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Preparing food for a New Years Eve party can be a great deal of fun or it can be a great deal of stress. It can even be a combination for the two. Those who are experienced at throwing parties may be able to plan a menu for their New Years Eve party and execute their plan with ease while still enjoying the party. However, those who do not have a great deal of experience hosting parties may have difficulty planning a menu and may feel a great deal of stress on the day of the party. In either case, it is wise to begin planning the food for your New Years Eve party in advance to ensure your guests enjoy the food at the party. This article will offer some tips for preparing food for a New Years Eve party.
Whether you are an accomplished chef or a novice cook, preparing food for a New Years Eve party can be quite a challenge. One of the first decisions you will have to make is what kind of food you will like to prepare for your guests. You may opt for offering a sit down dinner early in the evening and light snacks and desserts afterward. Likewise you may opt to offer a dinner buffet early in the evening and snacks and desserts throughout the remainder of the evening. Alternately you may choose to skip dinner because the party will likely start late in the evening and simply offer an assortment of sweet and savory appetizers throughout the evening. Once you have selected one of these options you can make other decisions such as what types of foods to offer and how much food to prepare.
Regardless of the types of foods you decide to offer, you will also have to make decisions regarding the preparation of the food. The simplest, but also likely the most expensive, preparation option is to have the party catered. In this case you pay a caterer to prepare and deliver all of the food. They will also likely provide the methods for keeping the foods hot or cold if necessary. This is an excellent option for hosts who do not want to spend a great deal of time preparing food for the party and who do not want to have a great deal of responsibility related to food preparation on the evening of the party.
Another option for preparing food for your New Years Eve party is to prepare all of the food ahead of time. With a little research you will surely find a large number of recipes for items which can be prepared ahead of time. These recipes can include items which can be served chilled, room temperature or hot. For items which should be served hot, you will only have to worry about reheating the food on the night of the party. Preparing the majority of the food ahead of time is a great idea and will really help to enable the host to enjoy the festivities on the evening of the party.
Still another less popular option is to prepare all of the food during the party. This helps to ensure the food is all fresh and is served at the appropriate temperature but it is also a great deal of work for the host. The host will not likely have a great deal of time to socialize with the guests because she will likely spend a great deal of time busy with food preparation.
When planning a New Years Eve party, you can also consider hosting a potluck event. This greatly simplifies the food preparation process for the host. If you opt for a potluck, it is important for the host of the party to coordinate with the guests to determine who will bring what to the party. This is important because you do not want everyone to bring a dessert. Likewise you don’t want everyone to bring an entrée either. Ideally a couple of people will prepare entrees and the remainder of guests will bring side dishes, salads and desserts to the party.
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Most people spend a great deal of time planning their guest list or deciding on food and decorations but do not devote a great deal of time to planning activities for their New Years Eve party. They may plan on having a live band or a DJ to perform but otherwise they may simply expect the guests to entertain themselves by dancing to the music or socializing with other guests but do little else in terms of planning activities to keep their guests entertained at the party. However, there are a lot of fun activities which can keep the guests entertained throughout the evening.
Planning on having karaoke is one excellent activity for a New Years Eve party. This activity encourages guest participation and allows the guests to entertain themselves throughout the evening. In fact karaoke can even provide a very cost effective form of entertainment for all the guests even those who opt not to participate. Karaoke will provide the guests with music and singing at a much lower price than it would cost to hire a live band or a DJ for the event. The music may not be as high quality as it would be if you hired a professional but of course that is also part of the fun of karaoke.
Hosting a murder mystery event is another fun activity idea which is becoming very popular for New Years Eve parties. These events are typically a dinner theater where guests are encouraged to participate in the drama and work together or alone to try to solve the mystery of the evening. You can either hire a troop of actors to perform the murder mystery and allow the guests to interact with the actors to try to solve the mystery or you can assign guests to portray different characters including the victim, the murderer and the other guests. The guests should keep their identities a secret to keep everyone else guessing.
The food can also be a source of entertainment for the guests at a New Years Eve party. You can serve items such as fondue which require the guests to participate in the preparation of the food. Another idea for an activity is to design a party where the preparation of the food is a part of the party. For example you could hire a sushi chef to come to the party and teach the guests how to make sushi. The guests can all make their own sushi rolls and the sushi prepared by the guests can be served as appetizers during the party.
Activities as simple as viewing movies can even be fun activities for a New Years Eve party. If your party has a particular theme, you can select a series of movies which reflect the theme of the party to keep your guests entertained throughout the movie. You might even serve foods which are typically found at a movie theater to tie the theme of the event to the food.
If the New Years Eve party will include children it is important to spend some time planning activities for the kids. You might want to include some kid friendly activities as well as activities which are suitable for children and adults. If there will be adults in attendance there should also be activities just for the adults as well to ensure everyone has a good time.
