Entertaining is definitely a passion of ours, but during the holidays we seriously ramp it up, even for us. Already on our hosting calendar for December is a Christmas brunch with Bob’s side of the family, a Christmas cocktail party with our neighbors, a potential gathering with Bob’s co-workers, and the usual Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. Add in any number of the impromptu get togethers we’re known for and it’s safe to say that this time of year I go into hostess mode for a month or more straight. That’s why today I’ve teamed up with the folks at Tyson® to share my top ten tips for easy last minute holiday entertaining! It’s my goal to help you feel empowered to entertain during the holidays, even if maybe you don’t typically throw parties or even consider yourself a host or hostess. So here I’m sharing my favorite ways to streamline prep work, inspiration for really simple recipes, and a bunch of “do ahead” and “last minute” ideas so you can hop off to the grocery store the night before or last minute and bring things together without a lot of stress.
Christmas
A few years ago Bob and I sat down over coffee and had a long talk about our holiday shopping tendencies. It wasn’t our first such talk, but it was the cumulative talk where we got real with ourselves about our Christmas shopping habits to date and devised a new set of Christmas gifting traditions. Today I am collaborating with Walmart to share more about those new traditions and how we decided we wanted to put more effort into selecting fewer, more memorable gifts for the kids and our loved ones over the holiday season. We realized we were both feeling frantic every holiday season and it seemed we were buying endless stacks of gifts that lost their meaning because they were just one among many. We knew we wanted our kids to look back and remember joyful holiday celebrations full of love, cheer and a few really special gifts instead of just never-ending tearing of paper from packages. So, we are now the family with stockings packed full of little goodies, a small handful of carefully chosen gifts for each family member, and matching Christmas pajamas to give Christmas morning that extra cheeky cheer. I mean, you can’t forget the matching Christmas pajamas!
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, things are about to get decidedly merry around these parts! Tis the season for entertaining and I, for one, could not be happier to host family and friends as often as possible over the next several weeks. Today I’ve teamed up with 34 Degrees to share a few easy tips and inspiring ideas for hosting a simple yet super chic holiday cocktail party. I think this is truly the easiest way to entertain over the holidays and oftentimes the most fun, too! You won’t have to spend hours prepping, cooking and then cleaning the kitchen and with a stash of 34 Degrees crisps at the ready, you can serve up tasty gourmet bites in a flash. Plate them alongside a selection of delicious cocktails, crank your favorite holiday playlist and you’ve got a hip holiday party waiting to happen.
Last year my sister Ash and I sat down before the holidays and came up with The Sweetest Occasion’s first annual holiday wine guide featuring some of our favorite wines, all of which come in at under $25 a bottle. This year we’re back at it again, with an updated wine guide just in time for Thanksgiving! We kept a lot of our old standbys, but freshened up the list with some of the new wines we’ve discovered and grown to love over the last year. We have wines here for just about every holiday occasion whether it be for sipping while binge watching Christmas movies, gifting your mother in-law, mulling with citrus and spices or for pairing with your holiday dinners. Neither of us claims to be a sommelier, we just really love trying and discovering new wines, and we both fully believe that you can get a great bottle of wine for a great price. For what it’s worth, you could gift either of us any of these bottles and we’d be super happy campers! Do you have any favorites to add to the list? Chime in below so I can give them a try!
This super pretty gingerberry sparkler is a cocktail that I made over the holidays and shared over on Inspired By This. I had fully intended to share the post then, but if you recall that was right about the time that I came down with the first wave of the death plague that decided to hang around for nearly a month and it just never happened. That said, this cocktail would make the perfect bubbly concoction for sipping while you’re watching the Oscar’s this weekend!
For me a white Russian is a special treat. They aren’t something I drink often, but for some reason they seem particularly appropriate as a Christmas cocktail to me. A couple of years ago I made these salted caramel white Russians that were a hit so this year I wanted to play on the classic …
I’ve mentioned before that I love crafting this time of year more than other. Maybe it’s the excuse to go all out with gold leaf and confetti and glitter? That may very well have a little or a lot to do with it, admittedly. Specifically, creating really pretty homemade ornaments feels like it’s becoming a …
This post was sponsored by CVS Photo. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make The Sweetest Occasion possible! I always love giving photo gifts for Christmas, especially to my parents, siblings and close friends. This year I wanted to find a really special way to make use of the many amazing images that were …
This post was sponsored by CVS Photo. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make The Sweetest Occasion possible! On the tree at my dad’s house, there are four old ornaments all bearing the faces, names and birth year of my siblings and I. As an adult I’ve grown to love those ornaments more than …
These free printable Christmas gift tags were designed by Erika Firm and add the sweetest bit of merry to your holiday packages. Download, print and use them on Christmas gifts large and small. I’m a big sucker for a well styled Christmas gift. Ask my family. Wrapping the gifts is a holiday task I take …
This post was sponsored by Dr. Oetker Virtuoso Pizza. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make The Sweetest Occasion possible! Decorating the tree is undoubtedly one of my favorite parts of the holiday season each year. As a kid I loved helping my mom unwrap all the ornaments while my dad strung the lights. Oftentimes …
This post was sponsored by Keurig Green Mountain®. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make The Sweetest Occasion possible! When I think about entertaining during the holidays, I like things to feel really fun and special for friends and family, but not at the expense of my sanity. We have a huge family and …