Festive Dinner Party Hacks For A Stress Free Season
Throughout the years, Christmas Day dinner has always been a fine food feast. In the past, festive tables were loaded with goose, boiled hams, pheasants, partridges, and even swans in addition to the standard roasted turkey (via The Food Timeline). While festive fare today may not be quite as over the top when it comes to poultry, it's still a time of plenty, with not just the meal on the main day, but also dinners throughout the season.
Friends get together, as do work colleagues, with relatives in and out of town at various times too. There's a lot of pressure and in one 2018 study, it was reported that 88% of people in the U.S. found Christmas a time of stress (via Study Finds). The last thing anybody wants is to add to that with pressure to cook up grand dinners too.
From what to cook, and the time and energy it takes, to crafting a complex array of dishes, there's a lot to think about when preparing a festive meal for loved ones. Of course, you don't have to make your own cranberry sauce and there are Thanksgiving stuffing hacks you can use at Christmas too. It's always good to remind yourself what the point of sharing food with others is really about. Yes, you want great dishes, but you also don't want to be sitting down feeling totally wired. Before it's too late, put on your Christmas list these festive dinner party hacks for a stress-free season.
Get your timings right
It's great to be creative in the kitchen and use your culinary skills and instinct to craft a lip-smackingly good dinner party menu. However, with so much to do over the festive holidays, and so many dishes to prepare, the biggest factor in your kitchen success is more likely to be a timings planner than any food-inspired flair. A software engineer may be able to help you create the perfectly cooked Christmas dinner ... with a super-organized cooking time tip. A feature in The New York Times offers advice on what to do two weeks beforehand, as well as a week before, a couple of days, and on the day itself. Start by planning your menu and finish by setting up a bar of nibbles and drinks before getting ready.
Timing is everything, and dinner: up to you adds some other suggestions that show real attention to detail. If you're going to enjoy wine with dinner, make sure you've got three bottles, opening one at the start of the evening, and leaving the other two in case guest bottles run dry. It's a good idea to make the appetizer in the afternoon and factor in clearing up and getting ready time too. A great aid is The Great Roast Dinner Timing Chart by Ian Renton which offers a guide on what to do and when for your Christmas Day dinner, depending on your serving time and the size of your roasting meat.
Keep food warm on the table
There's nothing wrong with cold food, so long as it's supposed to be cold, but with a tableful of people sitting down to dinner, it's no easy task to keep everything warm. While you may warm the plates up, dishes that are served in the middle, with everyone helping themselves can soon cool down. And if you're the last to get to the mashed potatoes, you really want them to be hot and not have to eat some sides that are a little cooler. Of course, the most obvious solution might be to cover up dishes, but that doesn't make serving as quick and easy as possible. You don't need anything fancy to solve this issue, just a good TikTok tip.
Fill a hot water bottle with water that's heated up in the kettle to the right temperature, so not boiling but as good as. Make sure the top is secure and lay it down flat in an aluminum tray. On top of this lay another tray with your dish in it, whether you've got your turkey in there, veggies, or roasted potatoes. The heat from the hot water bottle will keep the serving tray temperature up for longer, and if you've got a few of these bedtime warmers you can use them for a whole table of festive goodies served in trays.
Serve a cheeseboard before dinner
Whatever age you are, Christmas morning can be an exciting time, and it's not a time for a lie-in. Even if you're not jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn, if you have kids then you're not going to be able to sleep in. Between an early start and the festive feast, there can be a pretty long stretch of time. It's no wonder that by the time the main event comes around everybody's usually beyond hunger. This can really put pressure on any host, as any delays, which are often inevitable when cooking for a dinner party, can really start to take their toll with complaints from little ones and grumpiness from grown-ups. You've got a choice, either hurry up and feel frazzled when you sit down or keep the appetites at bay a little with a great tip from Southern Living.
Create a cheeseboard, perhaps with some charcuterie, so that everyone has something they can graze on. It won't fill them up before a fine Christmas or New Year's dinner, but it'll mean that they feel relaxed. And that means that you will too, so that if you're the one in the kitchen you're not going to be hassled about when it's dinner time. A cheeseboard is a delicious crowd-pleaser. Add condiments such as relishes if you like, and crackers or toasted bread, and make sure you have a varied selection of soft and hard cheese, with creamy flavors and something a little sharper too.
