Expert: Georgia Blair - 10/15/2009

Question
I stumbled upon this site when searching for invitation wording ideas.  What cute ideas for invitations you have here!! Since you've been able to help so many others in their quest to find the perfect wording for their event I was hoping you'd be able to help me as well.  My daughter's birthday is Christmas Eve and this year we decided to have it on her actual birthday and only celebrate with family.  The theme is centered around the Belle's Enchanted Christmas movie. We'll have the house already decorated with Xmas and only have to add the Cogsworth, Lumiere Chip etc character cut outs. We are having the traditional sit down "fancy" Xmas Eve dinner with all the fixings.  I've got everything planned and in place except the wording for the invites. I need help thinking of something that goes with the whole fancy Christmas dinner and Belle birthday.  Can you help me please???

Answer
This event sounds wonderful! What a lovely way to celebrate your daughter's Christmas Eve birthday. My own daughter is a teenager now, so I haven't seen the movie in years, and can't exactly remember the songs. I Googled it this morning, and the lyrics to Belle's Christmas song struck me as sooooo very appropriate for a traditional family celebration like the one you're planning.  

It would be very easy to do some simple and cute wording like this:

Boughs of holly and bells that jingle
We're hoping you will come and mingle
With all our family in an enchanting way
To celebrate CHILD'S NAME's special day

We love the stories and songs at this time of year
Spreading hope, love and joy, goodwill and cheer
We're so enchanted by Beauty and the Beast
That we're planning our own Christmas Eve feast

It's a magical way to celebrate
A birthday that falls on a special date
We're hoping you'll join us for a traditional dinner
Based on a movie that's a holiday winner!

Time, date, RSVP info here

This little verse will work on any card, of course...But I'd really love to see some sort of very traditional Christmas-card style used for this invitation...highly personalized, of course, and embellished with elements from the Belle movie. Perhaps you could print out invitations that are folded, book style, making use of heavy card stock. If you don't want to purchase a whole ream of card stock, you can email your invite to an Office Max and they'll print it out on the heavy card stock for you.

Here's what I would do... You might not want to be quite so elaborate, but you might find some components of this idea that you can adapt for your own use!:)

I would set your own dining room room table with all the china, etc., that you're going to be using for the party, light the candles and shoot an inviting photograph for use on the cards. Think Southern Living magazine photo quality here... Compose the picture well. Don't just stand in the door to the dining room and shoot. Get down low, table height or a few inches above, searchign for the same angle magazine or cookbook photogs use. If it's possible to set up a card table in front of your Christmas tree to get the tree in the background, do that for the picture. The more festive you can make the tabletop look, the better.

If you have a nice picture book based on the movie, I'd add it to the picture. Place it prominently on the table...The DVD case might work well in the picture, too. Any other themed "props" your daughter can find will work well. Play around until you get an inviting shot.

If all this seems too involved, you could always just allow your daughter to color the front of the card, using pictures from Beauty and the Beast coloring books that can be copied and affixed to the front of the card.

Once you have your picture, place it on the cover of your card, with a large "You're invited to an Enchanted Christmas..." or "Please join us for an Enchanted Christmas." To print this out easily on your home computer with no special publishing programs, select the feature that allows you to print horizontally rather than vertically. Then simply use the left side of a regular sheet of paper. When you fold the paper, this will become the front of the invitation.

Next, you'll need to add some Belle embellishments. I would purchase some stickers and let your daughter decorate the front of the card. Scrapbooking stores have many wonderful selections which would work well...You could allow her to frame the photograph with wreaths, or holly, and add a few Belle and Beast stickers, too.

On the inside of the card, on the left page, type:

In the movie "Enchanted Christmas," Belle sings:
There is more to this time of year
Than sleigh bells and holly
Mistletoe and snow
Those things come and go
Much deeper than snow
Stronger than the strongest love we'll know
We'll ever know

As long as there's Christmas I truly believe
That hope is the greatest of the gifts we'll recieve
As long as there's Christmas we'll all be just fine

On the right-hand side of the page, type the verse I offered above (the one that begins "Boughs of holly and bells that jingle..." And at the end, add this embellished quote from Belle's song:

"As long as there's Christmas we truly believe
That love is the greatest of the gifts we'll receive
As long as there's Christmas we'll all be just fine..."
And having a Christmas BIRTHDAY makes it more divine!

Please join us....
time, date and RSVP info here  

I really hope these ideas help you and that you can use at least part of them. Again, you have had an absolutely WONDERFUL idea for a way to celebrate your daughter's birthday, and I applaud you for your choice of theme. Good luck and happy birthday to her! :)