Bad news: Icy weather has thwarted your visit to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving weekend, so you are going to be eating your pumpkin pie in your home. Or maybe an old schoolmate has rung to say she is in town, and you have decided to throw a spur-of-the-moment dinner party to introduce her to your new pals.
The upside of owning only a day to strategy is that you don’t have any opportunity to second-guess yourself — you just need to go with the flow and hope for the best. The downside is that, well, you have only a day to strategy. Here’s the way to get it together in a hurry.
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Phone guests. Using a last-minute gathering, the phone is your very best chance of reaching guests in time. This way you can ask family members and intimate friends if they’d mind picking up a bag of ice, bringing some additional napkins or something else which pares your to-do list.
Get meals to go. Forget cooking — the very last thing you need is to fuss over the cooker. For parties, think takeout ice, frozen cream puffs, pasta salad, precut fruit and slabs of cheese. Arrange all of it on your own dishware, and it will not seem as though you have cut one corner.
If you’re having a holiday dinner and can not get your usual turkey, purchase whole chickens or Cornish hens to roast. Or construct the menu around something less traditional, such as pork or fish.
West Elm
Outdoor Metal Drink Bucket – $29
Quick-chill beverages. If you live in a snowy climate, you can just stick soft drinks, beer and wine into a snowbank (hey, it works). But for those in warmer zones, then here is the way to get drinks frosty on the double: Fill a sink, cooler or other large vessel with ice and cold water, then mix in about half a cup of rock salt or other coarse salt. Submerge the cans and bottles for 20 minutes or so, then plunge them into a waiting bathtub of ice. You’re good to go!
Borrow furniture. Want extra seats or folding tables? Put out the word. Friends and acquaintances will most likely be happy to come to your rescue. If all else fails, keep in mind that restricted seating encourages guests to mingle, and coffee table picnics can help loosen up a family room.
Speed decorate. Do not be concerned about getting fancy. You want bang for your buck: bunches of balloons, a wreath or showy blossoms plucked from the supermarket’s floral section, brightly colored linens. And have fun getting creative — a pretty sheet can double as a tablecloth; masses of candles look bewitching set within a collection of mismatched jars.
Branch
Bamboo Veneerware Plates – $8
Mix and match serveware. In case you don’t have enough dishware, disposable plates, napkins and cups, in addition to disposable flatware, are your friends. Pick biodegradable or recyclable versions to keep things as green as possible. Or, like furniture, borrow a source of tableware, then perform the mix-and-match appearance.
Create an online radio station. No need to fiddle with playlists; just establish a station on an online site like Pandora or even Spotify. It will do the job for you by curating a selection of music which shares common threads with any artist or tune you define.
Cindy
Place clean. You won’t have time to wash the baseboards, but you can fake a clean home pretty easily. Stow clutter in which it goes (or push it into a closet), wipe kitchen and bath surfaces, damp-mop floors and also run a dustcloth over furniture.
Dim the lights or split out a few candles — low light is forgiving. And don’t forget that as soon as you have more than three people on your property, no one will see whether you recalled to shine the chandelier crystals.
More: See what you could do when you’ve got a whole week to prep!
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