How to Plan a Favorite Things Party Everyone Will LOVE
If you’ve been looking for a fun and unique way to get your friends together, consider hosting a Favorite Things Party. It’s an interesting mix of a gift exchange, a fun get together, and a chance to celebrate each other’s favorite things and interests.
From party themes to easy gift ideas, this post will walk you through how to plan a Favorite Things Party that everyone (or at least the majority, lol) will love.
What is a Favorite Things Party
A Favorite Things Party is a party theme where everyone brings a few of their favorite items to share with one another. You can think of it as a mix between a gift exchange and a show and tell.
Favorite Things Party Ideas
A Favorite Things party is a fun and cute way to celebrate because it can be customized for almost any occasion. Whether it’s a birthday, Galentine’s Day, or Christmas, this theme is all about sharing and celebrating the things you and your guests love most.
1. Favorite Things Birthday Party
If it’s your birthday, make the day all about you! Since it’s your special day, host a party centered around your favorite things. Your favorite foods, games, music, and snacks. Think of it as a mini celebration of everything that makes you, you.
2. Favorite Things Christmas Party
(Cue the Christmas song 🎶 “These are a few of my favorite things” 🎶) A Favorite Things Christmas party is another great take on this theme. Have guests bring their favorite holiday dish. Create a shared party playlist where everyone can add their favorite Christmas songs.
And you can even encourage each guest to bring a wrapped version of one of their favorite things like a: candle, mug, or snack. For a white elephant gift exchange.
CHECK OUT: 25 Trending Christmas Party Themes To Recreate In 2025
3. Favorite Things Galentines Party
Celebrate sisterhood and friendship with a Favorite Things Galentine’s party. This party is all about love and appreciation with your besties. You can set up a brunch, movie night, or pajama party where everyone brings and swaps their favorite items. Like candles, snacks, and even makeup products.
Favorite Things Party
4. Play This or That
Play a game of This or That to see what everyone prefers! You can easily customize the questions to match your party theme. For example, if you’re hosting a Christmas party, make the questions holiday themed. Or if it’s Galentine’s Day, switch them up to be all about friendship and love.
There are a few ways to play this game. You can read each question out loud and have guests shout out their answers or raise their hands. Or you can have everyone stand up and move to one side of the room if they prefer “this,” and to the other side if they prefer “that.”
Here are some fun Christmas This or That questions you can use:
- Thanksgiving or Christmas
- Snow or Fall Leaves
- Giving gifts or Receiving gifts
- Christmas pajamas or Fuzzy socks
- Christmas movies or Christmas songs
- Eggnog or Hot chocolate
- Baking cookies or Eating cookies
- Winter or Summer
- Candy cane or Candy corn
- Wrapping gifts or Opening gifts
- Shop in-stores or Shop online
- Secret Santa or White elephant
5. Create a Favorite Things Trivia Game
Put a fun twist on your party by creating a Favorite Things Trivia Game. Before the party, ask each of your guests a few questions about themselves and their favorite things, then turn their answers into a Kahoot game (or another trivia style quiz). During the party, everyone can play and see how well they really know each other!
You can ask questions like:
- What’s their favorite candy?
- What’s their favorite holiday movie?
- What’s one food they could eat every day?
- True or false style questions: Sarah loves eggnog
- True or False: Ashley has never watched the movie Polar Express
6. Have a Potluck Menu
Since this is a Favorite Things party, you can even carry that theme into your food. Set up a potluck style menu and ask your guests to bring their favorite dish.
If it’s a holiday themed party, they can bring their favorite holiday dish. If it’s a regular hangout they can bring their favorite snack or dish.
7. Set a Gift Budget
Set a gift budget so everyone can know what they’re working with. This can help avoid a situation where one person brings a pricey gift while another brings something super small. You can keep it simple with a budget like $5–$10, or go a little bigger with a budget of $25 or $50. (Take a general census and ask your guests which budget they prefer)
8. Set a Theme for Your Gift Exchange
Although you can just have a general gift exchange, you can also set a theme if you’d like. For example, you could tell your guests to bring their favorite beauty product, their favorite snack, or even their favorite cozy item.
9. Do a Favorite Things White Elephant Gift Exchange
Have each guest bring one of their favorite items wrapped up in a cute gift bag or festive wrapping paper. Then play a White Elephant gift exchange so that by the end of the night, everyone leaves with someone else’s favorite thing.
10. Have a 3 Favorite Things Gift Exchange
1. Everyone brings 3 of the same item (their favorite thing). They don’t need to wrap them.
2. Write each guest’s name 3 times on slips of paper and add them to a bowl
3. Go around the room and have each person take a turn sharing what their favorite thing is and why.
4. After everyone has shared their favorite thing, each person draws 3 names from a bowl. (The names that the person draws, are the ones that they will give their gift to)
5. After you draw the 3 names, do not put the names back in the bowl
6. In the end, everyone leaves with 3 gifts from other guests’ favorite items
Favorite Things Party Gift Ideas Under $15
If you’ve been invited to a Favorite Things Party or you’re hosting one and want to give your guests some ideas on what to bring, here’s some gift ideas.
Bouquet of Flowers
I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things to both buy and receive is flowers. So if that’s you too, make that your favorite thing and gift a beautiful bouquet!
You can grab a premade one from the store, or get creative and make your own arrangement. And to make it extra personalized, you can even gift your favorite type of flower.
Candle
You can never go wrong with a cute candle that smells amazing! For a budget friendly option, you can find some really great candles at stores like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or Walmart.
Gel pens
You know what they say… when you find a pen that writes like butter, it’s a game changer! If you’ve found a gel pen that’s just that good and it’s your current favorite, share it with your friends.
Lip Balm
From lip balms to lip glosses, if you have a favorite lip product that you love using and you know others would enjoy it too, bring it to the party.
Starbucks Gift Card
Are you someone who loves their morning coffee and can’t resist a Starbucks run? Then a Starbucks gift card is the perfect favorite thing to share!
Snacks
Snacks are another great favorite thing to share. From chips and cookies to chocolate and even ice cream, there are so many tasty options to choose from.
Card Games
From Uno to What Do You Meme?, card games are a budget friendly gift idea you can bring to the party.
Puzzle
If you love puzzles, especially the challenging ones with 500 or 1,000 pieces; consider gifting them as your favorite thing.
Book
If you’ve recently read something you loved, share it!
Gift Card to Your Favorite Restaurant
Whether it’s Chick-fil-A, Chili’s, Papa John’s, or any spot you love, gifting a restaurant gift card is always a hit.
Rechargeable Candle Lighter
Me and my rechargeable candle lighter go hand in hand because I use it almost every day to light my candles. It’s so convenient. The battery lasts a long time. And all you have to do is press a button to have your candle lit instantly.
Hair Accessories
From scrunchies to headbands and butterfly clips, hair accessories are another good gift idea.
Nail Polish
If you love doing your nails yourself and have found a cute nail polish color that you’ve been loving, consider gifting it as your favorite thing!
Epsom Salt
One of my friends swears by Epsom salt and absolutely loves it, and if you feel the same, gifting some is a great idea. And honestly, this summarizes why I love a favorite things gift exchange because not only do your friends hear about your favorite thing. But they’re able to try it for themselves and see if they love it too!
