Good morning, friends!
Today, I am linking up with the wonderful Nina of According to Nina as she inspires us with all of her holiday entertaining tips and ideas.
I absolutely love to entertain! I have dreams of hosting parties all throughout the month of December. I want to host an ornament exchange, a cookie exchange, a tacky sweater party, a white elephant gift exchange, a Christmas Eve open house and a Christmas Day breakfast.
But, I am a mom to two young boys and most of these ideas just aren’t possible for us right now.
I still want to make Christmas special for my family while I have fun planning, decorating and entertaining for a small crowd.
This year, I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner. Because Christmas is on a Sunday this year and we’ll be at church in the morning, we decided to have an evening Christmas Day meal.
Set the Menu
For Christmas Eve, our tradition is to have gumbo. It’s delicious, it’s warm, it’s hearty and it’s tradition! It’s also very simple! We serve gumbo with a green salad and French bread. I’ll post the gumbo recipe later this week when I link up with Molly from Duchess of Fork.
In addition to the gumbo, we have yummy snacks. This year we’ll have sausage balls, a cheese spread and party mix.
Set the Table
I like to keep it simple when it comes to “tablescapes.” I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew and I like to use things that I have around the house.
I use my every day china. Last year, my mom went outside and clipped some greenery from a neighbor’s bush and we put it in our center piece. Crafty!
Just tying a few little bows around some things can spruce it up. Maybe you have an apothecary jar, a trifle dish or a group of candles. Anything can be used as a center piece. Add some apples, oranges and ribbon and you’re set!
Set the Mood
Light candles, turn on the lights on the tree and the smell of delicious food will fill the home.
I love Christmas music and love my Christmas playlists on iTunes. My favorite for our Christmas Eve events looks like this!
Relax
After dinner, we wind down and put on our Christmas pajamas. Then we get ready for Santa Claus. All the grandparents are excited about Santa Claus visiting Hudson and Hayes, so we all take time to prepare. We read the Christmas story out of Luke and then The Night Before Christmas. Then we set out some treats for Santa on his special plate.
It’s not entertaining for a crowd, but it’s entertaining for our family and it is tradition.
My dream is to host a party for all of our friends who stay in town for Christmas. After Christmas Eve services I want to come back to my house and hang out while the kids all play together. That’s what I love about Christmas– it’s about celebrating the birth of Christ with family, friends and neighbors. As long as we’re together, it’s a party!
You are hosting 2 meals back-to-back! Impressive! I am loving your itunes playlist…Point of Grace can definitely set the mood! 🙂
The Santa treats plate is so cute!!!! I’m so glad you posted the Itunes list. It’s a great mixture of Christmas music all in one place.
I always think about hosting a Christmas Party, but then when I think of all the logistics (and how busy I already am), I change my mind. Maybe one day when my family is a little older, and things in my life a bit calmer I’ll have a big shindig.
I loved reading about your Christmas traditons. We are always switching up our Christmas Eve menu, but I have always wanted to have a signature dish that becomes a tradition for us every year. I love your gumbo tradition!!! Past menus for us have included: chili night, frogmore stew (SC gals will understand this one), heavy appetizers and a dessert bar, a baked potato bar, and even a catfish fry but none of these have stuck from year to year. Too bad the fish fry did not stick because my daddy loved taking control of the kitchen from us girls for the evening, and he does make the world’s BEST catfish and hush puppies, but my poor mother said the house smelled for days and was so embarrased when our guest arrived for Christmas day dinner.
Lovely!!
Love your tablescape! It is perfectly beautiful and simple, all at the same time
That sounds divine! I would love to do something like that!! Our parents won’t let us host the holidays- they insist on hosting which makes traveling with two little ones all sorts of fun! Love the traditions!
I too love to host Christmas parties! I have been doing Christmas Eve with gumbo for family and close friends for 20 years now! My boys were 5 and 3 when I started that tradition. My dad passed away this year and the thought of entertaining just isn’t there. so….we are changing things up and spending Christmas in Nassau at Atlantis. For many years while the boys were young/teens we hosted a huge get together with another family. We called it ” A caroling we will go!” We started out at my house for Chili and Hot Dogs. We rented two trolleys and everyone boarded the trolleys, stopping at several homes to sing Christmas carols. Someone brought a guitar,and of course we had a schedule and printed sheet music! We ended the party with dessert/hot chocolate and a visit from Santa at my friends house. Why did we stop? I think once the boys turned about 15 it wasn’t “cool” anymore:( Enjoy them while they are young…lol
Love your blog! New follower:) I love to entertain, too!
This is great!! I love how you keep the traditions very you and your family.
I love your Santa’s Treats plate! Do you remember where you got it?
Hey Erin! Been playing catch up on blogs all day, just wanted to say I loved your Christmas decorations from the link up. I also adore your place settings, do you mind sharing the name of that pattern?
Hope you’re well, crossing my fingers I get to see you in Feb!