Did you ever think about having your quinceañera at Christmas? It may not be traditional, but it's actually a great money-saver. Relatives who would be in town anyway to celebrate the holidays will save money on plane tickets or gas. You can take advantage of all the amazing sales of the season to get your decorations at close-out prices. Plus, everywhere you go, places are already decorated with lights and garlands, so your pictures will look beautiful.

Most churches will probably have Christmas trees and nativities up already, giving a cozy backdrop for photos (read my photography checklist here). You can also ask your friends and relatives to lend you some of their decorations to add to what is already there. Here are some simple ideas for decorations:

• Hang wreaths from the pews.
• Hang red or white bows behind the chairs and tie a touch of mistletoe to them.
• For a magical snow effect, decorate with Christmas lights wrapped in white tulle.
• If there is a fireplace at the party hall, you can hang stockings you buy at the dollar store with the names of your madirnas and padrinos.
• Use poinsettias and pine cones as table centerpieces, and scatter red, green, silver and gold glitter on the tablecloths.
• Hang Christmas ornaments from ribbons or fill a bowl with ornaments in the color of your theme to place on tables.
• You can also have gingerbread houses as centerpieces. (Decorating them is a fun activity!)
• The more sparkle, the better!

YOUR DRESS

• Your dress can be white, red, gold or wintergreen. Rich fabrics like brocade lame and velvet are perfect. The dress to the right, by Mariposa Q15 (style Q273), would be perfect. Look for it at mariposaq15.com.
  
• You can still wear tulle, organza and lace.

COLOR COMBINATIONS

• Some general themes can be: winter wonderland, fantasy land, candy land, all white, red and blue velvet or gold and silver.

FAVORS

• Your party favors can be ornaments, gingerbread cookies, candy canes tied with ribbons that have your name imprinted.
• Use jelly paper to wrap your favors.
• Add a Christmas touch to anything with small bells or poinsettias.

ACTIVITIES

• You can have a Christmas karaoke contest.
• Decorate Gingerbread houses.
• After dinner, hand out Christmas songs lyrics and have the guests sing Christmas carols together.

FOOD & DRINKS

• Since it's a holiday get-together, serve a traditional Christmas meal (American OR Latin). It can even be potluck style.
• You can serve cider (hot or cold), hot chocolate, eggnog, nonalcohol mojitos and cranberry juice.

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