entertaining tips Archives – A Well Crafted Party

Hosting season is upon us! For those who know me, know that this is my time to shine! 😉 From my Annual Halloween Party through to the New Year, I love to take every opportunity to host or join in on someone else’s amazing party. While I’m sure to pop in here with some holiday guest tips soon, today is all about the hosting. Those who are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner, Friendsgiving get together, Holiday open house, or Christmas shin-dig, this post is for you. While these tips work well for the holiday season, they really are universal for any home entertaining throughout the year.

6 Essential Hosting Tips for the Holiday Entertainer on KATU Afternoon Live

6 Tips for the Holiday Hostess

Invest in neutral serving dishes and service ware that can be used for many different occasions. While beautiful decorative platters absolutely wow, storing them year round can be a pain. While I do have a small collection of holiday-specific items, when it comes to service ware I try to keep it neutral. I collect white or dark wood platters so that they’ll coordinate together no matter the event. I also have sets of tongs and serving utensils in a simple metal so that it goes with everything.

Entertaining Essentials for Serviceware – Affiliate Links: 1) Oval Serving Platters 14.5 Inches, 2) Large Serving Bowls – Set of 2 3) Large Serving Platter Set of 3, 4) Classic White Serving Platters – Set of 4, 5) Large Solid Acacia Wood Serving Trays – Set of 3 , 6) Acacia Wood Cutting Board, 7) Acacia Wood Octagon Serving Trays – Set of 3, 8) Mango Wood Serving Platter – Set of 3 , 9) 3-Tier Rectangle Plate Set with Metal Stand, 10) 3 Tier Serving Stand Oval Porcelain Serving Bowl Set, 11) Acacia Wood Cupcake Stand, 12) Acacia Wood Tiered Tray , 13) Serving Utensils Set, 14) Drink Dispensers

As the saying goes, you feast first with your eyes! When hosting a buffet, setting up a dessert spread, or prepping a beverage station for guests, avoid the school cafeteria look of everything lined up side by side and instead layer items in with varying heights and depths. While you can absolutely find wonderful serving dishes that are tiered and ready to bring height to your table, they too can be difficult to store when not in use. I often hide sturdy cardboard boxes filled with heavy items or books under the table linens to create the desired height I’m looking for. It adds the interest you’re looking for with no extra cost. The best part about this trick is that it is more customizable than one-size platters.
Prep. I can’t say that enough. Even people who throw parties as often as I can get behind on the day of a party. (Thank you to my amazing friends who always pull through and pitch in moments before parties begin!) When hosting a large gathering it is imperative to scale down your day-of plans by either prepping days or weeks before the party or going the store-bought or restaurant-catered route.
- Before party prep. Many food items can be cooked in advance, frozen or refrigerated, and reheated on the day. This is especially true of many holiday favorites such as green bean casserole, mac and cheese, or sweet potato casserole. When doing something like this, avoid putting on the toppings in the first preparation of the meal. Get everything done and frozen and then heat up nearly til done before adding the topping and finishing it off. It will keep the dish looking and tasting freshly made. Some items can be done a few days in advance and simply refrigerated such as baking pies or making cranberry sauce. Prep doesn’t stop at the food though. Setting the table, serving platters and all, leading up to the event will save precious moments on the day.
- Don’t fear store-bought! I love preparing home-made dishes for the people I love. I love cooking! However, when planning a large gathering, I generally will choose one to three items that I will focus on to whip up myself and then allow myself shortcuts on other items.
- The big trick to making store-bought or restaurant-catered feel like it belongs at your special event is plating the items on your own dishes and garnishing them! Store bought pie? Add some cheesecloth or a beautiful napkin around it with some twine to cover the metal tin. Cupcakes? Add an extra cupcake liner! Putting out store bought vegetable platter and dip? Put the dip into a bowl and add the vegetables to your platter, maybe add some sprigs of parsley!

**Free Printable Downloads:** Thanksgiving Menu – Fillable, Thank You Leftover Tags, & Thanksgiving Food Label Tags | Print on cardstock in full color and cut to borders. Hole punch where marked on tags. Use a PDF reader to fill the text in the fillable Menu.

Of course if we are using our neutral serviceware then we will want to put some holiday spirt in somehow. I like to add in my own special holiday twist with linens, printables, home decor items found around the house, and the season’s bounty! In the Fall I’ll pick up extra squash varieties and use them for decor, they’ll make great soups later in the season. Add in some beautiful fall leaves and branches from the yard. In the winter I’ll grab pomegranates and cranberries for pops of red and rosemary or garlands for pops of green.
While some may scoff at this next tip as an extra step that may not be necessary, I think it is the one tip I love the most. Guests may have a variety of dietary restrictions or even preferences that would make it helpful to know what they are about to consume. When serving a plated meal I like to add a menu, but when it is a buffet I like to add printable table tents to highlight dishes and main ingredients. This saves me from needing to repeat myself over and over again throughout the evening listing off what items are. It also helps guests feel more comfortable choosing items they know they’ll enjoy or be able to eat.
- One of my favorite things to do at a potluck with friends and family who enjoy cooking is to ask them to send me their recipe (or send recipe cards to them) so I can create recipe cards for the dishes. I’ll set them alongside the dishes so people can see what is in the meal, but then if they really liked a dish they can take home the recipe to recreate it!
Big holiday dinners with family and friends wouldn’t quite be complete without leftovers brought out to enjoy the next day. Give your guests the ultimate gift by providing to go containers for them to fill with their favorites and take home to enjoy. It’s a favor for them and for yourself, because then you have less to deal with in your own fridge!
- Grab my go to to go containers and paper bags from Amazon. (Affiliate Links) Aluminum Foil Tray with Paper Lid & Brown Paper Bags 10X13 or you can use the Assorted Brown Paper Bags for a variety of gift bag options.

