Where I’m from, Christmas parties are held from October on in work places, among friends and families. Why bother with all the decorations (and stress) if you only get to enjoy Christmas for one night? If you already haven’t had one; start planning your Pre-Christmas Shindig 2012. Here are my tips to help your planning:
FOOD & DRINK
Oven Pancake
What you need? 4 deciliters flour, 1.5 deciliters sugar, 1 tea spoon baking powder, 1 tea spoon salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar, 8 deciliters milk, 2 eggs, 100 g melted butter.
What you need to do? Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar together. Add milk, eggs and butter. Pour into a baking tray, bake in 225 Celsius degrees for 30 minutes. Serve with jam, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Salmon Rolls
What you need? Potato bread, smoked salmon, cream cheese, avocado
What you need to do? Cut squares of potato bread, spread cream cheese, cover with a salmon slice, add a piece of avocado, roll.
Home Made Mulled Wine
What you need? 3 deciliters blackcurrant juice, 5 deciliters water, 2 deciliters sugar, cinnamon stick, a piece of dried ginger, 1 table spoon cardamom, 1 table spoon carnation seeds (and if you feel so, vodka)
What you need to do? Add the juice, water and spices in the pot, boil for 15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the glasses putting raisins and dried almonds in them. Add alcohol to juice and pour the drink in glasses. Serve hot.
(For those visiting IKEA in near future, you can buy alcohol free mulled wine from the Swedish Food Market)
DECORATIONS
You can add some Christmas Spirit to your home by putting small led-lights in baskets, glass items and lanterns or simply by using candles (here is where empty wine bottles come in handy, just stick a tall candle in the bottle). You’d be surprised how much difference you make by just changing your table cloth to a red one!
ACCESSORIZING
Anything sparkling goes. H&M sells these nail colors in 2 packs, for less than 4 quids. Dries fast and looks festive!
TO DO
Secret Santa works always; If you want to make it bit more special, make up a theme for your guests (for example everyone needs to bring a CD of their favorite band when they were teenagers, it needs to be home made, it needs to be red, it needs to be a piece of clothing they won’t use anymore…)
Christmas memories: Everyone writes a Christmas memory on a piece of paper and puts it in a jar, then everyone picks up a memory and read it out loud and the rest guess whose memory it was. This could be for example “The Best Christmas Memories”, “The Most Awkward Christmas Memories”.
Create a playlist for the party. Make sure it’s long enough so you don’t have to spend your time being a DJ at your own party.
Christmas Photo Booth: Take a picture of each of your guests with their Christmas Greeting written on a blackboard. Later on you can create a collage of your friend’s greetings and look back your great party. Photo Booth can be made in a corner with a red sheet/curtain/table cloth and blackboard can be replaced with cardboard or thick paper.
Christmas party can be gathered together with very little effort and all that really matters in the end is the company. Merry Shindig!
