Christmas is just around the corner, meaning it’s time to dust off your hosting skills with a fancy, festive dinner party. Whether it be with your nearest and dearest, or those work acquaintances you’ve been meaning to catch up with, here are the top 5 tips to ensure your Christmas Dinner Party is nothing short of amazing.
1) Host a Secret Santa Dinner
The premise of Secret Santa is simple; each person in a group must randomly select a person’s name out of a hat (online generators also suffice as a slightly less ceremonious affair), and purchase a gift for them. The idea is to keep the recipient of your gift a secret until you hold your present-giving ceremony.
While incredibly simple, Secret Santa adds a festive twist to any Christmas dinner party - whether you all unwrap your gifts prior to or after your delicious dinner is up to you!
2) Make Things Easier with a Potluck
The beauty of hosting a potluck -a type of communal gathering in which each guest brings a dish- is twofold. Firstly, each of your friends can show off their favorite homemade dish with others, and secondly, there’s substantially less work involved on your part.
Ramp up the holiday mood by hosting an ‘Around the World Christmas’ potluck, where each guest cooks up a traditional Christmas dish from a specific cuisine (think German potato dumplings and mulled wine, a traditional English roast turkey, and sweet Italian Christmas treats for dessert) - just ensure there are no double ups.
3) Host a Fancy Take Out Dinner Party
One might assume that lacking cooking skills gives rise to problems when hosting a dinner party. Alas, it does not, for take-out food is the answer to all your dinner party woes.
While not actually cooking anything may seem ludicrous in a dinner party setting -and the thought of take-out food may conjure greasy pizza boxes tossed idly to the side and the soggy remnants of a kebab paper bag to mind- this doesn’t need to be the case.
To spare the guests of your specialty cooking, order your preferred take-out meals (pick this up yourself instead of relying on a delivery service - you never know how long it’s been in transit) and set them out on fancy dinner plates. Light some candles at your dining table, and enjoy.
4) Host a Picnic Dinner Party
If the weather so permits, why not transgress from the dining table to the park for an epic festive dinner party picnic?
To ensure everything runs smoothly, ask each guest to bring their favorite picnic food, plenty of rugs, plates, cutlery, and wine (or check out these ready-made cocktail recipes for something on the fancy side - it is Christmas after all) and don’t forget to bring a portable speaker and plenty of blankets for the cooler evenings.
For our complete list of Christmas picnic ideas and tips, see here.
5) Go All Out With the Christmas Festivities
For maximum festivity, turn your holiday Christmas dinner into a full-blown Christmas party with all the trimmings.
We recommend getting your hands on as many fairy lights and candles as is conceivable (propping candle sticks into empty wine bottles is a quick and surprisingly beautiful way to light up the room), transforming your home into a Christmas wonderland.
While you can’t go wrong with a traditional roast, we wholeheartedly believe that pre-dinner nibbles are just as important as the main course at a dinner party (see our favorite Christmas entrees here), as are the festive-themed beverages you should be serving (think mulled wine, Christmas punch, and peppermint white Russians).
And there you have it folks, The Ultimate Guide to Hosting a Christmas Dinner Party.
