Holiday Reading for Party Planning

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and that you're still nibbling away at those yummy leftovers! 
As the creator of The Ballerina Birthday, I obviously love a party.  Holiday parties have a special place in my heart as well, since the Christmas season is one of my favorites.  (It's one of the things that inspired me to create our Sugar Plum Party! Have you checked it out yet?!)
I'm sure I inherited my love of the holidays from my Mom, our family has always made a point to dress up our house, meals, crafts, and parties around the holidays.  It's a tradition that I love, and one I'm sure I'll pass on to my own family someday.
I also inherited my love of books from my Mom, she has a huge collection, and she especially loves cookbooks and entertaining books. I've been known to snoop in her collection from time to time, and I've found two new books that I think are great especially at this time of year, with parties and events and gift giving opportunities around every corner.
Pippa Middleton really captured the media's attention by being her sister Kate's Maid of Honor at the oh-so-memorable Royal Wedding last year.  Ever since then I've had a slight fascination with these sisters; they are both so elegant and chic, and as I dove into Pippa's new book, Celebrate, I came to like and respect her even more.  I love that her introduction opens with this:

"It's a bit startling to achieve global recognition (if that's the right word) before the age of thirty, on account of your sister, your brother-in-law and your bottom."

Classy, witty, and well-spoken.  I love her!  With years of experience working at her parents business and within the London event planning industry, Pippa offers not only useful tips, observations and ideas on hostessing, but history on events and holidays celebrated in the UK, which I found particularly interesting.  The pages are filled with beautiful photographs as well, taken by David Loftus.

Another great book I've found is Cupcakes and Cashmere.  Inspired by her very successful blog of the same name, Emily Schuman gathered some of her most popular blog posts, some additional in-depth tips, tricks and tutorials on staying organized and getting the most out of each season, and great photographs into her book.  I love that this book offers ideas not only on organization and hosting parties and gatherings, but tips on fun seasonal make-up, and festive wardrobe looks.

If you're looking to host either a grown up holiday party, or a kid-friendly festive gathering, both of these will get your planning wheels turning and inject a good dose of party planning excitement into your process!