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How to have holiday parties on the cheap

By Katie on 16 November 2009  |  No Comments

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, the holiday season of 2009 is about to get underway. Here are some ideas for having all the fun and festivities without totally draining your bank account.

1. Keep it small – some families naturally have the luxury of a small and intimate gathering. If you’re not obligated to go over-the-top with your holiday party, then don’t! Invite only the family and a few close friends to keep the costs manageable. Other families have several immediate members and innumerable extended family members and significant others, and for them we’d recommend…
2. Potluck – the simplest solution when you want to entertain a large group of people without breaking the bank. Offer your home as the venue, and perhaps offer to take care of the turkey. Each additional person attending is responsible for providing a dish for the party (it often makes sense to provide a list of staple dishes and allow guests to choose the dish they’d like to provide). The benefits of the potluck are that you’ll wind up with a good range of dishes for the appetizers, main course, and dessert, and there will be plenty of food to go around (and most likely leftovers as well).
3. If neither keeping it small nor having a potluck is an option for you, here’s a few simple ways to cut costs for your holiday party:

• Keep it casual. Instead of a sit-down dinner, lay out a few hors d’oeuvres for an afternoon party where people can drop by as they please. Or have a dessert-only party with wine and coffee later in the evening.
• Cut back on decorations. Instead of splurging on decor, use candles and ornaments that you already have in the house. A few candles can work like magic to help set the holiday ambience, or set colorful bowls of candy around the house for a fun and cheap way to spice up the look of things.
• Don’t go all-out with the booze. You don’t need to have a bottle of every kind of liquor in stock. Stick to wine and beer and non-alcoholic beverages for your guests.

Do you have an additional tips for keeping parties cheap this holiday season?