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.