Easy Entertaining Tips For Small Gatherings

I love to host holidays because making my guests feel special makes ME feel so great! But lately there is a lot less gathering – but in the words of the great Dorina Medley, that doesn’t mean we can’t “make it nice.” 

Even when it is just me, my husband and my two girls I love to do theme nights or dress up our table. It makes things less mundane and more FUN! 

You may be celebrating this weekend with your family or a small circle of friends and I wanted to share a few tips you can try for creating a few memorable moments! 

Dressing a table doesn’t have to be overly complicated. So many times I will use really great quality disposable plastic plates. You can find them at Target, Party City and sometimes randomly at HomeGoods, especially this time of year. 

Less clean up and you can always change it up! Target also has beautiful disposable cutlery that I often use as well.

Raise your hand if you received china as a wedding gift and never used it? Yup, that was me. For FOUR YEARS I never even used one piece! And the set is so beautiful. I just didn’t have enough pieces for larger family gatherings (12 sets is not enough for a big Italian fam) so they just sat! 

But what I started doing was busting out the china just for everyday, simple gatherings. It makes it so special! So this year if your holidays are smaller I say make it fancy! Plus a setting for 4 is wayyyyy easier to clean up!

Here is a tip I think is great for any day- not just a holiday- but make life easier with prepackaged stuff. Trader Joe’s is my go-to for this. They have so many ingredients that are pre-chopped, pre-seasoned or frozen that you can just unwrap and add to a dish or bake in the oven. 

Back in December I shared some ideas for an “appy hour party” where the “main dish” was all appetizers + finger foods. I still think this is such a fun idea even just for a weekend dinner (we do it once in a while). 

If you wanted to add a few ideas to your shopping list for a Trader Joe’s run I personally love the spinach artichoke dip, coconut shrimp, stuffed mushrooms, mini quiche and pimento cheese bites! Target also has some good options in the frozen section as well. 

It is also SO EASY to throw together a beautiful charcuterie/cheese board using all of the dips, spreads, crackers, pre-cut veggies and meats from TJ’s. This set up is from my birthday last year (pre-shut down!) so it’s HUGE, but you can easily recreate a smaller, scaled down version. 

If you are going to grab a few items for your board I highly suggest adding in dried AND fresh fruit, the fig spread (so yummy) and lighter veggies like radius and cucumber that you can stack on a cracker with dip. 

Beautiful serving pieces also make everyday just a little bit more elevated and just fancy! Here are a few of my favorite, affordable pieces that you can add to your collection and pull out for everything from weeknight dinners or girl’s night.

I hope no matter how you are spending the holiday that you have a beautiful day! But can use these tips to make any day feel special + fancy! No reason required!

XO

Steph