Entertaining Guests this Christmas: Our Tips
Is it your turn to host family and friends this Christmas Day? Or perhaps you’ve offered to entertain everyone in the run up to the New Year? Either way, you’ll certainly appreciate some of our top tips for a festive season to remember. Read on to discover how you can make life that little bit easier on yourself…
Plan!
It may seem an obvious one, but try not to leave much in the way of Christmas dinner preparation ’til the last minute. If you know you’ll be sharing a tipple or two with family on Christmas Eve, perhaps chop and peel the veg for the following day before they arrive. That way, you won’t have the bother of getting up earlier than anticipated to get started, sore head included, on Christmas morning. If you know you won’t be using the dining table until the big day, you could even go as far as to lay it a day or so before, adding freshly-washed cutlery and crockery just before you sit down to eat. This saves it gathering dust and means you can do a spot of last-minute polishing, if you need to.
‘Dish’ Up
Hosting a Christmas buffet? Encourage everyone to bring a dish to keep preparations to a minimum, or don’t be too hard on yourself if you order in a few pre-packaged (or pre-cooked!) essentials for the food table. No one will care on December 25; they’ll be much too merry on port or Prosecco to notice.
Get the Kids Involved
Rope in the kids for some last-minute party preparation. They’ll love getting involved and it’ll help you tick a few things off your to-do list as well.
Keep Your Menu Simple
Simplicity is key when you’re cooking for a lot of people, so make sure you ensure your Christmas Day menu is as easy as possible to prepare – and with as few elements as you can think of. Yes, those Parmesan parsnips and star anise carrots may seem a good idea, but have you really got time for the extra faffing on Christmas morning?
Give Key Appliances a Test Run
Do you only rescue your hand blender from the back of the cupboard once a year? Or maybe your microwave doesn’t actually get much use on a daily basis. If you know you’ll need to use them to prepare Christmas dinner, though, think about checking everything’s working well in advance. The last thing you’ll need when you’re getting the food ready is something to go bang. But don’t panic; here’s what you can do if it does.
Ensure Christmas runs even smoother by heading over to read a few of our latest posts here at My Appliances. You might like this one, in which we give you some classic festive cocktail recipes. Or why not check out which appliances will have the preparations running like clockwork?
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Until next time…