I think that Christmas decs would be lovely then. Most people I know put their own Christmas decorations up over the Thanksgiving weekend and most stores have already started putting them up! So, I think your guests would think them perfectly normal and enjoy seeing yours.
Lynn

If it were me, I'd leave up a few fall decorations just so the house didn't look bare, but put the focus on the party.

I think you can go in either direction. Christmas decorations will add to the festive atmosphere. We typically decorate the weekend after Thanksgiving. Even though it's not a holiday party, it is the beginning of the season. Many of your neighbors will probably have things out as well.

Christmas! We have an extended family Christmas party (over 200 people) at a hall each year the weekend following Thanksgiving. The hall is decorated for Christmas. No matter what their clients are celebrating it is decorated for Christmas. I agree the Christmas decorations will only add to the party and if you don't already, use a lot of gold decor for their 50th! And congratulations to your parents!

I wouldn't decorate at all unless you want to have a big "Happy 50th!" banner or something similar. If you have some fall decor out go ahead and leave it but I wouldn't add more or change it to Christmas. It's an anniversary party not a holiday party.

Congrats to your folks!

I'd vote for semi-Christmas! Garlands, pine cones, poinsettias and sparkly things would be great. Less Santa and Nativity scene. I'd agree that lots of gold (and silver) would be fabulous and festive.

We always decorate for Christmas early because it's so much better for my attitude. Gets 'decorate for Christmas' off my mental To Do List, and helps me turn on the Christmas spirit and turn of the 'gotta do' attitude.

I would think the Christmas would be very nice!

How was their wedding decorated? Does the couple love Christmas? Take them into consideration.

ML

I think it's fine to have your Christmas decorations up for the party. Homes always look so festive and inviting when they are decorated for the holidays. I probably wouldn't put my tree up, though, just because it takes up a lot of floor space that you might need for that many guests.

No question in my mind.......full holiday regalia! But then I'm a Christmas kind of gal :)

I would go festive for Christmas.
I'm a Christmas kind of gal too!

Way too early for Christmas. Plus when they were married, people didn't decorate for Christmas a month or more in advance, so I am guessing they didn't have Christmas-y decor for their wedding.

Keep up some fall decorations. Since it is the 50th, add in touches of gold with the fall colors, which will be lovely.

Save the Christmas decor for after the party.

Thanks for all the opinions and ideas. As much as I'd love to get my Christmas decorating done and my house decked out for company, I think it would be more appropriate to honor the anniversary. As Les917 mentioned, no Christmas decorating was done right after Thanksgiving 50 years ago, so my parents certainly don't think Christmas when talking about their wedding day. I hadn't thought about all the gold decor for the 50th(clearly I need help). I think if I bring in more gold and sparkly items it will spruce up the house. Any more ideas would be appreciated.

Whatever you decide, I would do lots of white mini Christmas lights on cabinet tops and maybe in a real or fake indoor tree. Also, I would do lots of faux Christmas branches with pine cones and lights on cabinet tops or on the stairwell - just festive, but not necessarily red and green. I'm glad someone mentioned gold. That would be easy to incorporate. Congrats to your parents and good luck with the party planning!

They also didn't have mini quiches for hors d'oeuvres, California wines or computer printed invitations, lol. And everybody smoked. Decorate for Christmas or not as you wish, but if you want to evoke the era maybe a 60s theme would be fun!

It depends on how much Christmas you are talking about, perhaps? If I decorated for Christmas the party would have to be small!! I would decorate for a 50th. Find out what their wedding looked like, colors etc.. A few fall items to fill it out would be nice. Back in the day maybe colors weren't as prominent as they are now so go with RED the color for a 50th!

The important consideration is your time. Will you have the time to change decorations right after Thx and before this party? Will it add additional stress to you to be switching things around when you should be/could be/need to be doing something else to prepare for 100 guests? Are you okay with xmas decor during your thx meal if you have to do the decorating early?

I like the idea of lots of sparkle and lights and gold and white - things that can be incorporated into your xmas look so you aren't decorating for fall, then re-decorating for the party, and then re-re-decorating for xmas. Save yourself as many steps as you can.

I'm also in the decorate for a 50th anniversary camp. Why diminish the effect by adding Christmas stuff? Years ago we did a big 50th for our parents, including hiring a small band that played period music. We decided on a gold theme, with navy accents, and got tons of compliments on the decor. it was very glitzy! we had an endless loop tv slideshow going in one room with pictures of their lives, we had reproduction white and gold matchbooks made of the ones from their wedding - even though few smoked anymore -great for lighting candles...some tasteful gold mylar banners made up of "50th", spray painted gold branches in gold urns.....and on and on and on - we had so much fun planning, and it turned out amazing!

Yes -- a fun gold-and-some-glitz decor would really set the mood for a 50th anniversary! (and be a great start for the Holiday Season!)

We created a whole table full of old photos of our parents, all kinds of kid photos, shots of family and friends from long-ago and even their old house photos! LOTS of fun passing those photos around and recalling old stories from the neighbourhood! :)

And yes -- older tunes on the music selection would be lovely too! :)

And some classic menu items -- cold spicy tomato aspic mold filled with a fresh light dip and serve surrounded with cold shrimp or veggies.

And wonderful meatballs in a sweet/spicy sauce! :)

Check some of the classic cookbooks of the time! :)

You can do lots of gold accents with fall decor, and gold would be beautiful with fall decor and the golden anniversary as well.
The 50th is so special, I would not do Christmas decor unless it was the very same week as Christmas.

