7 tips for organizing your holiday brunches for less stress & more family time
The holidays are a great time, all the people you care for the most are around you, and you get to spend some quality time with your family. But more often than not, these family gatherings can end up causing a lot of stress, especially if the gatherings are not planned and organized properly. The major part of the stress is felt by the people who are hosting the gathering. So, if you are planning to host a family gathering like a brunch these holidays than this post is for you.
To help you out, we have prepared a list of some tips that will help you be more organized in the preparation and hosting of the brunch to make your family gathering more fun and less stressful.
Do Some Meal-Prep during the Week
This is an excellent way to reduce your work-load on the actual day of the holiday brunch. You should try and get as much work as possible done before the day of the family gathering. Start thinking and operating like a chef and make sure that all the items that need to be boiled are boiled the night before the holiday gathering, and you should also wash and chop all the vegetables earlier and store them in the fridge so that you don’t have to spend a lot of time prepping on the day of the family gathering.
Choose a Dessert That Can Be Prepared Beforehand
Choose those types of deserts for the brunch that can be prepared during the meal prep process. You can make items like cranberry sauce and cookies in the week leading to the big day. Another option for a quick dessert is pizzelle, which is a traditional Italian dessert. You can make them in no time using a pizzelle maker. Browse here for some of the best pizzelle maker reviews. Preparing your deserts earlier will save you a lot of time on the day of the brunch. And it will save you a lot of stress.
Set the Table the Night Before
Another excellent method to save time and effort on the day of the family gathering is to set the table the night before the brunch. This will save a lot of time on the big day because you won’t have to stress a lot about cleaning the plates and glasses and other utensils. So, set all the chairs at the dining tables and if you need some extra space, then get the tables and chairs set up a day earlier to save time and stay more organized.
Set Up a Self-Serving Buffet
One of the tasks that take a lot of time is serving the food to everyone, and it makes it very difficult for your guests to get what they want easily. A great way to make your brunch more organized and fun is to add a separate table and put all the food on it as in a buffet. This will allow your guests to serve themselves and get the food they want more easily, and it will also save you a lot of stress, and it will make the job way easier for you.
Keep Some Containers Handy For the Leftovers
Whenever there are such family gatherings, there are usually a lot of leftovers. So, to stay organized and prevent the wasting of food, make sure that you have a lot of storage containers handy before the brunch so that you can store the extra food.
Make the Drinks Earlier and Keep In the Fridge to Cool Down
One of the main parts of brunch is the drinks, and they take a significant amount of time to make. A great way to save time and make sure that your guests get amazing chilled drinks is to make them earlier and put them in the fridge to cool down. This way you won’t even have to use ice which will water down the drinks and ruin their taste.
Plan Some Fun Activities for the Kids
One of the major reasons for stress during family gatherings is the kids. Of course, they are not at fault as they see their relatives and cousins after a long time and want to play and run around. A great way to make sure that the children don’t get in your way while you are working, and you don’t have to worry about them while preparing the food is to pre-plan some fun activities for the kids.
You can put out some board games like monopoly for the kids to play or you can arrange for them to play a sport like soccer in the backyard. This will reduce your stress, and it will also make sure that the kids don’t get bored, and they have something fun to do while the parents and the grown-ups have food. Good Luck!