5 Steps & Tools to Host the Easiest Holiday Party

Do you like to host parties or does it overwhelm you? If parties overwhelm you, here’s a simple guide to implement the easiest party. Parties are so good for family and connection. Your home and the holidays or special dates are made for hosting and hospitality. It may feel overwhelming, but you can do it! Here are the five basic steps:

1. Invitations
2. Plan well
3. Determine your easiest party menu
4. Gift Exchange
5. PJs Required

This particular event was “Friendsmas” a couple weeks before Christmas. Feel free to use the invite, recipes and the gift exchange game. The Holiday PJs was a really fun feature!

1. Invitations

1. Write a list of preferred attendees. You may have some non-negotiable friends who can confirm attendance before you move to any next steps. Then, worst case, they are the only attendees and its fun!
2. Pick a date. If the attendees are friends or neighbors, make sure to do it before people go out of town for the holidays. We did this event two weekends before Christmas. Try to get invites out before December starts or early December to allow planning – holidays get crazy for everyone. 20 days before the party is ideal.
3. Pick a time. We start parties based on Autumn’s nap schedule. So 5PM was ours. People stayed until around 10PM.
4. Set an RSVP: This is important if you want to do the gift exchange. No one RSVPs on time. You will need to follow up, for sure! I had an RSVP date 10 days before the party. This gave me time to follow-up with everyone and get the gift exchange/Secret Santa arranged.

2. Planning!

I wrote all this in a notebook, but this is basically how I planned out the party.

3. Easiest Holiday Party Menu

When it comes to the menu, consider your passions and strengths. Assess dishes that are easy for you to make – go with these. Then assess your favorite things to eat. Try to incorporate something you love, even if you haven’t made it. Lastly, consider adding one or two things from the following.

Charcuterie Table

Basically, this is meat and cheese tray. The goal is that its picking food. You can fill a plate with it or just walk by and grab pieces to eat. It’s SO EASY to do. I made a Pinterest board for Charcuterie Tables to give me great inspiration. We went to Costco the morning of the party. My rules with the charcuterie were:

1. Variety over mass quantity
2. Open the pantry and use the extra jam, nuts, canned olives, pretzels, etc.
3. Have one each of following types of cheeses.
   1. Soft (mozzarella, brie) – we did both of these.
   2. Semi-soft (gouda, blue cheese)
   3. Semi-hard (machego, gruyere)
   4. Hard (aged cheddar, parmesan)
4. Buy sample packs. Costco’s brand Kirklands was amazing. We bought a mini brea kit with three different kinds of brie and that was a hit. Here’s a sample cheese pack we picked up:
5. Some other important components:
   1. Cheese pair – bread, crackers
   2. Fruits – strawberries and grapes are great for color and last a few hours
   3. Nuts – almonds are so easy to add in a few small bowls
   4. Spreads – honey, fruit jams
6. Set up 1 hour or less before to prevent cheese and meat from sweating

Chili & Toppings

Since the party started at 5PM, we decided to add more of a substantial item to the menu. The chili was easy to make. We used a recipe from Joanna Gaines, Fall 2019 Magnolia Magazine. We doubled the recipe and served in a crockpot, with toppings surrounding the bowls. No images were captured because honestly, chili is one of the least aesthetically pleasing foods. However, it was tasty as heck!

Peppermint Chocolate Cake & Cream Cheese Frosting

This was my stretch item on the menu! I’ve only made a cake from scratch one other time in my life, with a friend’s supervision the whole time. When I saw this recipe in the December 2019 HGTV Magazine, I knew I had to make it. This was mostly when I decided to have a party because otherwise, I had no other reason to make the cake.

I baked the three tiers of cake on Friday morning on the week of the party to avoid Saturday chaos (its going to be slightly chaotic anyways). The only change I made to the recipe was to add crushed candy canes to the cake batter.

On Saturday morning, I mixing the icing and iced the cake.

Shortbread Cookies & Apple Cider

When it came to making Shortbread cookies, I was deceived because I’d been baking tons of cookies. The consistency of shortbread is more like bread than a cookie. It reacts much more to the atmosphere. So I needed to try one or two cookies in the oven and then bunch it up into a block and put it in the fridge to get a better idea later how the dough was.

Also I LOVED these little cup holder cookie cutters. Look how cute! Remember that the dough puffs up when baking though. this was another good reason to try a few cookies in the oven first to see if you need to stretch out the cup holder slot.

White Chocolate, Pistachio & Cherry Truffles

This truffle recipe was mind-blowing good! I’m going to be sure to make more of her recipes! I doubled this also.

Important truffle note: be sure to add the two mixtures together at the SAME temperature. Melt the butter in advance of the white chocolate and set the butter mix aside for a while to get it to room temperature. If you don’t combine them at the same temperature, they will curdle.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my baby boy recipe!!!! This is a doubled recipe because I always save dough for when guests show up throughout the next week. So, this recipe makes ~48 cookies.

• Sugar mix:
  • 4 sticks of unsalted butter (2 cups)
  • 4 cups of brown sugar 
  • 4 teaspoons vanilla extract, I use bourbon vanilla
  • 4 eggs
• Flour mix:
  • 6 cups all-purpose flour (additional 1/2 cup to roll)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups chocolate chips

1. Make sugar mix
   • Cream butter and sugar until smooth
   • Beat in vanilla and eggs one at a time
2. Gradually fold in flour mixture
3. Roll dough
4. Add chocolate chips
5. Make sure cookies are same thickness when put on baking sheet; then they will all bake evenly
6. Save the dough that you won’t use in a ziplock or cling-wrap
7. Bake 11 minutes @350
8. Smoosh them immediately and add sea salt

4. Gift Exchange

This was a mostly adult focused game and the host can’t participate (the only bummer!) Here are the basic rules:

• When RSVP is provided, ask how many people will participate:
  • Attendees can participate as a household or a couple or individuals; this may help for budgets or convenience
  • Minimum age to participate is six
  • Assure the parents that you will buy a gift for kids under the age of six. They won’t be left out (then follow through and buy little gifts for the younger kids)
  • Tell them to wait a couple days to purchase their gift and you will give them some details on their person
• One week before, assign Secret Santas:
  • Write down all participants on a list and match based on some of the following restraints that may help make the matching easier for you and the gift giving:
    • Kids to kids
    • couples to couples
    • households to households
    • Avoid spouses and family members buying for each (if this is a Friendsgiving)
    • Secret Santas should not receive from their gift-recipient
    • Totally random: match Secret Santa to every other person or every 3rd person
  • Keep the list handy for the party! It will help when people have to leave early or arrive late
• Presents should be addressed TO but not FROM
• Maximum price of gifts is $30
• You can’t start the party until every gift arrives. Have a couple wrapped gifts ready in case someone can’t attend last minute, due to an emergency
• During the party, players will ask each other questions to discover and thank their Secret Santa
  • No questions asking directly, “did you buy this gift?” or “Were you my Secret Santa?”
  • Minimum age to participate is six; kids need to be old enough to abide by the restricted questions

5. PJs Required

This was one of the best parts of “Friendsmas.” Not to mention the comfort of wearing pajamas, the photo opportunities were amazing. This is an easy way to add character to your holiday party!