Tools and Tips for Holiday Entertaining

Hello, everyone!  How was your Thanksgiving?  Mine was wonderful with lots of food, family and conversation.  Now that Thanksgiving 2018 is over and the Christmas season is upon us, I am being somewhat retrospective and thought I would share some things I have learned through the years of holiday entertaining, actually entertaining in general, that might be helpful to you as you move into the holiday season.

~Most of the following I will be writing about is not very glamorous but, I hope it will be helpful nonetheless and since some of the material is not very pretty I may be inserting holiday photos in a  "poetic license" sort of way ;).

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My first and foremost entertaining tool for any gathering at any time of the year is a second refrigerator.  I know refrigerators are pricey items and are a luxury but, if you can find a basic model on sale, I promise you will find it to be worth its weight in gold as you navigate through your holiday entertaining.  My second refrigerator is in the basement.  If I had one extra special wish, it would be that the refrigerator would have been able to fit in the garage to lesson the amount of times I have had to go up and down the stairs. Aside from that little wish, my second refrigerator is a life-saver during these entertaining times.  I can make extra ice and store it, make casseroles ahead of time and stash all that food away until I am ready to prepare or serve it. It even helps when your guests bring casseroles or desserts that need to be kept cold until they are ready to be served.  As I said--a life-saver!

The second item(s) I find invaluable over the holidays are fold-up tables and chairs.  I have a few tables and chairs of my own but, for Thanksgiving this year there were 19 of us so, I needed to borrow a few more from my son and daughter-in-law. Comfortable seating for your guests is an important component to any event so, it is best to plan ahead.  Thankfully, Christmas entertaining often is the carrying-a-little-plate-of-appetizers-around-as-you-mingle type of entertaining but, Christmas dinner is another story so, you might need to want to look for extra seating~

Other tools I find very helpful when entertaining large crowds are crock pots and tabletop electric hotplates.  These items are great for keeping food warm and making more room for the prep area of your kitchen.  This Thanksgiving I cooked, mashed and whipped the potatoes before my guests arrived.  I placed them in a large crock pot and set the whole assembly in an area out of the way until it was time for them to be served.  They were warm and quite delicious, if I do say so myself :).

My advice concerning these kind of items is to think ahead, get them out of storage and have them all washed and ready before the day of your event.  Place them in an easily accessible spot where they can be grabbed when needed.
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On the same note, I like to get all my specialty and pretty serving dishes together so they are accessible, as well.  The holidays are the perfect time to use all those beautiful platters and serving pieces you have been collecting all these years.  Plus, I find as guests arrive with their contributions to the meal, they may have forgotten to bring a dish in which to serve their appetizer or, even dessert so, it is great to be able to say, "I've got it covered."  It makes everyone more relaxed.

This next one is somewhat of a no-brainer but, here I go.  Setting up a designated beverage space is a nice thing to do, as well.  It doesn't necessarily have to be a large area but, if you can set up the beverage spot away from the cooking and prepping place, it can be very helpful and give you more breathing room in the kitchen. As with most hostesses, I find everyone congregates around the island in my kitchen.  It just so happens that this is where I serve my appetizers, as well.  So, having a side table set-up for drinks really helps move some of the traffic away from that area of the kitchen.  Make sure you have lots of ice, mixers, cut-up lemons and limes and glasses available for your guests.  This is something that can easily be set-up before your guests arrive lessening the last minute stress that always seems to come no matter what you do!

I don't really want to admit this for many reasons, not the least of which would be environmental but, it was very helpful this Thanksgiving considering the large crowd we had to use sturdy paper plates for the main meal.  I don't usually do this.  I usually use my fine china but, I have an elderly mom who needed to be driven home (by my husband and myself) several hours away soon after our meal.  Therefore, I was going to be leaving behind the messy task of clean-up for my children and I didn't want to make it harder on them.  They were so sweet to offer.  I really do have great kids.  As I left my house, my son was hand washing my silverware.  Imagine that!

Another invaluable item I just discovered is, of all things, clear garbage bags.  I have to say my husband and I fell upon this one by accident.  We usually use white garbage bags to line the waste bucket but quite by accident, we purchased the clear ones this time around.  While putting away the silverware I discovered I was missing a spoon.  My husband soon set out to search through the garbage for the missing spoon, not a fun job!  Within minutes he had found it thanks to the clear bags.  He didn't even have to manually rummage through the gross garbage.  As I said, not very glamorous!

I know this isn't a photo of a garbage bag.  I just wasn't going to go there :).

Finally, the last item on my list of invaluable items for entertaining is flowers...of course!  I know flowers can easily be overlooked because of time constraints or even a feeling of a lack of talent in the floral arranging area but, I can to tell you, adding flowers to your table or other areas of your home adds a festive feel to the whole occasion and is well worth the effort.  You can easily buy a bunch of flowers already arranged at the grocery store.  Take them home.  Cut the stems off and plunk them into a vase.  Voila!  You are done!  I do admit I spent a little more time than that when arranging my flowers but, you get the point ;).

I hope you found something in my little list of entertaining tools and tips to help you with your holiday entertaining.  I always try to find ways to make Christmastime as stress-free as possible.  I don't always achieve that goal but, I do try.

HERE IS TO A GREAT ENTERTAINING SEASON!

***No compensation has been given to me for this post.  

Simply sharing my opinion.