The Famous Clayton Christmas Party

We love a good party, and we created a tradition when we bought our first home together. I can’t recall how the conversation started or who truly initiated the idea, but we had a few different parties at our house the first years we moved in. We had an Italian party, Kentucky Derby party and ultimately a Christmas Party. We had a couple Kentucky Derby parties over the years, which were always fun, but it was the Christmas party that really stuck with us. It became our tradition, and without fail from 2012 to 2019 we had an annual Christmas party that built quite the reputation.

Instead of buying each other Christmas gifts, which never made sense to me anyway (it comes from the same bank account!), we decided to use that money on a Christmas party for our friends and family. To us, this made a lot more sense than buying gifts. Michael loves to socialize and I love to cook, so the party was a great present to give each other.

The invitations to the famous Clayton Christmas Party became a little coveted for those in the know. We were only able to invite a certain number of people, because our house would be packed to the brim. Every year we would send out 60 invitations an generally we would have anywhere from 45-60 people in attendance. It was about all our house could take! I’d played around with the idea of setting up a tent in the backyard so I could expand the guest list, but then we sold our house and bought the farm.

When Covid rolled around in 2020, we didn’t have the party, and we’ll miss out on the party again this year, since we don’t have a house…I have big plans for the return of the Christmas party for 2022. If we don’t have a house built by then, or another structure…I will rent a wedding tent and will have a big Christmas party in the field!

I think people really responded to our Christmas party, not so much because we’re just so popular and cool (haha), but because I think our society has gotten away from some of these types of traditions in favor of smaller gatherings, if at all. We ask guests to dress up a little bit, we decorate, put out tables, some Christmas music and serve a full dinner. We don’t really do anything special, other than that, but I think people sense the warmth and love we put into it, and enjoy just talking to friends and new acquaintances. Our little bubbles of community come together, and sometimes some of our friends make surprising connections with other guests.

A lot of our vision for the farm was born out of our love for our Christmas party and seeing so much joy in our friends and family. We hope the farm will become a special place where these traditions can continue and expand out even further into our community.