by Molly on December 16, 2010
You’re almost done with the holiday rush when you suddenly realize you agreed to throw this years New Year’s Eve party. You’re already having to put in extra time at work for everything you missed during the holidays and now you have to take the time to throw a party, too? Here are some ideas for hosting a great party with little time and effort:
- Invite: Create a New Year’s invitation to invite your friends, Cardstore.com will stamp and send them for you.
- Activity: Print out or make your own cards with fill in the blanks, such as “The skill I want to learn this year is ___” or ”The good deed I want to do this year is ―――,” or get creative with other New Year’s resolution ideas. Everyone can fill them out, then take turns reading them out loud and guess which one belongs to who.
- Appetizers: Stick to finger foods. Trader Jo’s and other grocery stores have a wide variety of hummus, dips, cheeses, crackers, nuts, and chips and you can even get pre-cut veggies.
- Entrée: Your guests will already be full from appetizers and won’t want a huge dinner, so stick to something hearty, but bite-sized.
- Dessert: Ask everyone to bring their favorite dessert. If you’d prefer to make it yourself, try making ice-cream sandwiches. Make your favorite cookie dough in advance when you have time, freeze it, and pull it out and put the cookies in the oven the day of. Scoop some ice cream in a bowl, add a cookie on top, and you’ll have a delicious dessert.
- Drinks: Provide the champagne then ask everyone to bring their own favorite drinks and mixes.
- Music: Don’t forget to create a playlist in advance. Make one full of your favorite songs or one that’s New Year’s themed. If you’re not a huge music lover, ask that friend with the gigantic iTunes library to make one for you.
- For more details and inspiration, check out Real Simple‘s tips on how to throw an easy New Year’s party.
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How and when is it appropriate to ask for an extra invite to an event? Is there any tactful way to bring an unexpected guest along? Emily enlightens us all once more.
The Don’ts:
- Never ask for an invite for yourself (“One may never ask for an invitation for oneself anywhere!” Emily announces emphatically.)
- Don’t bring along a guest to a meal: “And one may not ask for an invitation to a luncheon or a dinner for a stranger. But an invitation for any general entertainment may be asked for a stranger—especially for a house-guest,” clarifies Emily. While I generally agree with this rule–especially at larger, more formal events, I doubt it follows for small family gatherings. Chances are, your family will be more than pleased to have some extra company. Hold off on asking at friend’s dinner parties however. Weddings, baby showers, and any other similar event are a big no-no as well!
The Do’s:
- Emily’s Example: “Dear Mrs. Worldly,
A young cousin of mine, David Blakely from Chicago, is staying with us.
May Pauline take him to your dance on Friday? If it will be inconvenient for you to include him, please do not hesitate to say so frankly.
Very sincerely yours,
Caroline Robinson Town.
- What you can learn from it:
- Keep it short – There’s no reason to add many superfluous words or excuses. Doing so will only add pressure to the host to accept, or make the added guest seem like a larger burden than they truly are.
- Introduce the guest – List their name, how you know them, and where they are from.
- Make sure to include a question – Instead of phrasing your request as a statement (ie I was hoping to bring David as a guest to your event on Thursday, if you wouldn’t mind), use a question. It’s less presumptuous and gives the host greater freedom to politely refuse. And don’t forget to use “may” instead of “can,” of course!
Look forward to more letter writing tips (and Emily Post wisdom) next Tuesday!
Emily Post quotes from her book Etiquette, published in 1922.
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Happy August everyone! I recently learned that August is Peach Month, so I figured there could be no better way to celebrate the beginning of this month than with an inspiration board dedicated to peaches, based on a save the date card from Motormouthpress. There’s nothing I love more than picking a tender peach off of the fruit tree in our back yard, and eating it right there. The soft, pretty pink of the outside contrasted with the sometimes bright yellow, sometimes light white inside of a peach makes this fruit one of my favorites. I have a plethora of peaches sitting on the counter, waiting for me to cook something up, and I can’t wait to smell the deliciousness! Does anyone have any fun recipes to share? For those of you who don’t have peaches on your counter right now, you’ll have to make do with the inspiration board below. But with such pretty images, it’s not such a bad tradeoff to look at these pictures while you wait to get your own yummy peaches!
Peach Magenta Knot Wedding Save the Date card by Motormouth Press at Cardstore.com
Casino Nights Blouse from Anthropologie
Peach Flowers from Style Me Pretty
Peach photo from Flickr photographer I Nancy
Peach and Ivory Rosette Headband from Etsy vendor plainNfancy
Grandma’s Peach Cake from Martha Stewart
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