Party Planning and More…

Here are some tips to keep the party planning short. 

– Establish your party budget and finalize your guest list.

– Select your party theme.

– Send out your invitations and manage RSVP’s.

– Get all of your tableware items and decorations. 

    Don’t forget to get extra mask for those guests that

    might forget theirs.

– Plan and have the food and music match the theme

    of the party.

– Keep the Menu light and colorful so the foods are

    attractive.  Try using finger foods, vegetable and relish

    trays, and a few deserts.

– Foods that required baked bases can be made up to a

    week in advance.

– Include Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

– Appetizers should not be too heavy.

– Arrange as many as plates as possible on the table,

    smaller plates are a good ideal so that guest can hold

    their plates and their drinks.

– Make sure you have plenty of corkscrews and bottle

    openers.

– Put drinks and food on separate tables.

– Make sure you have enough noise makers for when

    the ball drops.

With a new year, you can expect a new life. People wish each other good luck, peace, and promise ourselves and others that we will do better in the upcoming year.  So you want to host the King of all Parties to start everybody’s New Year off with a bang!  One tradition for New Year’s Eve is a Masquerade Party.  According to this tradition guest dress up in costumes and cover their faces with mask and as the clock strikes midnight the guest unmask. You may even want to have a theme Masquerade party.  Some costume themes that you might like are:

– Have guest dress as something involving their New Year’s resolutions

– Have guest dress as something representing the New Year.

– Dead Celebrities

– Heaven & Hell

– Vicars & Tarts

– Wild West

– Las Vegas Party Theme

– Animal/Jungle

– Chains and Leather

– Decade Party (i.e. 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or 80’s)

– Gods & Goddesses

– Stone-Age

– Toga Party

It is important to play some dance music and have some fun playing games to keep the party fun.  A costume contest is the standard for any masquerade party.  You can spice yours up by setting up a rug having your guests walk the runway to be judged for the contest. Have your guests write down a description of themselves and their costume before they walk down the runway. Have someone act as the announcer and introduce each guest as they are on the runway.  Come up with lots of crazy categories for prizes so you can award a ton of prizes. (i.e. Best Use of Glitter, Most Colorful Costume, Costume Most Likely to Get You Arrested, Most Reveling Costume)

Its important to keep your guest entertained at your parties.  One way to accomplish this task is to keep it fun.  Who doesn’t like to play a game?  Some games that I might suggest for your Christmas party that are good for all age groups are the following:

Gift Wrap Game

What you will need:
Gift items, wrapping paper, tape, music - that can be turned on and off.
Wrap each gift item in several layers of paper (the number of layers depends on how long you want the game to last)

Give your group / groups a gift and tell them when you turn on the music to pass the gift, when you turn off the music who ever has the gift gets to take off ONE layer of wrapping paper, continue this until the last layer of paper is taken off ,and whoever has the gift unwrapped gets to keep it.

Sock Guessing Game

You take a new pair of thick thermal socks. Then you put objects, that you see or use around Christmas time, into the socks. Make sure you put the same things in each sock. Things like scotch tape, ornament, pine cone, etc. Make sure you put about 20 to 25 different objects in. Tie a ribbon or rope around the opening to make sure nobody peeks. Give everyone a piece of paper and pass the socks around at your party and tell them how many objects there are in the sock and have them write down all they can feel. The person that guesses the most objects correctly is the winner.

Pass the Bow

You will need at least 6 players per team, but can be more

Items needed: 6 gift bows for each team
Winner: Team that passes 6 bows down and back first

How to play: Have the team’s line up side by side, either sitting or standing next to each other.   At one end of the line, place the six Christmas bows. With their left hand have each player grab the right wrist of the person to their right. On the mark, teams pass all the bows down and back again. If a bow falls, players must retrieve while still holding on. The chain must not be broken!

Gift Wrap Relay

Items Needed:  2 small boxes of equal size, Gift wrap, tape and a table of any size.

Get Ready:   Gift wrap the boxes. Cut extra sheets of wrapping paper to fit the size of the box. You will need one piece of wrapping paper for each person on the team. Divide into two teams.

How to Play:  A team member will leave their group, run to the gift station and unwrap the gift, rewrap the gift, and run back to tag the next team member. The first team to have each member wrap the gift wins. To tease the teams before they start, a gift that rattles adds a fun touch. A box of macaroni and cheese works great and it gives them a laugh when the first person unwraps the gift.

