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Planning a Christmas Dinner Party

Christmas is about spending time with family and friends to share the blessings of the season. One way to do that is hosting a Christmas dinner party for your friends. Here are a few tips when it comes to planning the perfect party for the holidays.

A Christmas dinner party is an elegant affair. People get a chance to dress up and mingle with coworkers and other friends in an adult setting. It is as much fun as it is formal.

1.      Invite guests at least three weeks in advance. The Christmas engagement calendar fills up fast and you want to get your dinner party on the roster. Host a Christmas dinner party for your office department. For a dinner party that is purely personal, invite friends and their dates or spouses. Specify on the invitation that it is for adults only. This gives everyone time to find a sitter for their children.

2.      Plan the menu. On the invitation ask if anyone has any special dietary concerns. There could be vegetarians in the group but here we are more concerned with food allergies or conditions such as diabetes. Plan the food courses accordingly so no one feels left out.

3.      If everyone hasn’t responded a week out from the Christmas dinner party, contact them with a quick message just in case they forgot. For sit down formal dinners having an accurate head count is necessary to be sure there is enough food for everyone. As a standard rule of thumb, allot at least two pounds of food per person attending the dinner party.

4.      Decide on cooking or catering. There is nothing wrong with catering a dinner party. Cooking can be an all day affair and no one wants to be stuck in the kitchen during their own dinner party. The host or hostess wants to mingle with the rest of the guests. If you decide to cook, keep the menu simple and opt for a buffet presentation instead of table service.

5.      Set up the table and decorate a day in advance. This way, if anything is missing, there is time to go out and find it. Leave glasses until the last minute so they don’t gather lint and dust particles overnight. After setting the table, go ahead and clean up a bit especially in the common areas where guests will be mingling.

6.      Lay out the food a half hour before guests arrive. If a caterer is handling the affair there are no worries there. For a home cooked buffet style dinner party, light the liquid fuel under the food pans half an hour before guest arrive so the food will be warm.

An elegant dinner party is a nice way to get to know coworkers away from the office or to relax with friends you don’t see much of during the year. Everyone has a chance to show off their best holiday clothes and share a few laughs.