Christmas Wrapped

I hate public speaking. I love throwing parties. I have a friend who would speak in front of a crowd of angry cougars happily and she’d win them over, but she hates throwing parties. The thing these have in common is the only way either one gets easier is doing it a bunch of times.

Each year my neighborhood hosts a Progressive Dinner at the holidays. A Progressive Dinner is a nice way to celebrate the holidays with your neighbors without putting the job of having a neighborhood party on one host. Some people sign up to host a course of the meal: appetizers, soup, salad, main dish and dessert. The rest of the people volunteer to bring the food, except for the main dish, that is most easily made at the host’s house. Last year my husband and I offered our house up for the main dish and dessert part of the meal.

 

Decide what you want the party to look like.

The nicest thing about planning a holiday party is that we always want our house to be decorated for the holidays anyway. This means we don’t have to go above and beyond what our house would normally look like for the holiday to get it ready for the party, we also don’t have the hassle of putting up decorations for just one night.

 

Be Flexible About Space

My house is laid out with a large kitchen and dining area that are open to each other. For 6-8 people it’s plenty of room for dining, but for 24 people it wouldn’t work. Unless we were hosting a pie eating contest and no one needed to use their hands at the table.

Next to our dining room is a larger living room where we don’t have a lot of furniture, we moved last year from a much smaller space, making it easy to transform the room into a dining room.

With borrowed long banquet tables we were able to create a long dining table with our Christmas tree, a crackling fire and decorated mantel as a back drop for the meal. For no extra money.

We moved our living room sofa into the dining area of our kitchen, creating a great lounge area for chatting and mingling, since guest always congregate in the kitchen anyway.

 

To Save Money, Aim For ‘Simply Elegant’

To decorate I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on extra decorations and the best way I know to do this, and make it look beautiful, is to keep everything very simple.

I borrowed three long white tablecloths from a neighbor and purchased four low glass vases to put on the tables.

Then, while out getting food for the party, I found white hydrangeas. In December! I would’ve rather had a bright color bloom, but they were $10 for 2 stems with 4 big bunches of blooms. I ended up buying two packs, each pack filled two of my vases.

So, to add color, while still paying the price that made sense for this party, I added cranberries to the water in the vases. This added color and was more than cheap because I’d bought these cranberries at Thanksgiving and didn’t use them all. Even if you don’t think ahead, a pack of cranberries is around $1.75 at the market during the fall/winter season.

We rented plates and flatware in white and the result, even with the cranberries was still a little, well, white.

I also found a roll of red ribbon with my christmas stuff I’d bought on clearance the year before. I used it to create a thin runner down the all white table. On top of the runner we used all the votive holders, around 20, we had left from our wedding reception 10 years ago.

We ended up with a great looking table for around $25.

This is the table all set for the party with the rest of our holiday decorations. You should definitely move here.

The best way to throw a party is to remember everything doesn’t have to be perfect. Nothing kills a party faster than a stressed out host. My mantra is “Whatever gets done is what gets done.” After that? A cocktail and enjoy the night. 

 

Don’t scramble when your coworker pops in with a bottle of wine or your neighbor drops off a basket of fruit. This season you will be prepared. This season you’ll be ready. This season you won’t break the bank.

Pick up a few of these excellent little gifts, wrap them up, clear out some space in your front hall closet and suddenly you’re not only gracious, you are a genius.

Short White Kira Vase $14.99

Pomegranate and Fig Candle $13.99

John Derian Poinsettia Disc

Bird T-Lite Holder $7.99

Birds On Ribbon Ornament $2.99

Red Tealight Set $12.99

John Derian Card Suits Coaster Set $12.99

Small Mirrored Star $9.99

Pine Votive Holder 3-Piece Set $12.74

Botanical Kissing Ball $9.99

We love throwing parties all through the year but, as I mentioned, we’re especially fond of parties at the holidays. After spending a reasonable time putting up the tree and decorating the mantel, it seems economically wise to share your home with as many people as possible after all that work.

Best party advice I’ve ever gotten: If someone goes through the trouble to host a party, your part of the commitment is to make it fun. It seems like at the holidays every one understands that unspoken rule.

I am married to a graphic designer and when we plan parties my husband is full of inspiring ideas for the invitations. What he is not full of is the inspiration to find the actual time required to make these inspiring invitations. I’ve learned the best way to get him on the ball is to get ready to place orders for invitations, at that point he’ll either come through or I’ll place my order and have the invites one way or another. All without becoming the Nagging Harpy Of The Holidays.

Here are a few invitations from Target that will set the tone for any simple and elegant holiday parties you’re planning this season.

Pink Peony for a holiday invitation? Yes. It works because it’s understated and in the right color family. Your guests will expect a cozy holiday dinner at your home with this invitation.

This tea length invitation in merlot will slip through the printer easily and is easily customized with some free clip art. This is a great source.

Using red or green ink to fill in the details and switching out the black ribbon with the same will make this paisley flat card a holiday invite without any trouble.

The Crimson Deckle Edge collection is another simple way to invite your guests to your house for holiday celebrating.

This olive pocket card printed from your computer with a deep red ink will also set a simply elegant tone for your party. this set is intended as wedding stationary but you can use the pocket and response cards for extra information about your party. We like to hold a White Elephant Gift Exchange at our holiday party, use the pocket and enclosure card to explain the rules.

In a few days we’re throwing the 2008 version of the party I shared here last month. This year is a lot like last year only with the added thrill of the Big Three Bailout looming heavily over our area, Metro Detroit. Festive!

I’ve been collecting some great, inexpensive and easy centerpiece ideas and thought I’d share them with you. They’re inexpensive because everyone around here is trying to keep as much money as they can in a coffee can under their beds and easy because I have many skills but elaborate centerpieces are not among them.

At Craftershock, Wendy Chung has a great Paper Flower Tutorial. She attaches the flowers to twigs and puts them in vases on the table. I’m especially drawn to the square bowls of pears on the table. With a red runner on your table, classic Christmas colors. Instead of paper flowers, you could attach very small glass bulbs to the branches and make it even easier on yourself.

I love these wooden quilting hoops and simple wooden balls on the table from the Real Simple Holiday Decorating Ideas From The Craft Store feature.

Ribbon, just like I used last year to add a little color to my table. But I love how Better Homes and Garden uses a wider layer of red fabric and then ribbon. The glass bowls with ribbon flowers are also a cheap way to avoid fresh flowers. You can find the directions for those right here.

Party Perfect shares the work of stylist Molly Fitzsimmons in this post. A pile of oranges on a lovely tray, it doesn’t get much cheap or easy than that. Unless you’re talking about…oh, never mind.

The easiest part of creating holiday centerpieces is the fact that if you throw some red, white or green out there, you’re pretty much good to go. This candy cane covered vase is perfect. The best part for me is I can you my small round vases from last year to complete this project for next to nothing.

With all these great ideas, maybe no one will know how I threw this party together in about one day.