Etiquette Today: The Holiday Cocktail Party
We've got the details on throwing a great holiday cocktail party, and we hope you'll use them to join our Holiday Cocktail Party challenge.
The Holiday Cocktail Party
The cocktail party is a fabulous and casual (even if the attire is formal) way to host. With light refreshments, no sit-down meal, and an open-house style, it is a particularly convenient party to host during the holidays! We’ve recently partnered with PartyClick, and to celebrate our new joint efforts, we’re hosting a Holiday Cocktail Party Challenge this season. Check out the details below.
Guests
Invite anyone you’d like. You might choose to keep to a specific group of friends, or it may be a big (literal) open house where anyone is welcome if they’re in the neighborhood. You could use a cocktail party to host a holiday party for your coworkers or a group that you participate in regularly. It’s really up to you and the style of party you like to throw and are capable of hosting in your space.
Timing
Your cocktail party (especially if it’s being called something festive) does not have to limit itself to the cocktail hour. While this is the most common time, the name refers to the style of the party as opposed to the specific hour it is held. For a holiday party, you might plan for an earlier or later time frame, depending on your friends and the party itself. (Puja Senning is cooking up a sledding party that, while it won’t have the word cocktail, functions very much like an outdoor, late afternoon cocktail party.) Or you might opt for an open-ended party where you’ll set a start time, but not list an end time (this is a signal to guests to show up when the party starts as opposed to an open-house invitation with start and end times) that allow guests to show up anytime within the party’s time-frame.
WORDING
“Please join us for a Festive Fête on Friday, December 13th, from 6 to 8 p.m., 2245 Appleton Street, Clarkton”.
“Please join us for a Festive Fête, Friday, December 13th, at 6:00 p.m., 2245 Appleton Street, Clarkton”
You might also include a little bit of information about the party. In the case of Puja’s sledding party, “Dress warmly since we’ll be outside for the party. We’ll have hot drinks and fires to help keep folks toasty, and don’t forget to bring a sled!” would be a good addition to the invitation.
Refreshments
Since a cocktail party isn’t an entire dinner party, you’ll offer small bites and hors d’oeuvres, whether passed or set out on tables or as a buffet. Try to have a small variety, and if your party is open-ended, consider a few heavier items like (we’ll list some cliché classics here) egg rolls, shrimp cocktail, meatballs, and mushroom caps to help fill people up. For beverages, while a full bar is wonderful to be able to offer, a smaller offering of signature cocktails and mocktails or a few types of liquor and a variety of things to mix them with is another option.
If it’s a huge party, consider hiring a bartender and servers to pass and refresh drinks and the hors d’oeuvres.
Hosting Duties
As the host, stay focused on mingling with your guests and refreshing drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Typically, music and mingling are all the entertainment you need, but if dancing or games break out, consider yourself a host who has won the hosting game because your guests are having fun!
If your cocktail party has an end time, it’s okay to start winding things down, especially if there is another event afterward. In fact, in that case (say your party was hosted before the local performance of the Nutcracker, and you and many of your guests have tickets,) it’s okay to go around to guests and give them a heads up, “It’s 7:30 so we’ll want to start preparing to head over to the theatre in about 20 minutes.”
No matter how your holiday cocktail party ends, be sure to say goodbye and thank you to your guests. Because this is a more casual party and departure times may vary, guests should seek their host out for a goodbye. But as a good host, you’ll want to keep an eye on everyone, and if you see watches being checked or even coats being put on, step up to that gracious host role, go over, and say goodbye and thank you.
We’d love to hear about how it goes! Post your thoughts in the comments below; they are open to everyone this week!
Holiday Cocktail Party Challenge
We’ve challenged you to host a holiday cocktail party this year using the easiest invitation service out there, PartyClick.com! We’ve got prizes to win for the best bar cart and best hors d’oeuvres recipe, and we are loving seeing the entries so far! Click this link to learn more and get your party started!
Here’s a picture of Lizzie’s PartyClick invitation for this weekend. She picked her favorite from the Emily Post Invitation Collection at PartyClick! Which one do you like best? Tell us in the comments!
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Thanks for checking out our article today! We’d love to hear about your holiday party plans. And don’t forget to join the holiday cocktail party challenge. Click here for more details!
If you haven’t heard this week’s podcast, you can listen here. Keep an eye out for the Saturday Sip with its Emily Post recipe; that’s up next!
Until then,
Lizzie and Dan
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