Claire AndradeWith the Holidays coming up, so does the season of lots of entertaining. Today I am linking up to share my entertainment ideas, so I’m going to talk about my entertaining planning tips.
I’m hosting Thanksgiving this year for the second time and I’ve hosted multiple Christmas parties. My biggest piece of planning advice is to start early! The earlier you start, the better off you will be.
The first things I do is make a headcount estimate and create a menu once I know what type of party it will be. I always create a word document that has the guest list and a word doc ament that has the menu. It’s a really simple and easy way to keep track of everything.
Here’s my Thanksgiving menu from two years ago. (I like to make it pretty and print it out too)
Once I have a menu, I make my grocery list from it. You could just do one big shopping trip right before the event, but I like to buy non-perishables in the weeks prior to split up the costs. (I’ve been buying things for Thanksgiving for the last couple of weeks with my normal groceries!) I store them in the basement away from our “regular” food to keep it organized.
To go along with my menu tip, I don’t try to make everything homemade. I do half and half homemade vs store bought. No one will care and it will save your sanity. To go along with that, I try to prep or make things the day before as much as I can to cut back work the day of.
Well those are my biggest tips that I can think of- Thanks for catching up!
I start buying Thanksgiving food a few weeks out too to spread out the cost a bit.
These are some wonderful tips! I love your menu, so pretty and something for everyone :-). I agree with doing things bit by bit the week before