When planning a New Years Eve party appetizers are one of the items the host spends a great deal of time considering. This is because appetizers, along with cocktails, are one of the most popular food options for a New Years Eve party. Unlike other parties which typically take place during a meal time, New Years Eve parties usually start later in the evening. This makes planning the food for the party a little more complicated. New Years Eve parties may start at around 8:00-9:00 or even later. This is too late to serve dinner but because the party will last at least until midnight it is too long of a time to expect your guest to go without any food. For this reason, most New Years Eve parties feature light food items such as appetizers or sandwiches.
When selecting appetizers for your New Years Eve, it is important to consider the number of guests you will have at your party. While it might be acceptable to allow 4-5 appetizers per person when the cocktail reception is held in conjunction with a dinner, this is not appropriate for a New Years Eve party. Considering the duration of the New Years Eve party, the lack of more substantial food and the alcohol consumption which is likely it is much more appropriate to allow for 12-15 appetizers per person. Considering this large number, you should plan on providing at least five different appetizers for your party to ensure your guests will get to taste a wide variety of items.
When selecting appetizers for your New Years Eve party it is also important to consider the set up of the party. If you will be providing tables and chairs for the guests, it is appropriate to include appetizers which require a fork to eat. However, if you will not be providing seating, it is more appropriate to only include appetizers which can easily be eaten with the hands. You should also consider how convenient the appetizers are to eat. There are many great appetizers which can be quite messy or require elaborate dipping sauces. These types of appetizers are not a great idea for a New Years Eve party where guests are likely to be dressed quite elegantly. Sticking to items which are easy to eat and do not result in a great deal of mess will be greatly appreciated by all of the guests.
It is also important to consider appetizers in a number of different categories when selecting appetizers for your New Years Eve party. In particular you might want to consider serving both sweet and savory appetizers. If you opt to provide both types of appetizers, you have the option of either offering both types of appetizers throughout the evening or offering the savory appetizers for the majority of the evening and then switching to sweet appetizers just before midnight when the New Years Eve party is likely to end within an hour or two. Whichever option you select it is important to plan the number of appetizer according to your distribution strategy. For example if you plan to only offer sweet appetizers in the last hour of two of the party, you should purchase or prepare less of these appetizers than the savory appetizers. However, if you will be distributing both types of appetizers throughout the evening you should purchase or prepare a more equal distribution of appetizers.
Finally, in selecting appetizers, it is also important to consider how the appetizers will be distributed. This is important because if you will have servers circulating with trays of appetizers you can prepare differently than if the appetizers will be left on a buffet table. Specifically if you plan to offer appetizers on a buffet table, you may wish to select mostly items which do not have to be eaten hot if you do not have a method of keeping these items warm. However, if the appetizers will be passed by servers you can serve hot items because the servers bring out only small portions at a time and the rest can be kept warm in the kitchen until needed.
Sending Out Invitations for a New Years Eve Party
If you are planning on hosting a New Years Eve party, one of the first items of business is planning your guest list. Once this is done and you have an idea of how many guests you will have, it is time to select a location for your party. Once you do this you can set a time for the event as well. All of this information is important because you will have to include all of this information on the invitation for your New Years Eve party. For this reason the planning of your New Years Eve party should be well underway before you send out your invitations. You should also consider whether or not there are any special requirements for the party because you might want to include these on the invitation as well. For example if you are planning a black tie event this should be noted on the invitations so guests know how they are expected to dress for the event. Similarly if you plan to make the party a potluck event, this should also be indicated on the invitation so guests will be aware that they are required to bring along a dish to share at the party.
When hosting a New Years Eve party, you should also give some consideration to whether or not you want to have a theme for the party. Although it is not necessary to have the invitations reflect the theme, it is a fun idea and it can help to give the guests an indication of what to expect. Also if you expect guests to dress according to the theme, you will want to let the guests know so they are not caught by surprise.
The timing of sending out New Years Eve party invitations is also very important. New Years Eve is a very popular holiday and many people start making plans for New Years Eve very early. For this reason, you might want to consider sending out invitations rather early to ensure your potential guests do not accept other invitations before they even receive your invitations. It is not unusual for a host to send out New Years Eve invitations as early as October. This helps to ensure the guests will receive the invitations before the holiday season so they can plan appropriately for your party. Alternately a host can send out invitations later in the year but send a save the date notice earlier or contact guests via phone to inform them of your intentions to host a party so they are aware that an invitation is on the way.
When sending out New Years Eve invitations it is important to include instructions for responding. This is important because it is unlikely all of your invited guests will be able to attend the party but you want to know exactly how many guests will be attending. This number will be important for planning food, beverages and favors. If you do not know the number of guests ahead of time you may not have enough of these items or you may have too much left over.
Finally, when sending out New Years Eve party invitations, budget is often a very important consideration. Custom invitations can actually be quite expensive. When setting your budget, you should research the cost of invitations and use this information to set your budget for these items.
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