If you are already in the process of planning a New Years Eve party you might want to consider making the event a vegetarian event. There are a number of reasons why you might want to plan a vegetarian New Years Eve party. This article will take a look at some of these reasons and will also examine some of the unique aspects of planning a vegetarian New Years Eve party to assists hosts who plan to throw this type of event in planning a successful party.
One of the most popular reasons a host might decide to host a vegetarian event is because she herself is a vegetarian and she wants to share some of her favorite recipes with her friends even if they are not all vegetarians. Although a vegetarian may also opt to serve both vegetarian and meat based items at the party and simply not consume any meat herself, when she opts to exclude meat from the party it is usually for the purpose of sharing something that is important to her with her guests.
Another reason a host might opt to throw a vegetarian New Years Eve party is to save money on the costs of food. Hosting a party, especially for a large number of people can be quite expensive especially if you plan to serve expensive dishes containing meat. One way to cut down on the cost of the party is to substitute hearty vegetarian dishes in place of the more expensive meat dishes. If well prepared, most guests will not even miss the presence of the meat.
Still another reason a host might decide to throw a vegetarian New Years Eve party is the exclusion of meat may fit in well with the theme of the party. With a number of diets currently popular, a host may opt to throw a party based on the principles of a particular diet such as the raw diet which focuses on consuming uncooked foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains and nuts.
Regardless of the reason for throwing a vegetarian New Years Eve party, the guest does have to do a certain amount of planning and preparation to ensure the event is completely vegetarian. One way to do this is to consult vegetarian cookbooks to search for recipes which will make a good edition to the party menu. When selecting these recipes, it is important to follow each recipe carefully and not make any substitutions. This is important because items you may substitute into the recipes may contain animal products. Making these substitutions will result in your dishes not being completely vegetarian.
Alternately another way to provide a vegetarian menu is to make the event a potluck. This is especially a good idea if the majority of the guests are also vegetarians because they likely already have a number of vegetarian recipes to share. However, if most of the guests are not vegetarians, they may have difficulty deciding what to bring and may also inadvertently include ingredients with animal products in the food.
Another important thing to keep in mind when planning a vegetarian New Years Eve party is that it is important to make sure the guests are aware of your intentions. This is especially important if the event is going to be a potluck. However, it is also courtesy even if you will be preparing all of the food so the guests know what to expect when they attend the party.
If you are planning a New Years Eve party, you might also be considering having a specific theme for your party. While a theme is not a necessary part of a New Years Eve party or any party but it can make any party significantly more fun and interesting. Planning a themed New Years Eve party is a great deal of fun but it is also significantly more complicated than planning a party without a theme just because there is more coordination involved in the planning process and in trying to ensure all of the elements of the party fit within the theme. This article will discuss the process of planning a New Years Eve party with a theme and will offer samples of appropriate themes and how they can be applied.
When planning a themed New Years Eve party the host has the option to incorporate the theme as much or as little as they wish. Examples of items which can be incorporated into the theme are invitations, decorations, food, beverages, music, entertainment and even the guests’ attire. Guests who attend the party have the option of fully taking advantage of the theme and dressing or acting in a particular character during the event or simply attending the party and enjoy the atmosphere, food, beverages and entertainment provided by the host.
Themes for New Years Eve parties can be any theme the host selects and does not have to relate to the holiday at all. One example of an unrelated theme is a Western theme. The host can set the team by sending out cowboy hate shaped invitations encouraging guests to dress appropriately for a country hoe down. Once the guests receive the invitation, they will have an understanding of the theme of the party. If themed parties are not popular with your circle of friends you might want to follow up the invitations with a personal call encouraging your guests to dress according to the theme and assuring them you will be dressing similarly. I planning the entertainment for your party you can consider hiring a country western band to host the party. You might even hire a line dance instructor for an hour or two to offer group line dancing classes to the guests. In incorporating the theme of the party in the decorations, you can purchase hay bales to place around the room and use colored handkerchiefs for napkins. The food at your party should also incorporate your theme. If you are offering a sit down dinner, chili is a good choice. Stew would also be a good option. If you plan to have appetizers, you can create theme related appetizers by giving traditional appetizers unique names. You might refer to mini bagel pizzas as wagon wheels or mini egg rolls as hay bales. For beverages you can serve ice cold beer in glass mugs.
An example of a more elegant theme for a New Years Eve party might include a red carpet extravaganza where guests are encouraged to dress like their favorite movie star from any era. Alternately the theme could be limited to a specific era with guests expected to dress like stars from the appropriate era. This is a good idea for a New Years Eve party theme because many guests like to dress in their most elegant clothing and this would give them the opportunity to dress to impress. The theme for a New Years Eve party with this theme might be an invitation in the shape of an elegant silver star inviting guests to join you on the red carpet for the premier of the New Year. In decorating for this event, the host should include a red carpet in their entryway and may want to use a series of motion detected strobe lights to mimic the flashbulbs of paparazzi lining the red carpet of movie premiers. This will serve to immediately get the guests in the spirit of the party. Entertainment for the party might include giving out New Years Eve awards to the guests in a series of different categories and allowing guests to give a short speech as they receive their award.