I for one am excited about the holiday hosting season, and I hope that with these tips you can get excited as well.

What are your best tips for hosting during the holiday season? I’d love to know! Share in the comments below!

For someone who owns a blog about entertaining—someone who feels entertaining is an integral part of her identity—the restrictions that came with this past year have been difficult. My love for entertaining and my identity are not as important as the lives of those around me, so I happily followed regulations. Plus, to be honest, working in healthcare this year has made it impossible to really even think much about hosting parties. Over the past year, following CDC and state health guidelines, I was able to do some safe entertaining and look forward to doing more as things open up a bit!

Why I’m Sharing Safe Entertaining Options After a Year of Pandemic Life

I chose not to share my safe entertaining options over the past year, because:

Seeing people’s opinions on the internet made me want to keep my thoughts to myself because I didn’t want to be ridiculed for following guidelines.
I was afraid of being judged for following safety guidelines that were less strict than other parts of the country.
Finally, I was nervous about encouraging people to get together knowing that regulations varied from county to county, across the country, and throughout the world.

But, now… things are (happily) starting to look different!

Things are starting to open up as vaccines are getting into people’s arms, mitigation efforts are working, and the weather is getting nicer. This will mean that people are going to be able to slowly start getting together even while following all health guidelines! I’m SO ready for that time. Though, unless we continue to follow guidelines, we could easily be back to lockdown if things spike again. I thought I’d share some of the things I did to help make entertaining be safe for my family as well as those of my guests.

Please note: I am not a medical specialist. I am not an expert in CDC guidelines. I do not know the rules of your state, county, city. Please use your own discretion and local health guidelines to make decisions regarding entertaining during this time. Those searching for safer ways to continue/start entertaining will find this post useful. If that is not something you are looking for, please know that I do not need to know. I’m okay with you making your own decisions.

Treats to send out in the mail for a virtual event

Coming Out of the Pandemic: Safe Entertaining Tips & Ideas

In my day job I’ve been working with marketing teams on creating safe event options that still allow them to connect with new people and create value. We’ve done everything from Virtual Happy Hours to Drive-By events where guests drive through to pick up fun items. When thinking about home entertaining you have those options as well as the potential for small gatherings as guidelines are updated. Below are my favorite safe ways to entertain.

The most important part of keeping events safe right now is communication. Communicate expectations and your own mitigation efforts. Make it easy and open to allow guests to cancel if sick or exposed to something. This is one part of the pandemic that I hope moves forward. Open communication is so important! I hope that the “us” of the future continues to make it polite to not come to an event while under the weather rather than going in fear of being rude by missing an event.

Note: Links below marked with an asterisk are affiliate links. Items purchased from affiliate links provide a small income to this blog at no cost to the purchaser.

Keep parties small:

Yes, I am ready for large events with all my friends too. I really, truly am. Until our numbers are low enough and enough people are vaccinated… we still need to keep the parties small. Local health guidelines will help guide you in how large your event can be. When allowed, I limited our outdoor engagements to people from a couple of different households. This helps to limit exposure if someone were to find out they were exposed or sick.

Entertain outdoors:

I know that it isn’t possible right now to have outdoor events in some areas in the month of March. However, we do know that it is much safer to get together with people outdoors rather than indoors. Grab a pop-up tent*, outdoor heaters*, and blankets. Make sure your chairs are 6 feet apart and serve up some warm drinks! We’ve been lucky enough to be able to host a couple of friends for book club meetings around our fire pit and a ladies night on the porch.

Don’t Spread Germs:

The days of grazing tables are over. At least they are for me. I am not sure I’ll be bringing them back into my parties for years to come. For now, I’m making it easy on myself by purchasing single-serve items from foods to drinks. Canned wine or spritzers work great for this! This is not sustainable as it is terrible for the environment. However, it is an easy way to serve guests without sharing serving utensils. Other ideas for this would include individualizing that grazing table and turning it into a single-serve charcuterie plate!

Keep supplies handy:

When we have people over outdoors we know that they may need to use our restroom. We ask that guests wear a mask inside our house, especially if someone is indoors while they go in. In case needed, we make sure we have extra masks*, plenty of sanitizers, and wipes placed in areas that are easy to grab without drawing attention. Even if no one uses them, I feel more comfortable knowing that if they wanted them they wouldn’t have to feel uncomfortable by asking.

When hosting activities, set up the supplies socially-distanced:

Hosting an outdoor baby shower or ladies’ craft night? Set up tables where guests can sit six-feet apart and have all of their supplies in front of them. I think having guests create DIY terrariums would be a perfect way to spend time with friends while safely engaged in an activity.

Go virtual!

Everyone and I mean everyone, is tired of zoom these days. I get it! However, one of the highlights of a really hard year was the fact that the few times that I did host virtual events I got to host them with some people that it would have been really hard to see in person even had there been no pandemic. My birthday party this year included my sister from Oklahoma, family from Texas, and friends living in Idaho, Portland, Spokane, and even across the street. I would have never have been able to get these people together in a non-virtual zone. Even after Covid is gone and we are back to hosting regular parties, I believe I will try to do at least one or two virtual events a year so I can keep connected to those friends that may have just been a text or Facebook message pre-pandemic.

Some specific safe-entertaining party ideas, shopping lists, and free invitations are coming to the blog over the next few weeks. In the meantime, I’d love to know how you’ve been able to keep connected over this past year. What type of entertaining were you able to do? What are you looking forward to as things open up? Share in the comments or message me on Instagram!