Tips to Make Entertaining Fast, Easy and Inexpensive

Do you have a lot of friends that you owe 'get-togethers' to? Friends that invite you over during the holidays, special friends and acquaintances from clubs or organizations that you belong to or fellow workers that you are close to? Would you like to have them stop over during the holidays, but the thought of all of those people and the separate parties is just too much to think about?

Try this:
Have several or maybe one big OPEN HOUSE. Set a day and the time (say from 1-4 p.m. or 7-11:00p.m.) and send an open invitation to everyone.

What to serve:

Remember this is a 'social' get together that has a lot of talking and chances to meet new people.

Drinks
You may have punch, several variations of flavored coffees or teas, sodas, fruit juices, alcoholic drinks or a combination of all. As far as the food goes, make it simple, you want to be able to enjoy your guests.

Finger Foods
Maybe several different types of bagels, flavored breads, cookies or donuts. You may want to go the snack route and have, pretzels, various chips, dips and salsas.

Show-off open house
How about a 'Bring your favorite dessert' party and let everyone show off their expertise.

Easy Sandwich Idea
Order a large size sub (or maybe two or three) from Wal-Mart or some sub shop and cut in smaller 'sample' pieces so they can try everything and eat when they want.

Hot Food Ideas
Stay away from the 'cook in the kitchen' types of foods, unless you are going to go with things that can be kept in a Nesco or slow cooker. Try shaved ham on smaller dinner rolls or buns, baked beans, veggies and dips etc.

Cleaning up:
This is the part that most of us tend to hate at the end of the get-togethers. I know I don't look forward to it, but there are ways of making this a fast project by taking the right steps all through the evening. By planning ahead, we can save ourselves a lot of time, energy and frustration.

Don't get out your fine china over the holidays, accidents do happen. Go with the paper plates and plastic fork items, clean up is a lot faster and easier for you at the end of the night.

Keep a spray bottle with vinegar and water handy for those spills. It will clean up the mess and also help take care of a lot of possible stains.

This is a perfect time of year for those handy little wipes that are on the market. Furniture polish wipes, glass cleaner wipes, counter top wipes and even the leather cleaner wipes. One-two-three and everything is dusted, wiped and sparkling in a matter of just a few minutes!

Purchase a bottle of Odor Ban, to spray around the room and get rid of the leftover odors or just to refresh the room. This is a neutralizer and gives off a fresh eucalyptus aroma that makes the whole house smell better.

Do you have any quick tips to make your get-togethers go smoothly?

Posted December 21, 2007, filed in It's That Time, Living Simply, Less is More