Top Tips for Planning the Food at Your Christmas Party

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Are you taking ownership of the Christmas party this year, or perhaps in charge of organising the food? The food plays an important role in the party, and while there are many great food options to choose from, it also involves meticulous planning if you want it to be a success. 

Here are some top tips for planning the food at your Christmas party for the best night. 

#1 Get everyone’s dietary requirements

It is vital that you first speak to all your guests before arranging the food, to obtain any dietary requirements. You never know who may have a strict requirement or a severe allergy, and the last thing you want is to cause any harm, or spend time and money planning and buying everything and have to change it all. 

#2 Come up with a theme for the party 

Once you have a better idea of what food you cannot serve at the party, you can start to think about what food you can. The best place to start is to decide on a theme for the party, and then you can tailor the food to the theme. For Christmas, there are plenty of themes to choose from, for example, you can go traditional, or more specific, such as Winter Wonderland, Christmas cheese party, Christmas around the world, a Christmas costume party, and much more. 

#3 Buffet or sit down meal? 

Whether you choose to serve buffet-style food at your party, or a sit-down meal, will entirely depend on the theme, the number of attendees and the intention of the party. A sit-down meal will entail arranging adequate seating and chairs, assigning seats for each attendee, taking meal orders and organising a coordinated eating time. A sit-down meal, however, is a great way to get people closer together, and have more formal conversations. A buffet-style arrangement will entail a more flexible dining option, as it will not have a strict time to eat or seating arrangements. It will mean guests can pick and choose what to eat, and when, throughout the night, and mingle with a variety of other guests. Your bespoke catering team will be able to help you arrange the best dining option for your party. 

#4 Think outside the box 

Christmas parties happen every year, and they are usually very similar. It can be a great opportunity to think about how you can make the Christmas food unique to all other past events. There is no shortage of ideas when it comes to Christmas that can please the crowd, especially if you opt for buffet-style dining, for example, Christmas shaped pizzas, savoury s'mores, cranberry brie tartlets, Christmas tree cheesecakes, and Christmas Brie. The idea is to see where you can combine your theme, with popular Christmas dishes, and see what you can twist it into.

Planning the food for your Christmas party can be a challenge, but is worth the effort. Once you have everyone’s dietary requirements, see where you can think outside the box and make it a dining experience to remember.