In continuation of Monday’s California Christmas Part 1 {covering the tablescape & paper details} – I’m excited to share Part 2 of this wonderfully creative holiday party with you… so get ready to check out some truly fabulous holiday desserts, party decor, and party favor/activities! I mean – seriously – how often do you get to leave a Christmas party with a brand new tan, right?! More on that later…

Warning: There’s so much great eye candy to take in ahead – I hope you’ve got some time on your hands! And speaking of candy… first up is DESSERT!

The dessert table was filled with treats like Gingerberry Cakesicles, pistachio-flavored “Winter Mint” Macarons, and mini Eggnog Latte and Hot Cocoa – all courtesy of Cupcakes Couture. Incredibly detailed edible ornaments adorned a bouquet of winter-y branches, while a “merry & bright” banner from JoyfulJoyful hung above it all.

Some of the balsa wood snowmen from Carissa’s Couture Holiday Collection helped dress up the table. (I seriously love these little guys! Such a cute decor idea for winter bridal or baby showers too.)

And to wash down all those sweet treats… a choice of “Winter Glow” Mulled Cider or Holiday Hot Cocoa:

Personalized edible gift tags from “Cali Claus” were attached to each of the cider glasses, while cute snowflake marshmallows adorned the cocoa mugs.

Next up: PARTY DECOR

As a perfect compliment to the beautiful tablescape, more rustic-meets-modern elements were carried throughout the entire party space. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll just let a few more of those do the talking:

Here’s the front courtyard scene that guests were greeted with when they arrived…

On the left side of the picture above, you can see part of the amazing grapewood branch tree that displayed some of Carissa’s beautiful handmade ornaments, which also doubled as take-home favors!

As pretty as everything was, there was one specific “decoration” that easily took the cake!

Unfortunately, Carissa’s too-adorable miss “Bossy” did not double as a take-home party favor though. Sigh…

Can you believe there’s still more stuff to cover? My web guy would be seriously cringing if he caught me putting this many images into a single post. Oops! Just. Can’t. Help. Myself. So – onto the favors/activities we go…

Courtney from Ka-mil-yin set up a cool scent station where each guest could create their own custom holiday scent for hand soap, lotion, and body scrub. (That’s the lovely Jen from Green Wedding Shoes mixing up her scent above.) This is such a fun activity idea for bridal showers and other girlie events!

Let it GLOW, let it GLOW, let it GLOW.

You know that thing I mentioned in the beginning of this post about coming home with a tan? Yeah… I wasn’t kidding!

The sweet Danielle from Plush Tan was there to give guests a {healthy} sun-kissed glow! This was the first time I’ve had a spray tan and now I know what all the fuss is about. Talk about instant gratification – or maybe more appropriately – instant beautification!

BIG THANKS again to Leila at Be Inspired PR for hosting such a fun night, to Cortnie and Carissa for dreaming up such a beautiful design to enjoy, and to the many other wonderful & generous vendors that were involved with this event!

Want more “California Christmas“? Check out these additional recaps on the blogs of some of the other {fabulous} attendees: Green Wedding Shoes, 100 Layer Cake, and Grey Likes Weddings!