Do not serve each guest individually
Plated up food can look lovely, especially when it's arranged in a balanced, attractive way. However, if you're planning on a festive dinner party then it's certainly not the easiest way to serve. Serving food on platters in the middle of the table so everyone can load up their own food means you can get the food to the table in a speedier way, and it'll keep warm longer. You can also try a combination of plating and sharing dishes. For example, you could put the roasted turkey on plates, so everyone gets a good serving, and then serve the veggies and sides in individual bowls. Another great advantage of this is that it allows for everyone to choose exactly what they want on their dinner plate, and how much. Some people love roast parsnips, but others can take them or leave them (via Mumsnet).
You may want to reconsider making individual-sized dishes too. A favorite side are so-called pigs in a blanket, with bacon wrapped around sausages, but for a dinner party you could serve up a giant version instead. Tasting Table shares a recipe for this. Spread pineapple mustard over a cooled-down pork tenderloin that has been seared for a few minutes to lock in the flavor. Wrap in Serrano ham and then puff pastry before glazing with a beaten egg and cooking. It makes a wonderful centerpiece for any festive dinner party table and tastes sensational too.
Prep veggies and freeze them
So, you're super organized and have done all the kitchen prep you can the night before. You have people to help and a realistic time for sitting down and eating Christmas Day dinner. or any meal with others during the festive holidays. Even with all this in place, you may find that you're still destined to spend more time than you'd like in the kitchen, away from everyone else, because there's simply so much to do and so much to do at specific times too. A clever suggestion featured in The Irish Sun may be worth considering so that you can actually enjoy your own dinner party.
The advice is to prep your dinner beforehand and then freeze it. If you prep all your veggies, for example, wash and peel them, then blanch them and place them in freezer bags, when the time comes for roasting your turkey, you can literally add the vegetables and cook them from frozen. This time-saving idea really does cut down on the stress factor too, as you're not busy rinsing and chopping your sides. It's also a great way to spread the cost too, as you don't have to get all your ingredients at the same time in the short run-up to Christmas, when some grocery items might be more difficult to find or have higher prices.
Make something you have made before
Each year, the festive season begins with a slow trickle before it snowballs into huge feasts and extravagant dinner parties. Plans are made for get-togethers from Hanukkah suppers all the way up to the end of the year, with the pinnacle of dining for many being the Christmas Day lunch. It's enough to spark creativity in any avid cook, with appetizers and entrees, plus desserts, along with themed dinners, indulgent fare, and gloriously delicious dishes.
While this 'tis the season to be merry with lots of great food, it 'tisn't the season to be stressed out because your cheese souffle which you've never made before has flopped. A feature in The Guardian with professional advice from chefs warns against trying out new ideas during Christmas.
If you want to serve up other dishes than the traditional festive ones of roast turkey and all the trimmings, there's nothing wrong with that, of course. There are some other great meals that fit the bill, such as serving a whole fish, for example. However, with several courses to make, and guests with high expectations around the table, this isn't the time to experiment. If you don't know what you're doing or how it'll turn out, you're only adding anxiety into the mix. You also don't want to be making food that's not to everyone's tastes either. Plan and practice a new dish beforehand or stick with tried and tested traditional fare that you know everyone will love.
Share the culinary tasks
There are some people who can don an apron and emerge from the kitchen with a delicious three-course dinner or festive feast without breaking a sweat. Checking that a pan isn't boiling over on the stove, and that nothing is burning in the oven, while simultaneously cleaning up spilled ingredients just doesn't phase them. Even if you're a culinary wizard, a festive dinner party can be stress-inducing and suck the joy out of a holiday. There's an old adage, that many hands make light work. In other words, delegate. With so many dishes to cook over Christmas, BBC Good Food advises not to go it alone.
Even before you step into the kitchen, work out who might be able to offer some assistance and how. This may entail asking others to make and bring dishes along, or it could be that you print out a recipe and then leave the actual cooking to someone else, or you may want to enlist help with certain tasks such as peeling potatoes.
Those who want to lighten your load, but who are useless at cooking may be better at setting the table, and there's nothing wrong with getting everyone involved when it comes to clearing up after they've dined on your delicious dishes. The key is to organize and make sure others know what they can do too.
Give healthy and easy dishes a festive feel
There is no culinary rule book that you have to serve certain dishes during the festive season. There are traditional menus of course, such as turkey and all the trimmings, but what about if you're hosting a dinner party over the holidays and want to mix things up? You may have had enough of roast meats and starchy indulgence and fancy something lighter and healthier dishes. With so much cooking, for so many, you may also want an easy recipe as well. You may not think salad fits with a Christmas dinner party, but it can if you give it a festive feel like one TikTok user.
