How to Plan a Festive Christmas Dinner
The holidays are filled with decorations, parties and brisk weather. With all of these activities, it can be stressful to plan your own Christmas dinner, especially when it has to measure up to other events.
Here are some easy tips to make sure your Christmas dinner is festive and fun:
Pick a theme for your dinner
While Christmas is an overarching theme, there are smaller themes that you can designate for your Christmas dinner. Snowflakes? Nutracker? Classic Christmas with St. Nick? Modern Christmas with Santa Claus? Whatever you choose, there are several different color schemes that you can create in order to decorate for each one. For example, if you choose to accent your dinner with a snowflake theme, decorate in blues, white and silver for a full effect.
Create a Christmas soundtrack
Nothing says it’s the holiday season like some Christmas music! Many all-star singers have created their own albums with legendary Christmas songs. Some of the best Christmas albums around are byTaylor Swift,Mariah CareyandSwift,CareyandMichael Buble. Make sure your music is on repeat so there isn’t any dead silence midway through your dinner. Also do a sound check to ensure that the music isn’t too loud for your guests – after all, a main part of the dinner will be conversing with each other.
Determine a menu.
A festive Christmas dinner needs to be unique in offering a variety of dishes. Kick-off the dinner with hors d’oeuvre that are holiday themed. In addition to the traditional nuts and cheese and cracker platters, think about including some festive treats, likealmond chocolate appetizers. Create a main course that features solid foods like mashed potatoes, stuffing and ham or goose. Dessert is where you can really bring in the holiday accents – sugar cookies are a must, but you can also make festive foods likegingerbread cookies. Don’t forget to break out the eggnog – it is one of the most festive drinks you can have during the holiday season.
Create an activity for everyone to participate in.
While most people will be inundated with requests to join gift exchanges, it might be fun to set up a low-cost gift exchange for everyone to participate in. When you send out invitations, ask everyone to bring a $5 gift for an exchange. Set up a game for everyone – either one with dice or set up a unique alternative to exchange the gifts (i.e., assign numbers to each dinner plate to be revealed after eating to determine order of picking gifts). It will add a lot to the dinner and add an element of surprise, which everyone enjoys.