Here is a list of eight fun games that are popular at New Year’s Eve parties:
- The Grouping Game
This is a fun and fast-moving game that can be played as an ice breaker. Start out with everyone collected in one big group in the center of the room.
The host or MC calls out a number. The number shouldn’t be more than half of the number of total participants. Everyone must try to collect in a group that contains that number of people. Each member of a group should hold hands or link arms, so that the leader can see who is in the group. If someone cannot enter a group because the number of required members has been reached, he is out of the game.
As different numbers are successively called out the number of participants gets smaller and smaller. Eventually, there are less than ten people. The last group, or winning group, should have anywhere from two to five people.
- "Time" Charades
Play charades with titles, songs, quotes, sayings, and books that feature the word “time” in honor of the New Year’s Eve countdown. Search the word “time” at online book and movie retailers to get some ideas or try these suggestions:
- The Land Before Time
- A Wrinkle in Time
- The Time Machine
- A stitch in time saves nine.
- Guess My Resolution
When guests enter the party, ask them to write their resolution on a slip on paper. Fold up the slips of paper and place all resolutions in a bowl. The party host reads the resolutions aloud and the guests guess who wrote each resolution.
- Find Your Prediction
Make up some phony generic predictions like, “In the New Year you will shave your head.” Find some items that are related to the predictions; a wig could be used for the given example. Wrap the items in wrapping paper and attach the predictions to the packages. Hide the packages around the room.
Tell guests that predictions are hidden with corresponding wrapped items, and that they each need to find one, read it aloud to the group, and open it.
- Who Wins a Prize?
Every 10 minutes or so (or longer, depending on how long the party is supposed to last) call out a question that relates to guests at the party, such as “Who’s the youngest here?” “Who brought the best food?” “Who said the last word?” “Who laughs the loudest?” “Who’s sitting next to the hostess?” and so on. The winner is the person who fits the description or is selected as an answer by the majority.
Award a prize each time you call out a question. Soon lots of people will have prizes, and they won’t have to stay for the entire party, or worry about missing all of the games because they are party hopping.
- New Years Win, Lose or Draw
Go online or search through magazines and newspapers to pick out events from past years. Write the events on strips of paper and put them in a bowl or hat so that they can be picked out randomly.
Large drawing pads and pens or markers are also needed.You can form two teams or have several couples play against each other. The teams take turns guessing a randomly chosen event by watching one teammate draw it on one of the drawing pads. Each team has one minute to figure out each puzzle, and each correct guess is worth 200 points.
The play who is drawing cannot speak or draw any letters, numbers, or symbols. If one of these illegal clues is used, any points won in that puzzle is split between the two teams. However, if a team mentioned a word that is part of the answer, the player at the sketch-pad can write it.
At the thirty-second mark, the drawing player has the option of handing the marker off to one of his or her teammates, but the puzzle value is then be cut in half (100 points). If the team can not guess within the time limit, the opposing team is given one chance to confer and guess. If they give the correct answer, they were awarded the points; if not, no points are awarded.
- Survey Says (Family Feud)
This is another game where you will have to do some research online. Find surveys which have about five or six answers each and are related to the theme of your party. Write them down and assign points for each answer with the top answer being worth more points and the last having the fewest points. All points for a survey question should total to 100.
Form two teams of about five players to play against each other. Each team sends one player at a time up to the front to guess an answer to the survey. You can use bells, have them grab an object, play rock, paper, sissors, or some other method to select who may guess first. If the first guess is not the top answer for the question, the other team may try to guess a higher ranked answer. The team who guesses the highest ranked answer is awarded the points for that answer and gets to play the round.
Each member of the team in turn tries to guess an answer to the survey question. If he or she guesses correctly, the team is awarded the points for that answer. If the player guesses incorrectly, the team earns a strike. Play continues until the team guesses all of the answers for the question or earns three strikes.
If the playing team gets three stikes, the opposing team may try to steal their points for the round by guessing a correct answer. If they succeed, they are awarded the points, otherwise the points are added to the playing team’s total. The game is won by the team who earns 300 points first.
- Shiritori
This is a game imported from Japan. Two teams of the players compete against each other. Select a topic; it could be animals, countries, foods, or New Year’s related. The first player on a team says a word related to the topic. The next player in line must say a word that begins with the same sound as the first player’s word. For example, if the first player said “bat,” the second player may say “tiger.” Each player on the team follows this pattern. When the last member of the team says his or word, play moves back to the first person.
If a player chooses a word that does not begin with the last sound of the previous word, he or she is out of the game, and the other team begins its turn. Also, there should be a time limit as to how long a player may think about his or her answer. If the time limit is reached and the player has not given an answer, the person is out and the other team is up. A team loses when there is only one person left in line.