Make a colorful salad wreath on a large circular platter with a head of spinach leaves and a container of raspberries and of strawberries. Crumble on a few ounces of goat cheese, and ½ a cup of honey-roasted peanuts. In the center, add a dressing, such as a raspberry vinaigrette, in a clear Christmas bauble decoration. The reds and green look wonderfully Christmassy. You can also make a Christmas tree-shaped platter. On a board, use a celery stalk as the tree trunk, add layers of green and purple grapes, and cubed cheese, in the shape of a tree. Roll a ball of cream cheese in chopped parsley and add to the top as the star. Sprinkle fresh herbs onto your platter as sprigs on the tree (via @ywmfamily on TikTok).
Get your tableware ready and set
While you may be across what to cook, when, and how in the kitchen, the dining room is a whole other arena, and if you're not organized it can take time, and a lot of stress to get set up. A simple, yet effective hosting tip, via TikTok, is to get all the tableware that you need out on the side beforehand. That way, you can see if you have everything you need to start with, such as enough plates and knives and forks. With everything close to hand, you can set the table quickly as well.
Of course, even setting the table can be a challenge if you're busy cooking and there's nobody else able to lend a hand, or willing perhaps! You don't want help from someone who doesn't know what goes where either as this can create problems when you serve up and everyone sits down too. Cut down on stress by setting the table for your dinner the night before. Not only does it mean you can focus on prepping the food on the day of the dinner, it also gives you time to add some creative touches too. You may want to make your table look a little festive with some decoration, and seeing everything laid out ready creates a sense of excitement (via How To Simplify).
Relax by making food ahead of time
It's not much of a jolly time if you're hosting a festive dinner party and you're stuck in the kitchen sweating over a hot stove. Instead, you want to be having a great time, socializing with loved ones, and generally looking after guests even if they're family who are either at home or feel at home. Being relaxed is convivial to a great atmosphere, and if you're the one in charge of food, then you're at the helm. To make the occasion run smoothly, a great idea is to serve food that can be made in advance. That way, you're freed up and not sweating in the kitchen beforehand or during courses. Serve a cheese and charcuterie board as guests arrive, and for a main course, a pesto pasta works well as you can make the sauce fresh the day before. You could serve it with a tomato and burrata salad which again can be made an hour in advance, with an orange sponge cake made the previous day (via TikTok).
If you really want a simple meal, perhaps one to serve on Christmas Eve before you spend a day in the kitchen, then you could create a super fun nacho table as this TikTok user did. Lay a strip of aluminum foil along the length of the table. Add nachos, pour on cheese sauce, and add toppings such as salsa, guacamole, and meat, plus sour cream. Let everyone help themselves. Done.
Make the event fun
Christmas isn't just about eating, although it's a great time of year to really enjoy some classic, favorite dishes for sure. Food is a way of bringing people together and connecting family and loved ones. A sit-down meal over the festive season can make people feel loved and add a sense of celebration with individual worries set aside in the spirit of sharing good times. With this in mind, why not make a dinner party over the holidays fun with aseasonal activity? You may not want your guests to sing for their supper, but you can get them to make their own dessert instead with some cookie decorating (via TikTok).
Add a plate of plain Christmas-themed cookies on the dining table in the middle. At each table setting, on a plate, give guests their own different colored small icing bags in Christmassy colors such as red and green, as well as some sprinkles. A gingerbread house in the middle of the table can really add a magical touch too, or why not follow an idea posted by this person on TikTok and have a blast with guests creating their own gingerbread houses instead? Lay out all the pieces at each setting, and put bowls of marshmallows, candies, candy canes, and sprinkles in the middle with some candy floss to add to the chimney as smoke. The great news is that your guests can take care of their own dessert.
Use Christmas wrap as a tablecloth
There's glassware for wine, water, and soft drinks, plus plates, cutlery, and serving dishes and utensils. There may also be paper hats and Christmas crackers, napkins, and table decorations such as sprigs of holly. Whether you're hosting a dinner party on Christmas Day for family or over the festive holidays for friends, the table during and after a meal can look like a disaster zone. Even if you have placemats, people stretching over to share dishes in the center inevitably means spilt food. Even if you have coasters for drinks, there's always the risk of watermarks on a lovely wooden table. And then there's the time it takes to clean up the stains and stuck-on bits of food after everything is cleared. The answer is simple and adds a festive touch thanks to this TikTok tip.
All you need to do is roll out some Christmas wrapping paper over the table before you set it. Make sure you cut the piece large enough so that it can be tucked underneath on all sides, and secure it with a little tape, as you would if you were wrapping a present. You don't need to just do this using one piece either, just make sure that the second festive paper cloth you lay down overlaps the first one, as you don't want any spaces between. This makes cleaning up afterward so much easier as you can simply scrunch up the paper and throw it away once you're done.