I would love to host a holiday party for my friends. But I never seem to get around to it. Of course, I’ve got a great excuse…most years we have our immediate family Christmas celebration (with the eight kids, their spouses, and now grandkids) that can be quite a few. Furthermore, we’re also the hosts for my wife’s entire family. While the Hectic Clan can pull in close to 20 for the small gathering, we’ve had anywhere from 40 to 120 for the bigger family.
Let me tell you, 120 people is an awful lot of folks to host in your home!
Through the years I’ve learned some tips and tricks about hosting a large Christmas party that I believe are applicable to any celebration, but particularly for one during this time of year. Here in Kansas it’s not like you can send everybody outside if it gets too crowded in the house. Well, you can, but then frostbite and frozen beards become an issue!
So here are some tips to host the perfect holiday party:
Make a Plan
Face it, if you put a plan in place you’re much more likely to be able to get everything done without stressing over every little detail. I happen to be at the mega-planner end of the spectrum. I’ve even got a spreadsheet that I use to determine when I need to be working on various parts of the meal. It’s a huge time-saver, but a little bit overboard.
You need to think about where people are going to sit, congregate, and even throw out their trash. For a small gathering, it’s not all that important, but if you get into numbers that will fill your space, those sorts of details become important.
Shop Early
This time of year can be a crap-shoot at the grocery store. Sometimes they’ll run out of stock of the one ingredient you must have. If you shop early enough, you’ll have a chance to look somewhere else.
I’ve also got a checklist of things that we’re likely to forget. You wouldn’t think that you’d run out of forks…but with 120 people in the house for eight hours, you can go through a lot of forks. And napkins. I’ve got a standard Holiday Shopping List I use. And I try to make the run to the store far enough in advance of the party that I’ve got a couple more opportunities if they’re out of stock!
In fact, think about commandeering the services of your spouse or one of the kids to do some of the shopping. Sure, you have to write a very specific list if you are particular, but if you can be specific enough, it’s one task you can easily delegate.
Shopping early has the added advantage you can avoid crowds and shop when you want, rather than getting boxed into shopping when it’s crazy busy (and most of the shoppers are the clueless spouses and kids everybody else sent at the last minute…)
Cook in Advance
If you’re making a lot of food, think about what you can make in advance.
There are tons of things you can do ahead of a party. One of the favorite appetizers at Hectic Manor are Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts. They are delicious, but take a while to prepare. Plus, whole water chestnuts sell out around holidays. So shop early. Then, wrap the bacon around the water chestnuts and marinade them in the BBQ sauce in zippered bags for days prior to the event. When game time rolls around, pop them in the oven and let them cook.
Same thing goes for mashed potatoes. There’s no rule that you have to cook the potatoes, mash them, and immediately serve them. If you pre-cook them and store in air-tight containers, you can slowly bring them back up to temperature just when you need them.
Think through the foods you’re going to be serving, and see what you can make in advance. Anything you can do before the actual day of the gathering, the easier it will be the day of the party!
Delegate
I’m the king of DIY.
Not in the good sense of doing-it-yourself so that I get some crafty task done. I mean in the bad sense of thinking I have to do everything on my own.
The Hectic Kids are an amazingly capable bunch of folks…and yet I still struggle to ask them to help out. One of the advantages of making a plan and starting early is I’ve usually got a better idea of what things need to be done far enough in advance that I can ask for help. Or, have a good answer when one of the kids says “what can I do to help”.
I’m getting better at delegating tasks, and I’m finally to the point where I’m OK with other people bringing essential parts of the meal. I’ve never had a problem with somebody bringing appetizers or desserts, but I always worried that delegating a part of the main meal would mean we’d have a gaping hole in the table where the stuffing was supposed to be (for instance). I’ve finally decided I’m going to trust people to do what they say, and if we don’t have stuffing one year…well, I think we’ll be OK.
Have Fun
Sure, there’s a ton to do to host a holiday party, let alone the perfect one. But what’s the point if you’re going to stress out? Seriously, the goal of getting together on the holidays isn’t to showcase your talents, but to gather with family and friends to enjoy being together.
So don’t stress. Plan a little. Do a what you can in advance. And then just have the party.
Seriously, don’t have a party if you’re personally not going to have fun.
So get cracking, make it a great day in the kitchen, and then get out there and mingle with the folks you wanted to see!
