I’m a big fan of girl’s night! After a busy day filled with family obligations and work responsibilities, nothing sounds grander than an evening in with my gal pals, watching The Bachelor or treating ourselves to a delicious array of goodies!

One of my favorite types of parties to host is a Favorite Things party. Everyone brings a few of their favorite products which are traded around or drawn in a raffle, and then everyone gets to leave with several new products to try!

Here’s how to throw a Favorite Things party:

1. Choose a theme. Around Christmas time, I think it’s fun to choose a holiday dessert theme where everyone brings their favorite holiday treat. But for Galentine’s, I love for the theme to be something like "Treat Yourself" where the products can be beauty-related, desserts, fashion accessories, or candles!
2. Decide on a price limit and item quantity. This is really what makes the party unique. You can completely customize your Favorite Things requirements to suit the group! Generally, the more people that are coming, the higher the number of items brought should be, and therefore, the lower the price limit per item. I’ve done parties where everyone brings just one or two favorite things with a $15-$25 spending limit and parties where everyone brings five of the same favorite product, but with a lower price limit like $5, which works better for larger groups.
3. When everyone arrives, display their offerings on a table. You can decide whether people will take turns choosing a gift or if you’ll have people enter a raffle for each type of product. As you mingle and hang out together, people can be eyeing the offerings on the Favorite Things table and talking about why they brought what, and why it’s their favorite.

Ideally, this type of party works best if everyone brings multiple of the same item, but if you want everyone to bring a variety of their favorite products, that works too! It just increases the variety of things people will get to take home.

Of course, no party is complete without something to attend to all five senses!

Touch — your Favorite Things activity element of the party is what constitutes the touch sense of the party.

Hear — make sure you’ve got some tunes playing throughout the evening, whether it’s top 40 hits or some epic dance party music!

Smell — light a candle or two around the party area to keep things fresh and calming!

See — don’t forget to decorate the place with whatever decor you have on hand for a party atmosphere for your gal pals.

Taste — and last but not least, the most important sense (to me and most of my friends): taste. What are you serving at your party? I like to keep things inclusive to the various catered diets of my friends with gluten-free treats. Here are some of the popular girls night treats I serve on repeat:

• A charcuterie board or spread with plenty of gluten-free crackers, nuts, cheese, fruits, and deli meats
• Fancy popcorn with fruits and nuts and drizzled with white and dark chocolate
• A yogurt bar with toppings galore to choose from to make your own parfait bowl
• Of course, I’ve got lots of tasty options from NUM like our Strawberry Cheesecake Brownie, our Red Velvet Brookies, and these delicious new Cinnabars!
• I love to top it all off with a fancy drink of some sort, like the gourmet sodas and Italian cream sodas we serve at the shop!

What are you waiting for? It’s time to get started planning your next Girls Night in, and make sure you don’t forget the tasty treats!