By now you should have a general ideal of who is coming to your Holiday Dinner.  Now you need to decide where you are going to set up the everything.  Its a good ideal to plan early where you are going to set up the food, drinks, and the seating arrangements.  The best thing to do is to set up your food and drinks on seperate tables.  I always suggest if possible to set these up in an area of the house that is easy to access and that is easy to clean (some place with out carpet).  Even the best guest can still have an accidental spill.  Did you remember to get cups, plates, napkins, and any other serving items that you will need?

The night before you are going to want to set up your tables and prepare a few things early.  The first thing that you will want to do if your having Turkey and Dressing is to mix up your dressing and then stuff your turkey and get it started cooking or start cooking your Baked Ham.  Its always good to prepare your turkey or ham the night before that way you can have it sliced up and ready for the guest tomorrow.  If you need any  recipes for your  Holiday dinner you can check out http://giftwrapandmore.wordpress.com/ There is recipes for deserts, bread, turkey, ham, and holiday drinks on this blog.

While your turkey or ham is cooking go ahead and start preparing your home made bread.  You will want to cook the bread until it is just lightly browned on the top so that you can heat it up tomorrow to have hot and fresh rolls for your meal.  If you are using brown and serve rolls you can wait until around 20 minutes before your guest start arriving to cook the bread.

 You can go ahead and cook your pies with your turkey or ham if your oven is big enough.  This will decrease the amount of time that you will have to cook in the morning.    Get all of your deserts done to night that you can  and any specialty breads.    Do not cut any fruit or make any fruit salad unless you are using Jello as these will turn dark over night.   You may also want to cook any deviled eggs tonight and set up your deli trays. 

When this is all done go ahead and pre-set your table.  Put the table cloths on and put your center pieces and place additional chairs that are needed.  Next place you plates, cups, silverware and napkins on the tables.

First thing in the morning on the day of your party you will want to start any of your side dishes.  Place all of your deserts  and deli trays on the table about an hour before your expecting any guest.  Remember you will always have those guest that arrive early.  Start your drinks and punch and place these on the table as they are done.  Go ahead and put your ice in a container and place it in the freezer to be removed and placed on the table as your guest start arriving. 

After you have finished your side dishes and placed them on the table start heating up your turkey or ham. It will only take about 20 minutes, then you will want to heat up your bread.  Go ahead and place these on the table as they are done.  Now all you should have left is a few finishing touches and you will be ready to enjoy your holiday meal and your guest.  Holiday meals are easy with a little planning and preperation ahead of time.  This allows you to play host instead of cook during your holiday celebration. 

I hope that you all have a Happy Holiday Season. 

If you are looking for some additional drink recipes check out http://giftwrapandmore.com/

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so we need to make sure that you are ready!

If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner, you must think about the key questions that I posted earlier.  Have all of those answers ready and keep in mind the following:  

• You should confirm which of your guests will be attending and if they will be bringing a guest.  Also, know what guests have children and have the appropriate food choices.  (Ask the parents what the kids do or don’t like ahead of time to make sure you are prepared.)
• Where will everyone be seated?  Do you have a large enough dining room for everyone?  If not, improvise!  A cardtable will work great with a nice table cloth and a small centerpiece.  If this is a table for the children, make the centerpiece a fun arrangement designed with kids in mind. 
• Ensure that everyone knows what time dinner will be served.  Have some light appetizers prepared to keep the guests satisfied prior to dinner.  This will also give you a buffer in the event that dinner take longer to cook than expected. 

Enjoy the holidays and have fun!  The point of having a gathering is for everyone to have a good time, including you!

The time is now to get your holiday party planned.  If you wait for the last minute, it will not only cause you great stress, but it could be a terrible mistake.  Are you the person who is charge of planning the company party?  Are you having the entire family over for the holidays?  Are you having a few friends over to celebrate the New Year? 

Well, I hate to ruin everyones day, but do you realize that New Year’s Eve is in about a month and a half!!! You need to get planning now. Make sure you have the key question answered, then let’s get started.

Planning a party is easy, if you are prepared.  You must first ask yourself a few questions before you drop those invites in the mail. 

• What is the theme, or is there a theme? 
• Where is the best location for the party? 
• How many people are invited? 
• What is your expected turn out?
• What time are you starting?  Is it before dinner or after? 
• What type of food will you or should you be serving?
• Will there be kids in attendance?  If so, approximately how many?
• Do you have enough seating?
• What supplies do I need?

As you can see, there really is a lot to do before you really say those words…”Hey Everyone, I am having a party!”

Throughout this next week, I am going to touch an every one of these questions and prepare you to have a successfull party!!! 

I want to welcome you to my blog and invite you all to post any questions that you may have regarding your upcoming event or party.