!
As usual, I made a lot of the custom decorations but will tell you what I did underneath the photo if you’d like to recreate it!
+ doormat (comes in a set), the other mat we used in the backyard
+ wreath- bought a plain wreath at Hobby Lobby during Christmas time and then bought thick foam board at Michael’s, cut the teeth and eyes out, painted the eyes and then glued them to the wreath! Bought the red bow at Hobby Lobby as well and then with the extra foam board, painted the little Jack face and then glued it over the center of the bow.
+ wrapped presents : saved boxes from the various shipments we received and then bought the wrapping paper from Amazon! Linked all the paper down below!
+ okay the fireplace was really my pride and joy. I bought the spiderweb garland at Michaels’s, a plain wreath garland from Hobby Lobby, and then I bought 4 plain white stockings from Hobby Lobby and painted them to the theme of each character! Then my husband (who is now a pro at the Nightmare Before Christmas font, painted on the names!) mini pumpkin and ghost candles came from Home Goods, the black vases are actually sparkling water glasses that I painted matte black and then the spooky floral fillers are from Michael’s (during Halloween), Halloween candlesticks are also Home Goods, as are the black candlestick holders. mini trees are from Target (yearsss ago). Little tip when planning decorations- I always think ahead and make sure that I know if I need battery operated things vs plug ins. All the lights that I had purchased were all battery operated. I hate visible cords, so if I don’t think I can hide the cord or if it will require an extension cord to reach the outlet, it’s not happening and I find a battery operated option instead!
+ black artificial Christmas Tree : sets of Halloween ornaments were all bought at Michael’s over the Halloween season. Orange ribbon also bought at Michael’s.
+ acrylic Christmas ornaments : I painted on the Jack faces with puffy paint and then bought black string to tie the ornament.
+ Nightmare Before Christmas wrapping paper : Jack wrapping , black and white wrapping, orange/purple/black holographic wrapping
The entry way table is where I had the goodie bags and a little tattoo station laid out.
+ tattoos : I bought 3 packs of these and then cut them into individual tattoos so that kids could sift through and grab ones they wanted!
+ mirror : found this at the dollar section at Target and used a whiteboard marker to write the sign.
+ black bows : I purchased a bunch of velvet bows from Hobby Lobby during Christmas time to hang up all over the house. I also bought their decorative mistletoe to tape around windows and door frames throughout the house!
+ decorative Nightmare Before Christmas box: The little box I found at Home Goods! It’s one of those fake books that is actually a box. Super cute!
+ gift tags I made myself!
+ DIY Nightmare Before Christmas character stickers : I was so happy when I found these! They’re so fun. I put 3 in each goodie bag!
The other “goodies” I gave out were the Jack acrylic ornament, I set one on each table setting for every kid and then I had skeleton tumblers for each kid to take home on the table as well!
Another one of my pride & joys of any party is the dessert table. I LOVE planning out the decor to make the table cute and festive!
We obviously had to buy the 6 foot Jack from Home Depot, which we ordered ASAP because they tend to sell out quickly. He doesn’t come with the Santa hat, so we bought one at Hobby Lobby and put it on him for the party!
+ wreath garland on top of the window I bought at Hobby Lobby as well, it’s actually two that I strung together and then bought purple battery operated lights to wrap around. We used nails to hang the garland above the window and hid the battery pack behind the hanging fabric.
+ the tapestry!!! We bought black fabric from JoAnn’s and had it cut to the measurements of our window. My husband painted the fabric exactly like Jack’s chalkboard from the movie! We just added a little “Happy BDay Avery” to it!
+ various trays for desserts : I bought at Home Goods, some are coffin cheese boards and others are just ceramic trays with skull and cross bones prints! The cupcake stand I also found at Home Goods! I loved the skeleton hand sticking straight up. I also bought a matching cake stand that had skeleton hands holding the cake plate, but our cake was too big for it, so I didn’t end up using.
+ laying skeleton : bought a 6 foot skeleton from At Home and then I bought these battery operated lights to string around the skeleton! These lights are amazing, they have 8 different settings: you can keep them on solid or have them flash/twinkle to different paces.
+ fly trap faux plant : I bought 4 of these from Michael’s during Halloween and had them scattered around my house for the party. I thought they went with the theme so well!
+ “floating” candles on ceiling
My best friend, as usual, made all the treats! The skeleton gingerbread were my favorite!! She makes them better than the ones at Disneyland! IYKYK.
We edited the clock from the movie and instead made it with the number of days before Avery turned 4!
+ balloon garland : the exact one I bought came with the black, purple, and Jack face balloons, along with silver which I didn’t use- the set I bought is sold out, but linking some similar Jack balloons! You could also search balloons of the colors separately!
+ orange balloons : the garland kit didn’t come with Orange so I bought them separately!
+ backdrop is my girlfriends and I just bought black spandex covers to go over them.
+ pumpkin skeleton man I got at Target! Threw a Santa hat on top the day of the party.
+ Graveyard : the fence and headstones I bought at At Home during Halloween!
+ AVERY letters : we’ve had these since her first birthday party (they used to be white) and now my favorite tradition every year is re-painting them to match the theme of her birthday party. They started out white for Winter Onderland, I painted them with peace signs and flowers for Two Groovy, then they were painted all the characters from The Little Mermaid for her Under the Sea, Avery is Three birthday party! These year, I painted them all matte black and then my husband painted the characters on them along with the Christmas lights!
Another one of the most fun party planning parts for me, is planning the kids table!
+ black charges : bought at Target! I think I own nearly every color they make of these by now.
+ snowflake holographic paper plates : these come with 3 sizes, I used the largest size on top of the chargers and then had the smaller ones out for desserts later.
+ skeleton tumblers with straws : my mom found these at a little hole in wall shop and bought them for me!
+ battery operated Christmas lights for along the center of the table
+ tables, blankets, and pillows : all my girlfriend’s. She made them and we use the table for every party we have.
+ black matte vases: these are actually sparkling water glasses that I cleaned and then painted. The filler faux flowers were all bought at Michael’s during Halloween.
+ candelabra : bought this for Avery’s mermaid party (it was spray painted bronze for that one), I spray painted it black for this party and then bought the green and red candlesticks from Hobby Lobby.
+ mini ceramic pumpkins : bought them at Target during Halloween from the dollar section!
+ Zero : had to have a little Zero in the backyard! We bought this one and then set up another little “graveyard” scene in the backyard. Hung Zero from PVC pipe we had.
+ Zero’s dog house : we made this out of posterboard! my husband cut the shape and then I painted it.
+ Nightmare Before Christmas hanging portraits : my husband found these and I loved them!! We hung them along the fence using command strips. The ones we bought are unfortunately sold out.
+ purple lights : we hung purple lights in the backyard along the fence, since these are outdoor lights, they are not battery operated.
In the backyard, we had a drink table set up and then a table for kids to grab a kit to make 3D gingerbread men and a gingerbread house out of felt and stickers. I also had a pack of crayons and custom coloring sheets for the kids to grab as well!
The last little detail is of course the music, I made a playlist that was a mix of your classic Christmas music mixed in with the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack.
I absolutely loved throwing this party and actually cannot wait to use all my decor again for Halloween lol. Hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into our party!
On Another Coast 
[…] party came around, it honestly was just meant to be and I knew I had to go BIG. I threw Avery a Nightmare Be-FOUR Christmas party. She started to get into the movie the Halloween before turning 3, so like literally 3 months before […]
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