So, you’re planning a holiday party. I guess you’re already wondering how you’re going to afford the food for this festive get together. It’s not the easiest thing to do, coming up with new ideas to save money. But, party food is one place you can get pretty inventive. After all, you should try to have a bit of fun with this… it’s a party, after all.
Here are some simple tips and suggestions to help you save money on food when throwing your next holiday party, without sacrificing fun:
Thrifty Thirst Quenchers – Starting with the party beverages, skip the canned or individual bottles of soda or water. Big, two-liter soft drinks and large jugs of water are much less expensive yet still easy to serve. If it’s a casual holiday party, you can simply provide a bucket of ice next to the cups and allow your guests to serve themselves. Or, rather than serving soda, mix up batches of lemonade either fresh or from concentrate. You may also want to use frozen concentrates with a splash of soda to mix up an inexpensive punch of lemonade, orange, apple, or whatever concoction you can put together. Iced tea, hot tea and coffee are also inexpensive beverages to keep handy at all times.
Snacking Is Classic – Sticking with classic holiday season snacks may be the perfect thing for your party. Traditional foods at casual holiday gatherings include fresh vegetable trays with an assortment of creamy dips, as well as trays of cheese and sausage. Don’t buy pre-made veggie trays. Instead, buy vegetables in bulk and wash and cut them up yourself. They’ll be less expensive and better quality when they’re fresh cut by you. Buy cheese and sausage the same way. The little extra time you spend cutting up your own snacks will be worth it both in money and in what your snacks look like, and taste like. Buy nuts in bulk and put in pretty and festive little dishes around the room. If you can afford an assortment of olives, that’s a nice touch next to the sausage and cheese trays.
Finger Foods For Fun – Serving small sandwiches, an assortment of fresh cut veggies, chips, and dip is probably one of the easiest ways to please your holiday guests. Add some Pinwheels to that menu and you are guaranteed to hear some compliments. Pinwheels are just tortilla roll-ups, with a few ingredients inside, cut into circles, but they are always a hit. Look for a recipe or create your own. Big bags of boneless chicken wings or meatballs is another way to inexpensively include a filling finger food in your holiday party menu. You can make any tray look festive by decking it out with some fresh greens like kale or romaine lettuce. Just look for something green, fresh, and inexpensive and lay your veggies or wings on top. A few slices of lemon makes everything look great. Then all you need is some pretty paper plates and napkins and let the mingling begin.
International Night – If your holiday party will be a dinner party where fingers foods are not appropriate, you may want to serve inexpensive dishes chosen from a particular nationality. Every country has some sort of dish that’s frugal as well as delicious. If Italian food is your favorite, try spaghetti with garlic bread and an antipasto tray. If you find a good price on plain cheese pizza, you can add different toppings to have a nice variety while still keeping the price down. A Mexican meal is also easy to plan. Anything from simple Tacos, to Enchiladas, to Mexican Rice will certainly please your special holiday guests. Warm Tortilla Chips and fresh Salsa will stretch out the meal. Some surprisingly inexpensive meals to make are Greek dishes. Consider classic Greek Salads with big chunks of bread. You may also want to try Cabbage Rolls, or Lahanodolmathes, which are easy to make and quite inexpensive.
Share A Potluck – If you thought potlucks were just for church gatherings, think again. This holiday party planning option is catching on big time. This holiday party is usually a casual gathering of folks who know each other pretty well, and if not, you’ll get to know each other better. The host of the party needs to provide a main dish, but everyone else, in order for it to be a true potluck, brings whatever they want. Now, if someone asks you what you should bring, you can use the opportunity to request a specific dish, but I like the surprise, myself. Ask everyone to bring a copy of their special holiday recipe, unless it’s a well guarded family secret recipe, of course!
Just Desserts – If you plan your holiday party for late evening, you may want to have a Dessert Party. There are many dessert recipes that are inexpensive and easy to make. For instance, you can purchase a undecorated angel food cake, inexpensively, from any grocery store that has a bakery department. Then, with very little expense and even less effort, you can create an assortment of toppings to go over your cake. Serve by drizzling some melted chocolate, powdered sugar frosting, fruit toppings, or what have you, over slivers of cake on dessert plates and voila!… you have a fancy dessert! Buy a bouquet of fresh carnations, fresh lavender, or lilacs, and sprinkle their petals on top for a real fancy touch. Yes, they’re edible. Serve freshly brewed coffee with a few small pitchers of cold, flavored cream, really inexpensive non-dairy creamer, and your party is complete! No one will guess you hardly spent any money at all.
Traveling Party – These holiday parties work particularly well when several people within the same circle of friends is celebrating the same holiday season. If you have three families in the same neighborhood, each family takes a portion of the party and hosts it at their house. One family starts out with hors d’oeuvres and beverages, the second family with the main dish, and the third family with desserts and coffee. You want to get together on the menu so that the three families are on the same page when it comes to the atmosphere of the party. The food should be casual as people will be coming and going. This kind of holiday party is never a sit-down dinner and should always be served buffet style. Try to plan a specific block of time for each “course”, knowing that you’ll need to be a bit flexible to allow for the flow of people-traffic through each house.
If you can’t afford expensive catering for your holiday party, you need to get creative with your menu and your plan. It’s really not that hard to come up with frugal and fun ways to save big money on your holiday party budget. Give it a try!
Looking for some Christmas dinner ideas that are a little different this year? Check out FreeQuickRecipes.com for lots of fun recipes and more.
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