It’s that time of the year again, and with it comes the promise of get-togethers and fun Christmas parties. If you want to host an incredible party this year but either haven’t in the past or want to do better this time around, use this guide:
Choose Your Theme
A good way to start planning is by considering your guest list. If your guests are your friends and adults, you can play into the sexier side of Christmas. On the other hand, if you’re hosting your full family, you’ll want something more timeless or classic.
Go All Out with Decorating
One of the best parts of any Christmas event is the decor. Go all out for your party. Get all your decorations out and remember to put those touches throughout your home or living spaces so that guests can enjoy the Christmas ambiance no matter where they are.
Create a Few Signature Cocktails for the Night
While wine and mixers are a good place to get started in terms of alcohol, they’re rather standard. If you want to host a great party (at least for the adults), then start practicing your cocktail-making skills. You can make a lot of cocktails in advance and serve them in large glass jug dispensers.
Of course, if kids are coming, you’ll need to keep all of that out of reach. In this case, have a virgin cocktail mix (for example, egg nog) so that everyone can enjoy some and keep the adult-only versions elsewhere.
Many gin cocktail recipes are fast to make and can also be made in batches so that your guests can quickly top up without you having to man the bar. Of course, manning the bar is a great way to socialize with everyone and be a great host, so it’s up to you.
Gin cocktail recipes
Tips for Food
Christmas is all about indulging yourselves, but with a party, it can feel difficult to feed everyone. That’s why you need to create sheet dishes that can be made ahead of time and reheated during the party. You’ll also want to get small finger foods and have them prepared. This way, your guests have options and will keep munching through the evening.
How to Do Something More with the Music
There’s a lot of Christmas music out there, so you may feel like setting up the music for your party is a done deal. Think again. You need to remember that most of the classics will have been played repeatedly in every store your guests have been to in the past few weeks.
That’s why you need to rethink your music selection. A good way to spruce up classics is to find covers of the top songs. You can then match the music to your theme. If you’re having a glitz-glam jazz Christmas party, for example, then find jazz covers of the top Christmas songs, or even dive back and find a few original Christmas songs from that era.
