With the warmer months well and truly here, sunny, outdoor Christmas picnics provide a weather appropriate (yet festive) way to get together with family and friends this year.

Read on to discover the Top 6 Unique Christmas Picnic Ideas for the swiftly approaching festive season.

1) Secret Santa Picnic

The premise behind the Secret Santa Picnic is simple; friends (or family) gather together in an outdoor space, eat food and exchange gifts.

We recommend clarifying who will be buying for whom a couple weeks before the picnic (as well as setting a price limit), and then joining together for a gift giving, food eating ceremony in the park.

Larger groups may be interested in ‘Yankee Swap’ a -slightly controversial- variation of the game popularised by The Office, in which each player is given a number. The player with the number 1 begins the gift exchange by choosing and unwrapping a present, as does the player with the number ‘2’, however the latter is able to choose to keep their gift or swap with the person prior. This continues until each player unwraps a gift, either choosing to keep it or exchange it with the prior opener’s gift.

Use your picnic day as an excuse for Secret Santa.

2) Turn Your Picnic Into a Gourmet Potluck

Just because you’re (literally) eating on the ground shouldn’t mean you can’t eat in style.

Swap out the mini party pies and fairy bread (not that there’s a single thing wrong with fairy bread, thank you very much) for some slightly bougier finger food options, or if you want to kick things up a notch (it is the holiday season after all), transform your picnic day into a potluck extravaganza (while we’re on the topic of potlucks, check out how to host the perfect dinner party here).

While having your friends transport home cooked dishes to a park for an outdoor potluck is neither the simplest nor most practical of feats, we assure you, it can be done.

The key to success in the ways of outdoor potlucks is to ensure that all food brought along is easy to transport (see here for simple -yet delicious- no fuss gourmet picnic food), and to set up shop on a relatively flat surface so you can enjoy your delicious spread, sans mess.

For something a little fancier, transform your picnic with friends into a potluck event.

3) Get Creative With an Arts and Crafts Picnic

If you’re seeking a way to spice up your get togethers for Christmas, look no further than an arts and crafts picnic, perfect for skilful creatives and those who haven’t wielded a paintbrush since primary school alike.

Not only will partaking in an activity such as painting, pottery or crocheting add a unique twist to your picnic day, you’ll each have a little memorabilia to bring home with you - or depending on your artistic capabilities, a Christmas gift for a loved one, perhaps.

For a unique picnic twist, set up shop in a park with your friends and get your arts and crafts on.

4) Pack All the Pillows

We understand, it’s hot, and pillows aren’t at the forefront of anyone’s mind when planning a Summer picnic in the Southern Hemisphere.

Warmer weather, however, should not equate to a less cosy picnic event.

In lieu of a rug, ask your fellow picnic goers to bring along with them multiple outdoor pillows and blankets, and fashion a large, comfy surface to spend a hazy afternoon under the warmth of the sun on.

Bring plenty of pillows and blankets to your picnic, even if it’s warm.

5) Get Creative With Your Drinks

A picnic in the park may not be the place for sipping a crisp pale ale from the tap, however, there’s no need to resort to the dreaded room temperature rosé (that’s been constrained to the depths of your warm handbag on the train for 14 minutes) just yet.

Get your hands on some large bottles (while glass tastes better, we’d go with plastic for practical purposes), fill them with your own home made cocktails, and bring along plenty of ice cubes in a plastic container (wrapped in plenty of tin foil for insulation) to add to cups when you get to your destination.

To make the cocktails more aesthetic (naturally amplifying the fanciness of your picnic), add small pieces of fruit to your ice trays - now your cocktails will be refreshingly cold and pretty.

Dial things up a notch at your picnic with some home made cocktails.

6) Relax, and Opt For a Mystery Picnic

If you’re seeking a fuss free, pre-organised picnic experience, let us introduce to you a little thing we like to call AmazingCo Mystery Picnics, the definitive answer to your planning woes.

The Mystery Picnic -which likens itself to a giant, adventure and food filled scavenger hunt, so you already know it’s possibly the best thing ever- takes care of every aspect of your picnic day, from where you’ll go, to what you’ll eat.

So what is a Mystery Picnic, we hear you ask inquisitively? The experience leads you and your friends (or family, or partner) on a self guided adventure where you’ll need to solve clues and riddles to discover the whereabouts of multiple boutique food stores in the area at which you collect delicious picnic pieces.

When you’ve collected your food, you’ll make your way to a scenic picnic location to enjoy the fruits of your labour.