With the holidays approaching, there’s a good chance you might be hosting some sort of get-together at your home. Before having children, my husband and I loved having people over. We would spend lots of time planning out the dishes we were going to prepare and drinks to serve. These days with two children, entertaining has become quite different for us, as I’m sure it probably has for you!
However, just because you have children doesn’t mean you have to stop having people over or hosting events. Not to mention that during the holiday season, it’s often unavoidable.
In order to make entertaining easier and stress-free, I’ve come up with a list of tips and tricks to make hosting any party a breeze! Of course, sometimes the wanna-be chef in me still get a little carried away, but for the most part, I try to follow these easy tips below.
Tips for Entertaining
- Buy White Dishes – This is one of the best decisions I made on our wedding registry. We asked for white flatware, serving dishes, platters and casseroles. As much as I’m tempted to buy fun holiday dishes each year, our white dishes have been so worth it. They go with any holiday or theme, saves storage space by only having one set and get lots of use, unlike that bunny themed plate you might use once a year at Easter.
- Prep As Much Ahead of Time as Possible – I love using recipes that can be made at least a day ahead and then just taken out of the refrigerator and served cold or baked right before the event. This will save you so much time and work the day of the party. This goes double if the event is for a breakfast or brunch!
- Don’t Try to Make Everything – I once heard a popular food blogger say that you should never try to make more than three recipes from scratch for a party. Such good advice! Often I want to make so many different things, but trying to do that will only overwhelm and stress me out, which is the opposite of what a party should do. Pick out a few things to make a buy the rest! You’ll thank yourself in the end and no one will mind at all – trust me!
- Use Tried & True Recipes – For the recipes you are going to make, don’t try something new on the night of the big event. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought a recipe looked so good only to find out it was just so-so or not very good at all. You don’t want to have a dud recipe for your party, so make sure you use recipes you know will turn out 100% every time.
- Accept Help – Before children, I never wanted to accept help, but boy have times changed! If someone asks if they can bring something, give yourself some grace and say “yes!” It’s one less thing for you to worry about and it always makes a guest feel good for being able to help out. No one expects you to be superwoman!
- Start With an Empty Dishwasher – Make sure you empty your dishwasher right before the party. This way when the party’s over you can load it up and make clean up a snap! There’s nothing worse than having a great evening only to have to spend lots of time afterwards cleaning everything up or have the mess sit on the counters because your dishwasher is already full.
- Relax & Have Fun – Remember the point of having a party is to have fun. There’s nothing worse than being a stressed-out hostess and not having fun at your own party. Hopefully, if you follow some of the tips above, you’ll be stress-free!
Do you have any tips for entertaining? If so, I’d love to hear them below!
