Your Complete Guide to Hosting An Amazing Holiday Dinner (with Menu & Timeline!)
I cannot believe Christmas is only 1 week away! Keeping with the spirit of the season, today I am sharing my Christmas Eve menu along with the recipes I will be following, my complete grocery list, and a timeline guide that allows me to get everything in order without punching myself in the face!
Last year my husband & I started a new tradition of hosting Christmas Eve at our new home and I loved every second of it. Entertaining can either be super fun & rewarding or unbelievably annoying & stressful - I find that it is a little bit of both. For me, staying hyper-organized is the only way entertaining is remotely possible.
Before I go into the details, here is a high level overview of how I get this thing going:
- A month or so out, I will figure out a rough idea of the guest list (# of people and what types of things I know they will be willing to eat) and timing. This step seems obvious but is very important in determining a high level plan of what food I will need. For example, if I am hosting from 3 - 9 PM I will plan to have multiple appetizers and drinks, a full meal, and a few dessert options. If only hosting from 5 - 8 PM I would have a light appetizer, full meal and maybe one dessert served immediately following.
- Armed with the above information, I will fill in how many options I will need for each category: drinks (with & without alcohol), appetizers, entree & side dishes, and desserts. Next to each item (e.g. appetizer #1) I will note down the number of servings I will need based on guest count.
- Next up - food! If I already have some things in mind, I will fill those in first. Then I get to hunting for recipes to fill in the gaps. I will scour Pinterest, cookbooks, the NY Times cooking website, Instagram and food blogs (Host the Toast and Skinnytaste are my favs) to compile a list of contenders that meet my criteria which generally include:
- Easy to make in large batches
- Ingredient list is reasonable in length & price
- Potential to make ahead of time
- Once I have a robust list of food options, I will whittle it down to a final menu based on what dishes will compliment one another (so I don't end up with 5 dips and 3 potato side dishes).
- I keep all of this in a spreadsheet (because I'm an accountant!) where next to each menu item I will note a timeline for completion. For example, next to dinner rolls I would add make & freeze the dough at least a week ahead of the event, thaw for the night before and bake on the day of. In a separate section of the spreadsheet I make an aggregated grocery list where I jot down the recipe, section of the the store the item can be found, item name, and quantity. Once I am all done with my list, it is easy to summarize this table by item to simplify my list.
Now that I have drowned you in logistics, here is my full Christmas Eve menu for 2018! Each item is linked to the recipe I plan to follow.
Drinks & Starters
Charcuterie platter loaded up with:
- Meats: prosciutto, soppresatta, capicola
- Cheeses: Gouda, caciocavallo or Parmesan, marinated bocconcini
- Crackers, homemade breadsticks and southern cheese straws
- Mixed olives, stuffed cherry peppers and orange-cranberry chia jam
Entree & Side Dishes
Rib eye steak (for the seafood haters)
Dessert
Here is my grocery list to make EVERYTHING I listed above:
And here is the timeline I will follow to get it all done. Good luck and happy hosting!
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