If you are planning a holiday party, you already know that food can be one of your biggest expenses. However, you can plan the perfect party and still cut food costs. You don’t even need to consider serving expensive appetizers and beverages to throw a great party this holiday season. A little imagination, creativity, and effort can make your festivities a truly memorable occasion.
Here are some of the ways I’ve learned to save on the cost of party food over the holiday season without sacrificing fun or quality:
Thirst Quenchers On A Budget – The start to any successful holiday party is the beverages. Rather than put a table out filled with cans of soda and bottles of water, buy big liters of soda and jugs or pitchers of fresh drinking water. A casual party will allow guests to travel around with their cups, returning to the table to refill with ice and more soda. If your holiday party is more formal and you have someone serving your guests, you’ll still want to use the larger bottles, but keep them out of sight. Consider mixing up a punch out of frozen concentrated juices and a splash of clear soda. It’s inexpensive and pretty to boot! Don’t forget to keep coffee as well as hot tea and iced tea handy during the entire event. It’s inexpensive and you will be a good host.
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.
Potluck Time – A holiday potluck is a great way to get to know your guests! What better way to share your holiday than to share your recipes. Potlucks are appropriate for very casual holiday gatherings of folks who feel comfy together or folks who want to get to know each other better. Casual is the keyword here. When you are the host of a holiday potluck, you want to be responsible for at least one main dish, then you can choose to make it a real potluck, meaning you have no idea what’s coming, or you may want to ask people to bring something within a certain food category. My opinion is that if it’s a potluck, make it a real one, but if someone asks you what they should bring, than you can certainly steer them toward something you may want to round out the dinner. Potlucks are fun and you will surely end up with an interesting assortment of foods. Remind your guests to bring their recipes, unless they are keeping a family recipe a secret!
Desserts Only – A late evening holiday party is the perfect time to treat for dessert. This does not need to be expensive. Far from it! A store bought angel food cake with some creative toppings works great! Make a powdered sugar frosting, making sure it’s on the thin side, and flavor with some lemon extract, or any flavoring you like. Drizzle over the top of thinly sliced cake on pretty plates. Garnish with fresh carnation petals, or even some fresh lavender, or lilac petals. They’re all pretty, edible, and so festive your guests will think you splurged big time! You can also take some inexpensive chocolate, melt it down with a little cream and butter, and use that to drizzle over the slices of cake. Stick a sprig of fresh mint in and you’ve got a gourmet dessert by anyone’s standards!
Party That Travels – If you celebrate a holiday that many of your neighbors and friends are celebrating, consider sharing the day. One household hosts the snack and beverage part of the party, the next family feeds the guests their main course, and the final family has dessert and coffee all ready. Just block off a chunk of time for each “course”, being a bit flexible as people will need to get from one house to the next. So, serve hors d’oeuvres for so many hours, then the main course for so many hours, then the dessert for the last so many hours. Keep the menu rather casual as folks will be moving around and not seated at any one place too long. This type of holiday dinner should definitely be a buffet.
As you can see, your holiday party does not have to cost a lot of money to be a huge success. Be creative and plan some time to shop around before you make your final decision. You can do this!
Looking for even more free and easy Christmas meals? Start right here at FreeQuickRecipes.com and start planning your holiday festivities today.
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- Christmas Sweets And Christmas Parties
- The Easiest Ways To Buy Party Supplies
