The theme last year for my family Christmas celebration was Get Comfy. Loved the Get Comfy Christmas party, every part of this theme makes it feel like you should do less. The food is comfort foods like a baked potato bar and a baked mac & cheese casserole. The dress code is Christmas comfort, whether that is an ugly Christmas sweater, sweatpants, or Christmas pj’s. So with the food and the dress code, a fancy table is not appropriate, an easy no fuss festive table is all that is needed. So get comfy for Christmas and do less. Here is what I did.
The decorations
The decorations for the Get Comfy Christmas party were simple, centerpieces for the tables, a banner, and a chalkboard welcome sign. These are the things I added specifically for the party. I won’t say my regular Christmas decorations are simple but I do that every year party or not. We had a total of 16 people so we had 8 at the dining table and it felt really causal with the other 8 at the kitchen counter. For centerpieces I just used rectangle bins I already had, put some small Tupperware containers in the bottoms to fill in and placed flame-less candles on top. Filled in the gaps with fresh Christmas tree sprigs that I picked up from Home Depot’s scrap pile for free and some faux berries. The table is set with gold and red charger plates. I spruced up the table a little by folding the paper napkins into a rose fold.
The Santa Hat Get Comfy Banner shown in the bay window above is available in the shop as shown or you can add your own custom holiday message.
The food
The food is all comfort food and that will mean a different menu for each family, but I think especially dishes like mac & cheese are comfort to lot of us Americans. The first think I thought of was the baked potato bar, because it is fun, comfort food and pretty simple to do. The day before my mom cooked a few pounds of pork in a crock pot, pretty simple, she just adds some smoke flavor. Then the day of she shredded it and reheated. I also threw a ham in the oven, to slice up in small strips. Lastly I cooked up some bacon and cut into small pieces.
We offered three meats to put on the baked potatoes, pork, ham and BBQ pork. The reason my mom & I decided on three is because we have the Oster Buffet Server which has three compartments. (If you haven’t seen this buffet server which I call a warming tray, it is AWESOME!!! You can use it with the three 2-1/2 qt trays it comes with or use your own dishes. I used a second tray with just two 9 x 12″ baking pans for the the mac & cheese and potatoes.) Also all the left over meat was awesome to have around the week before Christmas, less cooking when we are busy anyways. Of course baked potatoes wouldn’t be complete without sour cream, shredded cheese & green onions.
The baked mac & cheese casserole was my thought to have an easier dish to keep warm on a warming tray than just mac & cheese. Actually I have never made a baked mac & cheese casserole with a topping on it before, but it sounded perfect. So I found these recipes with Pinterest: Epic Baked Mac & Cheese and The Ultimate Lady’s Cheesy Mac and Cheese. Neither one of them by themselves really stood out to me, so I kind of combined them to make my own. Sorry, of course I didn’t write it down, so you are on your own here.
The other dishes we added maybe be only specific comfort foods to my family but anyway here they are. My mom’s raspberry jello with fruit cocktail and applesauce, actually it is just jello that we are used to, her recipe is a little different each time she makes it. One of my aunt’s made Finnish toast, yes my family is Finnish, actually three of my grandparents had parents that immigrated from Finland. Finnish toast is made like biscotti but the main flavor is cardamon, so good!
Another aunt brought a green salad, we do need a little green on the plate. Another aunt brought deviled eggs, another staple of all our family gatherings. Lastly my final aunt brought a plate of store bought cookies and treats. First of all there is no shame in store bought but also she hadn’t been feeling well lately so just her coming is all we really needed.
The party favor
One last thing, our family Christmas tradition is the host provides an ornament for each family member to go home with for their tree. If you look closely at the top photo of this post with the Christmas tree in the background you will see it is covered in homemade ornaments, mostly made by my late Grandpa, who we lost a few years ago. This Santa Hat wood engraved ornament is available in my shop, so you can give your family or friends something to take home for their tree too. It is completely personalized for your family.
If this Get Comfy Christmas party gave you any ideas or inspiration I would love to hear about it. Please share. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!