Forced Bulb Christmas Party Favors & Hostess Gifts

Forced bulbs make beautiful and unexpected Christmas party favors, especially when presented in unique, festive ways. You can also create a memorable hostess gift basket with flowering bulbs and other garden-themed gifts.

‘Tis the season for holiday parties. And whether you’re hosting or attending, it’s always a good idea to have a ready stable of ideas for Christmas party favors and hostess gifts.

I’ve got you covered on both accounts — with free printable gift bags and and festive ideas for giving forced flowering bulbs.

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Christmas tree ornaments, wine, and edible treats are the typical go-to party gift this time of year. And while they’re lovely gifts, I really wanted to showcase something different for this month’s Mingle & Jingle Holiday Soiree — a virtual progressive dinner organized by my friend Shelly at ConfettiStyle. (Wasn’t her dessert divine? I can’t wait to try the recipe.) Be sure you visit all the participating blogs, linked at the end of this post, for the full holiday party menu and table decorating ideas.

Christmas Party Favors

My inspiration for these Christmas party favors comes from the Art of Doing Stuff, who recently shared a tutorial for making wax-dipped amaryllis bulbs. Hers were so beautiful that I had to make my own.

Aren’t they stunning? And yes, these bulbs will still flower after they’ve been waxed. Karen’s tutorial will walk you through the process of making the waxed bulbs, so I won’t repeat the steps here.

But I will offer a few lessons I learned after making two batches of these. My second batch of bulbs turned out better than the first because I kept the wax over heat while I worked. This is key to a smooth finish with fewer drips and clumps. (Thanks to Karen for helping me troubleshoot the issue on Instagram!)

You can heat the wax over the stove, using a double boiler method, or you can use a paraffin wax bath, which is what I did the second go-around. This worked really well for me. I wouldn’t buy a paraffin bath just to make these bulbs, but I happened to have an extra one leftover from my spring coffee filter cabbages project.

While the glittery waxed bulbs are pretty on their own, I thought it would be fun to create some printable bulb bags to use as custom packing for them.

You can print these vintage botanical images at home on a regular sheet of 8X11 paper, then fold them into party favor bags.

These are similar to the vintage seed catalog party favor bags I shared in the spring. For this post, I’ve included new imagery of flowering bulbs on the bags. I also modified the design of the amaryllis bags to fit the larger bulbs.

I’m including three bulb bag printables in this post, featuring some of my favorite flowers to force in the winter. Click on the links below to download the printable bags.

Paperwhites Bulb Bag

Hyacinth Bulb Bag

Amaryllis Bulb Bag

If you want even more free designs, sign up for my newsletter and I’ll email you all 17 printable bulb bags. You’ll get six amaryllis designs, seven paperwhite designs and four hyacinth designs.

Once you download them and print them, you can fold them into bags, following the instructions in this post.

Fill the bags with flowering bulbs, fold over the tops, punch two holes and thread them with festive ribbon.

I made some personalized ribbon using my Brother P-Touch Embellish ribbon and labelmaker. Such a nice touch! You could also personalize the ribbon with your party guests’ names.

(If you don’t have time to DIY them, you can purchase already waxed amaryllis bulbs, but they’re crazy expensive. Another option would be to use regular amaryllis bulbs. They’re not as festive, but they’re still pretty when they bloom.)

Garden-Themed Hostess Gift

For the hostess gift, I created a gift basket around the same theme.

I filled a thrifted basket with shredded wood excelsior, added two waxed amaryllis bulbs, a bag of paperwhite bulbs, and some pretty leather gardening gloves.

I also included a gardening-themed Christmas ornament, a tin of homemade gardeners’ hand salve and a floral-scented homemade lotion bar.

I love that this gift basket features an assortment of items handmade by me.

I would love to receive a hostess gift with so many thoughtful, homemade touches. In addition to the DIY items, I was able to round out the hostess gift basket with items from my gift stash, all of them purchased on sale. Now you know why I’m such a proponent of shopping after-Christmas sales.

For more Holiday party ideas, visit the rest of the hostesses on the Mingle & Jingle virtual progressive dinner blog hop:

Cocktails: Viva La Vintage for Your Home

Appetizers: M. Jones Style

Tablescape: Home on Poplar Creek

Main Course: Positively Southern

Dessert: ConfettiStyle