The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Entertaining Tips!

It's day two of  The Most Wonderful Time of the Year linkup hosted by Sarah and Victoria. 

Today's co-host is Classic Catherine. 

Today's topic is Holiday Entertaining Tips!

I have always loved reading about how people entertain, so once I got married I was excited to host our own Christmas dinner.
We are hoping to make this a yearly event, so I'm planning and preparing to make this year better than last.
I have a few tips that I used last year and a couple that I've put in place since then. 

Plan Ahead

I honestly think I started planning for our Christmas dinner this year the day after our dinner last year. 

I knew what I liked about the dinner and what I wished had gone differently, so I started keeping notes on my phone, so I would remember them for this year. 

Over the summer I worked on our menu-what I wanted to keep, add or change. 

I'm a planner, and if something isn't planned ahead, then I tend to forget it. 

My #1 entertaining tip is to plan ahead!

Homemade/Store Bought

My second tip is to make some things homemade and buy some things from the store. 

I didn't do this last year, and I really paid for it. 

I tend to always want everything to be homemade, but sometimes there just isn't the time to make everything by yourself. 

This year I plan to buy some buns from a local bakery and order a salad from a restaurant. 

These aren't major changes, but I think they will save me time and sanity. 

Make Items Ahead

Last Christmas we ended up making unplanned stops, so what extra time I thought I would have to make and bake things I didn't. 

It was kind of a rat race coming down to the dinner, but we made it. 

This year I've planned out our menu so that I can make half of the items a day ahead, so that we won't have to wait and make everything the day of. 

I'm really hoping that having half of the menu ready ahead of time will help to make the dinner less stressful.

Don't Offer Too Many Options

I never want to run out of food, so I tend to make too much food. 

I'd always rather have too much than too little; however, I think I overdid the options last Christmas. 

I had two or more pies that no one even touched. 

Cookies, pies, cake, candies...it was all a little much. 

This year I'm hoping to be more intentional on choosing select items and not getting too many items that it's overwhelming for people and we end up wasting some food in the end. 

Holiday entertaining is so fun!

I'm interested in seeing what tips/tricks everyone else has thought of that I've forgotten.