Rebecca from Fresh Chick Design Studio sent in this darling “Winter Candyland” party that she designed & created for her son Blake’s first birthday. Pretty darn cute, right?!

Between the bright & festive color palette, clever DIY “Stocking Garland”, TWO buffets of winter-themed sweets (with treats like mitten-shaped sugar cookies & peppermint candy-topped cupcakes!), and those adorable little penguins, I’d say this is a very HAPPY-looking birthday party, indeed!

Read on for LOTS more festive pics and all the {very creative!} details, as explained by Rebecca…

“The party was put together for my younger son Blake, who turned one on December 9th. The theme was a “Winter Candyland”. I started with a color palette of red & aqua, but added a few accent colors so that the theme could work for both boys and girls.

I created this cute penguin graphic to add some wintery detail and incorporated lots of candy to bring in the whimsy factor. I wanted it to be festive for the season, without being over the top “holiday”.

I designed all of the printables for the party along with much of the decor. My first project was to create “birthday posters” as the building block for the desert table. I printed up 13×19 posters that were mounted on foam board and hung from candy cane stripe ribbon.  The posters were layered on top of an aqua and lime damask fabric, and a paper flag banner hung above them (made using the digital papers I created).

The dessert table was flanked with paper trees made from the same digital papers as the banner. (I was inspired  to make these paper trees by my sweet feathered friend of Bird Crafts!) I also made lollipop bouquets to add height and interest to the table.

The center focus of the table was definitely the cake. I ordered a cake from Target but made some special requests to accommodate a few ideas I had.  They offer a standard 8” round double layer cake…I asked for them for a third layer, fudge between the layers, and smooth buttercream icing with red polka dots and a red beaded border.  I would take care of embellishing the rest.

The cake decorating was totally last-minute, using a few items I had for the party: a couple large swirly lollipops and some of the super-cute decorated cookies from The Cookie Jar.

I kept the treats on this table fairly simple since there were lots of colors and patterns going on already. The only other items here were decadent red velvet cupcakes and the adorable custom sugar cookies (also pictured at top, in image #2).

Since I was limited with space on the dessert table, I added a separate candy bar loaded up with all sorts of sweets. To carry the theme over, more custom signs adorned the table, along with treat bags, fondant-topped cupcakes, colorful fabric, and a cute DIY stocking garland.

For entertainment all of the kids had a blast taking turns hitting the penguin pinata. All of the pint-sized guest were sent home with candy bags, penguin drink cups, and a fun ornament to hang on their tree!

This was the perfect theme for a December birthday… the possibilities to carry out this theme were endless!!”