Hosting holiday parties should be a fun endeavor. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed, crabby, or stressed out at the thought of company coming to your home, take a deep breath and look for ways to simplify the event. Here are my favorite tips for a stress-free party to get you started.
Consider an Open House
When you’re planning your party, consider having an open house style event where your guests can come and go. When everyone arrives at the same time, they all need to be greeted and fed at the same time. By having an open house, you will spread out your hosting responsibilities over the entire time of the party rather than having to greet, feed, and entertain everyone all at once.
See Also: 15 Tips for Hosting a Great Party
Create Lists
Lists are a great way to make sure you get everything done in the time it needs to be completed. When planning your party, write down everything that needs to be accomplished before your guests arrive. Then assign an amount of time you think it will take to complete each task on the list and a person responsible for getting it done. Spread the tasks across your family, or ask a friend or two to help. By having everything written down, you can more easily budget your time and delegate to others.
Prioritize the Cleaning
Cleaning your home before hosting an event is something that every guest appreciates. No one wants to walk in to a dirty bathroom or see a thick layer of dust on your furniture. That being said, if you’re running low on time or energy, it’s OK to prioritize your cleaning efforts and only focus on what’s most important like bathrooms, the kitchen, and common areas. You can also use the “behind closed doors” technique and put your messes behind closed closet, cabinet, and room doors. Most guests aren’t going to open up closed doors, so you can put off some of the more detailed sorting work until the days after your event.
See Also: How to Keep Your Bathroom Clean Without Cleaning
Simplify the Atmosphere
I used to worry a lot about my party decorations. I am not a crafty person, and I always felt like my party décor was lacking. If you’re like me and stressing about your holiday party decorations, the best thing to do may be to simplify your décor. Instead of having the entire exterior of your home decorated with strands of light, simply hang a fresh wreath on your front door. Instead of trying to decorate every nook can cranny of your home with holiday knickknacks, focus instead on a few table top candles to warm the space. Sometimes less really is more.
Create a Soundtrack
Music can be an effective way to set the mood for your event, and having a soundtrack created early is easy. Calm or classical music can play in the background of conversations. Upbeat music will typically get a few people to sing along. And 80s and 90s hits will almost always get turned up for a group sing-along after a few drinks. When we have events, I often put my husband in charge of creating a soundtrack for the event. He typically uses Spotify to create a playlist or two that can play in the background. We might mix it up after the party gets going, and again when we are ready to shut down the party. Use the music to help guide the moods of your guests.
Think Simple Yet Impressive Refreshments
Finger foods are the easiest way to keep things easy at a party. Having finger foods means your guests can grab a few treats to eat while they are standing. It also means that you don’t have to also supply silverware. The less you have to worry about keeping your guests’ plates full and tableware stocked, the easier and more enjoyable your time will be.
Likewise, the easier you make your drink station, the easier your time will be. Consider having one mixed cocktail drink premade and ready to pour for adults. Then have a large bin or cooler for beer, another for non-alcoholic drinks like soda, and another for water. If you have the coolers labeled and positioned around the party, your guests will easily be able to grab what they want without fighting crowds or reaching in to the bottom of a bunch of ice to find what they want.
Cook Ahead of Time
One of my favorite tips when hosting parties is to cook as much as you can ahead of time. I used to cook my entire Thanksgiving dinner that morning, but I then realized that the more dishes I could cook in the days leading up to the event, the easier the day of the event was. Now I apply that tactic to every party I host. The more food I can have cooked and kept warm in the oven and crockpots, the less time I have to spend in the kitchen during my parties and the more time I get to enjoy with my guests.
Provide a Food Guide
If you’re like me, the people in your life probably have a number of dietary restrictions. From gluten free and lactose intolerant, to nut allergies and vegan, it seems like everyone and their kid has something they can’t eat. You can literally spend your entire event just telling people which food items on the table are ones they can eat.
To help ensure you’re able to enjoy time, create a friendly food guide to help people know what they can eat at your party. The two ways that I’ve found are easiest are to hang a laminated “menu” on the wall, or put little cards by each dish on the table. You can either list out each ingredient, or if your friends trust your food sensitivities knowledge, you could mark each item with which category of people can eat them. The main sensitivities I like to focus on (because they typically encompass the others) are:
· Vegan
· Gluten Free
· Dairy Free
· Nut Free
See Also: What to Serve Vegans at Your Next Dinner Party
Be Gift Ready
You know that feeling when someone hands you a gift and you didn’t have one for them? I hate that feeling. To make sure you are ready in case of a surprise gift exchange, keep a few wrapped gifts in your bedroom closet. That way, when a friend surprises you with a gift, you can tell them you have one for them, run in to your bedroom, fill out a gift tag, and present them with a gift of their own.
You could purchase a few gifts throughout the year to have a few different items on hand, or you can simplify this even more by purchasing a mix and match case of wine and gifting different types of wine to your friends. Just have a sticky note on the gift bag that tells you what type of wine is in each bag so you can grab the one that your friend loves most. Or opt for a case of champagne to help them celebrate the upcoming new year.
Make it Your Own
I used to get stressed before hosting parties at my house because I had some friends who threw really good parties. I thought I needed to keep up with their hosting abilities, and I would worry that my parties weren’t good enough. Instead of getting caught up in a hosting competition with friend, or always comparing your holiday dinner to how your grandma used to do it, find your own groove. Figure out how YOU want to do things. Not only will you feel more relaxed at your party, but you may find that by seeing you chill out about everything that your friends might back off the hosting competition they were having in their own heads.
Have an End Plan
Before the party begins, it’s good to have an idea of how you want it to end. Whether you want the party to go from 7pm to 10pm, or from 7pm to 10am, there are tactics to make sure you are in control of getting your guests to leave your home. First, consider putting an end time on your invitations so your guests have an idea of how long you want them to stay. Second, use subtle cues like blowing out candles and turning off the music to help people start to feel like they should head for the door. If subtle cues don’t work, grab the most talkative people and ask them to help you start to clean up. Chances are that if you put these people to work, the other guests will start to head out on their own.
Until next time, I’m the Domestic CEO, helping you love your home.
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