Complete Guide to a Perfect Christmas Party

A Complete Guide to a Perfect Christmas Party

Christmas is a magical time when everyone is supposed to enjoy spending time with their family and friends. However, if you are hosting a Christmas party in your home, it can also be a stressful period. You need to take care of the decoration, food, beverages, entertainment and a dozen of other things. If you are facing a challenge like this, and you feel like you’ve lost sight of the merry and jingly part of Christmas because of all of the chores, here are a few tips that will help you organize a perfect fuss-free holiday party everyone will talk about for years to come.

Get the entire family involved

You know how they say: the more – the merrier. The same goes for preparing the Christmas party. Get the entire family, starting from toddlers to your spouse involved. Give a special task to everyone. Someone can help with the food (making cookies is fun), somebody else can pick up the groceries, while others decorate the house and set the table.

Create the right atmosphere

Christmas is all about the atmosphere, and there are three ways you can introduce that special holiday spirit into your home.

●        Decorations: choose a holiday color combination; you can go with classic red and gold or blue and silver. Mix in some white and green, and you will get the ideal elegant setting. You can have small centerpieces with pine branches and candles on the dinner table and garlands on the staircase and windows.

●        Lighting: if you have light dimmers than half of your work is already done. All you need after that are some candles and Christmas string lights.

●        Scents: you know how people sometimes say that a house smells of Christmas? Introduce that feel by using scented candles (apple and cinnamon are a great combination) or by using air refreshments.

Prepare the outdoor area

You want your home to make a good impression on your guests, right? Well, then you must make the first impression great. You will do this by setting an awesome outdoor decoration. You don’t need to go overboard, though. Some string lights and maybe a reindeer or two will be enough. However, you do need to make sure your guests are safe and set up a non-slip rubber matting in front of the front door, because the weather can be pretty wet during this period. 

Pick the menu

Unless you have some serious help in the kitchen you should make your menu as simple as possible, so that you can tackle all the kitchen tasks simultaneously. At the beginning of the evening you will need appetizers. Instead of preparing something extravagant, you can simply serve a cheese platter with the addition of some thyme, sun-dried tomato and garlic. Fondue is also an interesting holiday starter that will keep your guests warm on this chilly night. As for the main course, most of them take long hours to cook, but the preparation can be short. Try with bone-in ham, roast beef, roast lamb, or roast turkey. A simple side dish can be anything ranging from light salad and roasted sautéed greens to sweet potatoes and roasted white potatoes. Finish with a delicious dessert like bread pudding, apple pie or parfait.

Prepare the beverages

Sure, you can serve juice, water and wine for a Christmas dinner party, but try to be a bit more creative than that. Prepare a drink that is a true symbol of this merry holiday. If we are talking about non-alcoholic beverages, that can be hot chocolate or a non-alcoholic cocktail. If you want to spice things up with the addition of alcohol, you can prepare the traditional mulled wine, punch, hazelnut toddy, or just add a splash of rum or bourbon to your hot chocolate.

With these tips you will definitely organize the best Christmas party. Just don’t forget to keep everything simple so that you don’t have to work too much, but still try to retain the Christmassy feel of it all.