By Katie Moosbrugger

A few years ago, a friend of mine hosted a “My Favorite Things” party. I shared this idea on TMoM in the past, but the topic came up again recently and I realized that there were so many readers who still did not know about this clever idea. I thought it was the perfect time to share this idea once again and give you an excuse to enjoy some time with girlfriends.

The idea for the party actually originated from Oprah’s popular My Favorite Things show, and it’s a cute way to entertain with your friends, or as an alternative to the usual bunco, supper club or book club get-togethers.

Here’s how it works:

It’s so simple. You can invite as many friends as you want or you can choose to keep the group relatively small. The party I attended included about 15 girls. Everyone was asked to bring five of their favorite things as gifts. Each gift had to be exactly the same and under $5.  When I arrived I was told to write my name on five slips of paper and drop them into a bag. After some mingling over cocktails and appetizers, we all gathered into the room with the gifts. We each then drew five names out of the bag – making sure each name we chose was different and not our own.

The host kicks off the game by standing up and sharing what gift she brought and why it’s her favorite thing. She then delivers her gifts to each of the five girls whose names she drew from the bag. One of the five gift recipients then volunteers to share and distribute her favorite things, and so on and so on. At the end of the night, we all came away with five incredibly cute and creative gifts of our own!

Lots of the gifts at the party I attended focused around food and recipes (always great items to receive), as well as other ingenious $5 gift ideas. One person had the witty idea to purchase five wine glasses and paint the stem and bottom of the glass with black chalkboard paint (so you can write the wine glass user’s name in white chalk at the bottom). Another friend brought a “date in a bag”: a coupon to Redbox, a bag of microwaveable popcorn and two bottles of Red Oak beer. Someone else gave away their favorite brand of lip balm. Another friend planted her favorite herbs in five different unique pots (including one that was made from an old lunchbox). One of the gifts I received was all the fixings for s’mores. And what did I bring as my “favorite thing” gift? None other than the latest issue of People magazine (if you know me personally you know about my celebrity obsessions). It was such a fun night!

After the party, I did a little research and learned about all the blogs written about My Favorite Things parties as well as the ideas and inspirations for creative gift ideas. There are a million blogs and Pinterest ideas out there for you to view.

Have you heard about My Favorite Things parties? If so, what clever gift ideas can you share?