Holiday Entertaining

Last weekend we hosted a holiday cocktail party.  Even though it's a lot of work that requires days of prep for a few hours of enjoyment, I do love to entertain and share our home with others.  I especially love having people over during the holidays.  Our cottagey home always feels extra cozy during this time. Plus, we spend so much time and energy working on our house, it's nice to actually be able to enjoy it.

Last year, the hubs and I hosted a Wine and Cheese party.  This was a super easy theme (I love themed events) and was rather inexpensive to pull off.  I bought a few new things at Home Goods like a tablecloth and runner, as well as some candle holders that fit the gray and white color scheme I was going for based off of our china.  I then pulled different white and gray dishes and serving platters and set the table.  
Of course, no party is complete without labels for each cheese so our guests knew what they were sampling.  

We also set up the "bar" using some wedding gifts.  I asked each guest to bring a bottle of their favorite wine for everyone else to try.  It was fun to test out different wines we otherwise may not have tried.  The evening was a great success.

With this event being such a fun night, we decided to host another get-together this year to kick off the Christmas season.  Once we chose a date, we began with a simple evite.  It's a nice compromise between an informal Facebook invite and a formal hand-written invitation.  My next step was to brainstorm on a theme and different ideas.  I knew I wanted to do something low-key like last year, so I began by searching Pinterest for some ideas.  It didn't disappoint. 

I decided I wanted a hot chocolate/tea/cider/coffee bar.  The best part about this was that I didn't have to buy anything and used whatever we had.  I collected some of my white serving trays and tin buckets I got in the $1 section at Target last summer, added a sugar bowl and stirrers and then, of course, the fun stuff like M&M's, shaved chocolate and marshmallows. This was all set up in our renovated laundry room which connects the mudroom and kitchen.  It was the perfect spot to display everything.

For dessert, I made a quick batch of Monkey Munch (or Puppy Chow).  I don't use nearly as much powdered sugar though so mine isn't as white.  I put that in an over-sized vase and tied a red ribbon around it to make it somehwat festive.  I also served some store bought chocolate chip cookies in a matching vase.  Anything can make a statement when it's served in a pretty way.

 

This was the easy part.  For the apps, I combed through dozens of recipes, but nothing seemed right.  I knew we'd have our standards of cheese, crackers, and veggies, as well as Dan's famous buffalo chicken dip, but I was stumped as to what else to serve.  Eventually, we decided to do a cold cut platter and then ordered a tray of sausage, peppers, and onions from a local catering place.  I knew we could do the cold cuts ourselves for less money, but figured that by the time we got all the ingredients for the sausage, peppers, and onions, as well as the time it would take to cook, we'd be at about the same price so we ended up just ordering that.  

A few days before the party, we began to set up the tables and finalize the decor.  This ensures that my obsessive self is happy with the way things are placed once party time rolls around.  I often find myself switching things up last minute, so this gives me time to ponder different set-ups and displays.

While we should have started the next part earlier, the night before the party, we went grocery shopping and then pulled out all of our dishes and glasses and ran everything through the dishwasher. 

We had also waited to clean the house until rather late.  Normally, I'd have the house cleaned from top to bottom at least 2-3 days before the party so at that point our only focus is on the details.

Also, earlier in the week, I had decided I wanted to serve a festive drink called the Poinsettia.  Instead of pre-making it (and because it was served with champagne and it's best to add that in just before drinking), I printed and framed the recipe and left it out on the bar.  It worked perfectly, and the drink was delicious!

We spent the day of the party cleaning and then finally started on food prep.  We finished everything with about 15 minutes to spare.  Phew! Here's how the final details came together:

 

The party was a success.  We did end up having a ton of food and drinks left over, so at least we didn't have to go grocery shopping for awhile.  Now to start brainstorming ideas for next year's shindig!

Be well,