Hosting Tips for Preparing a Holiday Dinner or Party

With a little planning and preparation, you'll feel ready to welcome your guests with open arms. Here's a sample to-do list that I used when hosting Christmas dinner.

Making one's guests feel comfortable and welcomed is the goal of every good host or hostess. If the host is feeling frazzled, disorganized, or even looks disheveled, guests can feel awkward and unwelcome, like they are intruding on your time. To help make everyone feel comfortable and ready for a good time, a host or hostess should be prepared. In my experience, most of the work for hosting a party or gathering is done in the days leading up to the actual event! Keep reading to see how I managed to cook for and host 18 people for Christmas dinner.

Sample Holiday Menu for a Family Gathering

Planning and cooking Christmas Dinner is a memorable and gratifying way to share the love with your family. Here is my sample menu, with links to the recipes that I followed.

I mentioned in my last post that my husband and I were honored to host Christmas Day at our house this past year. Like most writers, I am an introspective person-- so although the holidays are behind us, I like to reflect back on how things went and what I learned from hosting 18 people (14 adults!) for a holiday gathering in our home. It was a Christmas miracle! The day went very well, and my guests seemed to really enjoy the holiday menu that I had prepared.

The key to the day's success (aside from being a Christmas miracle!) is that I spent a lot of time planning and preparing. I once mentioned that I had a former music teacher who was fond of saying, "You're only nervous if you're unprepared," and it's true-- careful planning and preparation really are the key. In a future post, I plan to provide a detailed schedule and timeline of the to-do list that helped make this holiday dinner a success.

Celebrating 2016 as Classy Local turns 3!

The Classy Local blog turns three as we enter a brand new year.

Hello again to my few but fabulous readers! I hope that the winter holidays were a time of happiness, memory-making, and joy. December was a busy month for us, as my husband and I spent nearly every available moment visiting with friends and family. This naturally leads to another decrease in blogging, but I am so thrilled to be able to share in future posts all of the lessons and ideas that I've appreciated during this time. My husband and I were honored to have the opportunity of hosting family at our home Christmas Day (14 adults and 4 kids!), and despite our cozy (read: tiny) living space, I am really thrilled and happy with how wonderful everything was. In a future post, I plan to break down my newly learned tips on how to host and cook for a major holiday gathering.

Hosting Made Simple

It's ok to keep things simple when hosting an event.

I have a habit of overextending myself sometimes. Which is why, in the middle of the busiest and final weeks of the college semester, I decided to repaint my basement, volunteer for a local event's publicity committee, and host a 30th birthday party for my husband.

What was I thinking!

Fortunately, I have become rather adept at managing times of crisis. One of the newer lessons that I've learned is that you absolutely do not have to do everything yourself.

Modern-day etiquette dilemma: who pays at a birthday dinner?

Sources offer contradicting points of view, so the most important thing is to communicate the issue with your guests.

Recently, I planned a small celebration with friends and family for my husband's 30th birthday. After realizing that it would be impractical for me to cook for and serve twenty guests in my own home, I decided to have the dinner at a local restaurant.

At first, I was a bit nervous about this aspect of party planning. If I was not cooking for this group, would I then be expected to pick up the check for everyone?

Even Emily Post could not give me a clear answer.

Learn to Cook

Being able to prepare delicious meals, regardless of their complexity level, is an essential element of living well. When you understand what goes into preparing a meal, it makes you more appreciative of what's on your plate. Being able to prepare and serve meals is a wonderful talent that is meant to be shared.

In addition to being a great hostess, my grandmother was (and all of my German relatives are) wonderful in the kitchen. Thankfully I have inherited this skill! But if you don't know how to cook, or perhaps you're not skilled at it, I urge you to learn! Practice, practice, practice. My aunt (on my father's side) does catering for small events. (She's in her 70s!) When people ask her what her secret is, she simply states, "If you can read, honey, you can cook." It's simple, but true. Cooking is mainly about following directions. Buy a simple cookbook and practice the recipes. When you feel confident with simple recipes, try experimenting! Add a new spice or seasoning. Try substituting shrimp for crab meat. That sort of thing. As with most new skills, practice makes perfect.

Hosting Lessons from Germany

 

The French aren't the only ones who understand comme il faut. 

French women get all the credit when it comes to throwing chic parties and entertaining.

Perhaps one of the most familiar gurus of French living is Mireille Guiliano, author of “French Women Don’t Get Fat.” This book was released in 2004 and quickly landed on the New York Times bestseller list. Clearly, we fat Americans are hungry for some cultural nourishment.

Yet most of my experience in living well comes from my German relatives. My mother's mother, Gertrude, immigrated from Germany in the summer of 1948. Fortunately, I still have relatives in Germany that I visit every few years. These visits are what kindled my interest in travel, culture, language, beer, food, and so much more.

One of the things that I remember about my grandmother, who passed away when I was 10 years old, is her understanding of there being a "right" way to do things. I was too young to identify whether or not she was a perfectionist (my mother would probably say yes, yes she was), but I remember things were done very deliberately in her home. There were certain expectations and unwritten rules to follow. A lot of these rules revolved around how you treat other people when they are in your home. Although I have many memories of how Grandma (we did not call her Oma) liked to do certain things, there are two very important concepts that I especially remember and that I try to practice today.