Christmas Menu Planning For Great Christmas Party Food

Less Stress Christmas Menu Planning

Hey, don't let your Christmas menu planning or Christmas party planning stress you up!

You can consider getting all your Christmas shopping, wrapping and perhaps even the decorations done at least a month ahead of the Christmas party. This will free up your time for the BIG cook up.

Start your menu planning at least two months ahead and ensure that you follow meticulously on the work to be done on your Christmas menu check lists. One suggestion is to pre-cook some of your dishes and deep freeze them (some dishes can be frozen for a month or more).

Asking for extra help during your BIG cook up a few days leading to the party will definitely allows you to enjoy the entire experience more.

Cooking together can be a good time of bonding with children and friends. Allocate each helper a specific role for example, a friend can be in charge of the Turkey and turkey related condiments, gravy, sauces, stuffing and craving. Another friend or kid can be in charge of side dishes or desserts. They can be in charge of the specific food all the way from the food preparation stage to the party day!

They are to ensure that the food they are in charge will not run out.

Make it your special "project" this Christmas, and who knows, it will make a great write up for your blogs and school essays. This way, you will have time to enjoy yourself and entertain your guests at the same time.

How to have less stressful Christmas menu planning?

Here are some tips to ease your Christmas menu planning nerves:

First, you need to decide on whether you are planning for a cosy family only dinner or throw a party for friends.How many people you intend to invite to your party? 50 or 100 people? Simple or lavish? You will need to consider the special diet of some of your guests, for example, you may need to cater for those who do not eat beef or pork.

Another consideration is for your guests who are vegetarians. You must also pay special attention to those with food allergies (for example, it is quite common that many people are allergic to peanuts or cow's milk).

Ask all your guests to indicate their food preference, special diets and allergies (if any). Politely ask those with food allergies to contribute additional dishes as you do not know how to prepare them. Be honest, I believe they will understand since they know best what they can eat and what they cannot eat.

Next, your Christmas food planning should consider whether your guests look forward to a traditional Christmas meal or something new or a fusion of East and West cuisine?

Most importantly, would you want, and are you able to cook everything for 10, 50 or 100 or more people? Perhaps it maybe easier for you to buy take away cooked items from your local supermart, restaurant or hotel? Or better still ask your guests to contribute some of the food items while you prepare the main dishes and staple food.

The BIG Clean Up

Remember, if you are having the party at your house, you will need to clean the entire house. Factor the time given for cleaning when you are doing your Christmas menu planning. You can "cheat" by getting professional cleaners so that will ease up your time to concentrate on your Christmas gifts, Christmas decorations and preparing your Christmas party food. If getting professionals to clean is outside of your budget, get your spouse, children and family to help.

In your Christmas menu planning, you may want to place emphasis on the food decorations. Some people attend party and look forward to eating sides and desserts and I am one of those great fan of sides and desserts. Besides wipping up delicious sides and desserts, the presentation or the packaging of the food is just as important. A beautifully "designed" dessert will look more delicious and taste better. So you will have to factor in more time in "dressing up" your food.

Don't forget the children. If you are having a buffet party, set up an area for the children to have their meal using child size chairs and tables, plates, bowls, forks and spoons etc. You can also set up this special corner with kids toys. Child proof that area if there are babies and toddlers. Do get adults to watch over the babies and toddlers all the time. If your party is a sit down dinner then you will have to cater enough high chairs for the little tykes.

Enjoy the entire process and the Christmas party, like I did, every Christmas!

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