“Stress-Free?” What’s That?!

There are lots of fun tips to help make after Christmas parties simple and stress free:

* Set a start and an end time on the invitation (ie – 5pm-8pm or 11am-2pm) that way you’re guaranteed the party won’t go on all night and be too much for the host to handle.

* Make a list of everything that needs to get brought: food, beverages, disposables, flowers?

* Make a list of everything that needs to get done: tidying up the house ahead of time, placing the food out, answering the door, bussing the trash, cleaning up afterwards.

* Assign responsibilities. Have everyone bring a favorite finger food or hors d’oeuvre that’s easy to eat. You can ask everyone whose last name starts with A-Q to bring hors d’ovures and R-Z people to bring sweets if that make it easier.

* Don’t just delegate the food. If someone is too challenged to bake their favorite cookies, give them a hall pass on the food and ask them to supply other necessities like disposable plates, forks, beverage napkins, etc. Even if you own enough real dishes, don’t bother.

* Be specific about what you need: “Jennifer, the guests are coming at 5, please be at my house at 3 to help tidy up.” Leaving things too open ended creates a long list of stuff that’s left undone!