Christmas decorations - well done!

Thank you to all of you who contributed Christmas tree decorations for the MamaBabyBliss "My First Christmas" Christmas tree. We managed to make an amazing 50 decorations in just three days - and have been rewarded by a fantastic £50 donation from MamaBabyBliss. If you'd like to see all our decorations in situ - head to the Christmas Tree Festival at Holy Saviour Church in Hitchin. Its on 12-6pm this Saturday and Sunday (13th and 14th December) - see the poster on the right and visit their website for more information.

£1 for every Christmas decoration we make... (but hurry!)

Fancy adding your personal touch to a "My First Christmas" tree at the Hitchin Christmas Tree Festival? MamaBabyBliss, who are sponsoring the tree, will donate £1 to us for every decoration we make.

We have to hurry though! The festival is this weekend and they need decorations by this Wednesday (10th). Yes, I know its short notice!! But the decorations don't need to be anything complicated - photo of your baby attached to a card and ribbon, a little cut-out picture, or anything you fancy. I've attached a photo with some ideas of decorations they already have - but yours doesn't have to be the same.

You can drop in your decorations direct to MamaBabyBliss, 14 The Chilterns. Hitchin, SG4 9PP (just pop them in an envelope and post through the letterbox) or post them. Make sure you say you heard about it through Baby's First Christmas Party so they know to give us the £1.

Alternatively, you can drop them in to one of us in Letchworth, Baldock or Arlesey and we will take them to MamaBabyBliss for you. Email me at info@babysfirstchristmasparty.org for the relevant address near you.

I know there isn't much time, but hope you can still help. If you are having a mums' meet up in the next couple of days (or your christmas party) why not make a load of decorations together?

Join us in the New Year for a Grown-ups Party!

Enough about parties for babies and children - we big people deserve something for ourselves! Now we have it -

Baby's First Christmas Party presents... A Post Christmas Party for Grown-ups!

There’ll be delicious tapas, live music and great company. It’s on Sunday 18th January, at La Concha wine and tapas bar in Letchworth. There’ll also be a charity auction, with some great lots.

Come along—meet some of the people involved in Baby’s First Christmas Party, and bring your friends. That’s what we’re all doing, so there’ll be a great atmosphere—plus it’s all in a very good cause.

Tickets are £10, to include a tapas buffet. Get yours by dropping us a line at info@babysfirstchristmasparty.org, phoning Fay McLean on 07974 665334, or popping into La Concha. We look forward to seeing you there!

£2,500 donation!!

We have just been donated £2,500 by the John Laing Charitable Trust!

This is simply fantastic, and means that, with the online donations so far, we have raised over £3,000 - and all our parties are still yet to happen! Just think how much we might raise altogether. I reckon £5,000 is now within our reach, and I would dearly love to make it to £10,000. It's very ambitious, I know, but wouldn't it be amazing?

Many many thanks to Mick Hamilton for winning us this brilliant boost.

Double your money - a brilliant idea to do just that!

A great new idea for your party: will your (or your partner's) employer "match fund" any money you raise? Many businesses, particularly large ones, will double any money you raise for a charitable cause (usually up to a certain limit). Make sure you check - and you could raise twice as much from your party as you thought! Thanks to Pat Hamilton for this one. Let us know if you've got any more brilliant ideas to boost the funds we raise.

PS Even if you are on maternity leave, you should be eligible, so don't forget to check.

We're in the papers!

Ok, it is the local paper. But it's a good start! Take a look at http://www.thecomet.net/content/comet/news/story.aspx?brand=CMTOnline&category=News&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=newslatestCMT&itemid=WEED06%20Nov%202008%2011%3A14%3A50%3A240 for the full story.

The hosting packs are out

Hosting packs are ready and are going out to those who have registered on our website.

The hosting packs are nearly ready...

I've just taken delivery from enhanceherts of the first tranche of raffle tickets, gift aid forms and other goodies to put in the hosting packs. I'm working on the invitations and "extra attractions" sheets now. So with some printing courtesy of my dad over the weekend we should be ready to stuff envelopes and get them in the post on Monday.

If know you are hosting a party, please make sure you've sent your details to us via the form under "contact us" on the website - www.babysfirstchristmasparty.org. That way you can be in the first wave of packs going out and get planning asap!

Latest news

Progress continues a pace. The website is up at http://www.babysfirstchristmasparty.org/. We are still experiencing a few technical hitches, so please bear with us if you experience any problems - and drop us a line at mailto:info@babysfirstchristmasparty.org to let us know so we can sort them out.

Raffle prizes continue to roll in - a full list to date will be up on the website soon. The first posters are up - around the Lister Hospital site - and I'm off to get some more laminated soon. If you can help with putting them up please let us know. We should be able to manage Letchworth and Baldock, but would love people in Hitchin, Stevanage, Stotfold, Shefford, Fairfield Park, Welwyn, Hatfield etc etc to volunteer to help - if you can, please just drop us a line at the address above.

One final thing - many thanks to my parents in law for offering to foot the bill for postage of all the hosting packs - so three cheers for Pat and Mick Hamilton.

That's all for now I think!
Camilla

Welcome

Welcome to our blog. We're going to post news updates here of parties, fundraising successes, raffle prizes, and more! We'll be updating it regularly, but for further information about baby's first christmas parties, see our website at www.babysfirstchristmasparty.org.