Let the day be about your Parents special golden anniversary. just my two cents.

Thanks again for many wonderful ideas. I'm going to go with some fall items along with many gold and glitzy things. Thanks for the reminders to add some white lighting - I will finally add the rope lighting that I have been meaning to put above my kitchen cabinets. My mother loves the gold and glitz, so I'm sure she'll love it. I also hadn't thought about music-that will be something my husband can do. Thanks again for the inspiration and well wishes.

Hi Crazyhouse6...sounds perfect!

For my parents 50th this summer, I also did playlists with all of the music from their earlier days together.
I also did CD's with a smaller selection of music for each couple to take home...they all loved it. (made CD covers and stamped with shells as it was a beach theme for event held at parents cottage) Everyone called that week to say how many memories came back to them from the music. Put your hubby to work:)

Here's the music we did for the CD's (ok...there are a few songs that are not from that era, but I wanted to include)
. Have fun planning this special event!

1. What A Wonderful World � Louis Armstrong (parents Fave)
2. At Last � Etta James
3. As Time Goes By � Tony Bennett
4. Mack The Knife � Bobby Darin
5. Come Rain or Come Shine � Ray Charles
6. Unforgettable � Nat King Cole & Natalie Cole
7. Dream a Little Dream � Glee Cast
8. I�ve Got the World On a String � Michael Buble
9. Ain�t That a Kick In the Head � Dean Martin

10. Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered � Rod Stewart
11. The Way You Look Tonight � Frank Sinatra
12. Let�s Stay Together � Al Green
13. Stand By Me �Ben E. King
14. Fly Me to the Moon � Frank Sinatra
15. Fever (Live) � Michael Buble
16. Steppin� Out With My Baby � Tony Bennett
17. For Once in My Life � Michael Buble
18. Every Mother�s Son � Matt Dusk
19. The Way I Am � Ingrid Michaelson
20. Somewhere Over the Rainbow � Israel Kamakawiwo�ole
21. Say Hey (I Love You) � Michael Franti & Spearhead

Great sugggestions, including Lisa's music list and gift CD idea.

Since you are sticking with the fall/gold theme, you might get some card stock in fall colors (deep brown, burgundy, deep green) and cut out some larger maple or oak leaf shapes. Have these stacked on a table with some Sharpie or other pens with gold ink and a finer tip, and a sign that asks everyone to write a quick note or memory on the leaf, and put their names on those.

You could then put together a scrapbook for your parents after the party, including pix of the event, a copy of the invitation, a pocket on one page with a copy of the CD of songs and a printed play list. Have the leaves scattered and overlapping just a bit on the pages throughout the book so that they can read them. A wedding pix and a 'now' pix of them would be nice, too.

If you can find out what kind of flowers she carried, you could have some of those put into a corsage for her and a boutonniere for your Dad, as well as a centerpiece on the refreshments table.

It's the day after thanksgiving........ so obviously full Christmas....... but there is no reason you can't do Anniversary too!

Just looked at the playlist...all the symbols-strange...
Guess you can't copy/paste something with a basic bullet point between songs/artist as you end up with these symbols. Go figure...

The dozen best hit songs of 1961 (my personal selection):

I Count the Tears - The Drifters
Angel Baby - Rosie and the Originals
Dedicated to the One I Love - The Shirelles
Runaway - Del Shannon
Blue Moon - The Marcels
Rama Lama Ding Dong - The Edsels
Heart and Soul - The Cleftones
Life Is but a Dream - The Earls
The Mountain's High - Dick and Deedee
Runaround Sue - Dion
The Wanderer - Dion and the Belmonts
Let Me In - The Sensations

You guys are awesome! Love the additional suggestions and the music lists. Party planning is not my thing, so this has me a bit stressed out. Your help is greatly appreciated.

If you have time between Thanksgiving and Saturday while prepping for your party then go for it - more power to you! I don't think people will be worried about the decorations, and the event sounds lovely.

Great music selections everyone! I'm adding them to my playlist!

I whole heartedly agree with the suggestions for gold, glitter and white lights. As for fall or Christmas themed decor, you could go either way, but why not incorporate the colors from their wedding instead? Does your mother have a favorite color or a particular color dress she plans to wear? In photos it would look lovely if the decorations complimented her outfit.

The weekend after Thanksgiving everything changes to Christmas in our family. Always has. We have 2 grandchildren whos birthdays are Christmas eve, we wind up putting up balloons and multicolored streamers in the dining room, its comical, because all around the rest of the house its Christmas. Its the way it turned out, this is the season they were born in. Since its the start of Christmas season go for it, I would wait on putting up the tree though. I agree with others, silver and golds and sparkles would really bring in the festive elegant glow an anniversary party should have anyway.

I just thought I'd follow up and share a few pictures from right before the big event. The party was wonderful. We fit all 27 of us into the dining area of our kitchen. It was cozy and loud, just like our family. After dinner, we surprised my parents and about 60 more family and friends arrived to celebrate their anniversary. Thanks for all the advice. Now on to Christmas decorating...

It all looks lovely! I am sure your parents were thrilled, and touched.

It looks so gorgeous, elegant, glowing and festive.
The gold and cream colors
compliment your warm wood tones beautifully.
It's like being wrapped in a warm and cozy golden
blanket.
Again, gorgeous and well done.

Joann