How to Host a Christmas Potluck Party
You are finally in charge of the holiday party and you figured that the best option would be going with a potluck theme. The next step will be making sure that there are plenty dishes in all of the right categories so that there are not twenty desserts, one main dish and one side dish. There has to be a better way to plan out your potluck so that there is an even amount of dishes and everyone is going to have a great time while enjoying a good variety of foods. Even though you are not going to be cooking an entire meal, you will find that having some good control over the event will be a great way to make sure that everything goes well. Here are some helpful tips that will be wonderful for any holiday potluck hosting:
– Always know your guests and what their strengths might be when it comes to certain foods. If you have a cousin that makes a famous dip or casserole, be sure to ask them to make that for your pot luck. If you know that you have some people who love to order take out because they are always busy, ask them to bring something such as rolls, napkins or something else that will be helpful for the pot luck yet easy for them to grab on the way from work.
– Do you have enough room to accommodate for all of the food items. Ask ahead of time to see if someone needs to have space in the refrigerator or if you will need some outlets for plugging in a crockpot or even if you need to heat your oven up for them ahead of time. At the same time, it is always going to be good to double check to see what serving utensils will be needed and maybe even see if your guests can bring their own just so you are sure that there will be plenty of utensils for serving purposes.
– Always ask your guests if they can mark their containers as well as their utensils ahead of time or even go with disposable. This is a good way of knowing what items need to be returned to the right person and you are making sure that everyone has their belongings at the end of the night or when you are done with clean up.
– What would you like to do about seating? Sometimes, going with casual seating is going to be best to go with the laid back pot luck theme. However, if you are not sure if you are going to have enough space for people to sit down, you will want to see if guests can bring finger foods that can be eaten while standing up or even ask if there are some who can bring chairs to the event to add to the seating options.
– While it may seem easy to remember, a lot of people will often focus on the dishes at a pot luck and completely forget about the drinks. You never have to provide a full bar but you can always put on a nice spread with some beer, wine and even a spiked eggnog for your guests to sample, along with a few non-alcoholic beverages as well. For any kids who will be in attendance, you will be amazed at just how easy it is for juice boxes instead of little ones trying to pour cups of drinks all night.
