When the holidays roll around it usually involves parties, food and entertainment. All of that can get a little overwhelming and pricey when you are the one hosting and start feeling like it has to look like it came out of magazine. What we are coming to find out is that you can still get a great look that will impress all your guests from just shopping your house, incorporating a little DIY and shopping dollar stores or discounted items. Also fancy, plastic dinnerware makes clean up a dream!

Here are the details on our Christmas dinner party and some tips that can help you!

– Since there was going a lot of people coming for dinner, to keep the cost low we decided to go with a rustic theme to incorporate elements that we could get right outside our door. We gathered pine cones to use in our centerpieces and branches from trees to make twig start place holders. I kept mine to use on my Christmas tree this year or you could let your guests take them as a little party favor to hang on their trees.

-For all the center pieces we shopped our houses for vases, candles and candlestick holders. Basically grab anything that could look good on the table and help add some fun interest and fill the space! The greenery and cranberries we used in the vases we got on sale at a number of craft stores but you could easily gather those things from outside as well the day of the party.

– If you want to know a secret for an easy and SUPER cheap charger 12×12 craft paper is the answer! We got 6 sheets of this metallic bronze paper for $1! To add a little color to our table and break up the layering of the plates we added some burlap ribbon with fringe ends.

-For dinner we decided to do buffet style so we created a quick menu in Word and got it printed out for $5. A chalkboard and some chalk would also word perfect for this! The sign we hung above the food table we created with a font we liked and cut it out using a Silhouette machine and then strung the words up with some twine.

Now lets move to the best part..the food! We’re really excited to introduce you to Megan and Nathan from the blog “Half Cup of Snark“. Hop on over to their blog to see what was on the menu for our holiday party, to enjoy some witty, food talk and get some A-MA-ZING recipes to wow your guest’s taste buds this Christmas!

Lastly, we all know that the decorations and food for a party are just part of planning but looming in the back of our minds is always, “What am I going to wear??” Well we have you covered for that as well. See how our plaid peplum top and window pane swing dress are perfect for any party, including all the ones for this holiday season! We’ll just call this the post that just keeps giving. 😉

Now with all your bases covered for hosting a bomb holiday party we wish you luck on all your family and friend gatherings!

We’d love to hear some tips and tricks you have tried for saving money hosting a holiday party while still wowing your guest!!