Holiday Party Ideas

It's that wonderful time of the year again and Christmas is approaching fast! Family, friends, and fun come to mind when thinking of my personal life. However, my job of running Tennessee Bartenders allows me to see a different side of the holiday party spectrum. What a very busy time of year for us bartenders!

We are servicing bartenders for an average of 5 parties per day this December, on the weekends. When doing something in repetition you begin to notice similarities and differences, and now (drum roll please) I will offer my opinionated advice for planning a successful holiday party. There are three things you should do and one thing you should not do for every successful holiday party.

You should provide festive decorations. This year I've attended parties well decorated and those that were not. Decorations seem to play a key roll in getting the cheer factor up. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I am going to vote for cheery festive decor at any holiday party. It's easy! You can even buy the stuff you need online.

You should have something special to drink. Ya Ya, so says the bartending service, but wait, this dose not have to be alcoholic. You can provide non-alcoholic Christmas punch or a custom made Christmas cocktail. Just take the time to make it yourself! Don't buy something from you local grocery store. Making a special drink for your guests will provide great conversation and that extra personal touch to the party. Don't know any recipes? Get a free one at www.TennesseeBartenders.com.

You should have hors d' oeuvres or snacks and not a full meal. That is correct! Go the cheap route I say. In my opinion, you should provide either lite or heavy hors d' oeuvres depending on what you wish to spend, and not a full course buffet. Holiday parties don't get going till after a couple hours and when a full meal is served, most guests seem to get sleepy or go home when the meal is over. Serving snacks and interesting treats throughout the night will keep your guests motivated, engaged, and awake. Also, if your serving sweets, wait till later in the evening to let guests see them. If you have servers, instruct them to pass them later in the evening, and not 10 minutes after guests arrive.

You should not self cater. Hire us! Seriously, I have attended 2 parties this year where the host's provided the service. The parties were great, but the host's were nowhere to be seen. At the end of the parties I thanked my friends, but noticed that they were pretty much not included in the fun, as they were working all night. But everyone can't afford service you say? Fear not! Tennessee Bartenders can put together a smashing party starting from $299. All you have to do is provide the spirits.

Christmas CocoaNog Cocktail Recipe

This is a quick study but was a pretty big hit at one of our holiday parties the other night. "The Christmas CocoaNog" is made with 1 oz of Crown Royal whiskey topped with equal parts kahlua mix and egg nog. Please note this is not kahlua liqueur, but is the mudslide mix found in any grocery store. To make the drink look more festive, we rimmed each glass with red and white peppermint flavored sugar, and garnished them with green chocolate cherries, custom made by Tennessee Bartenders. If you wish to duplicate the cherry garnish, you will need to buy swords or some type of pick to keep the cherries out of the drink, because the alcohol will break down the chocolate. For more yummy holiday cocktail recipes visit Tennessee Bartender's recipe page.

High volume frozen cocktails with Buffet's Frozen Concoction Maker

We get beatiful frozen drinks from our Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville Concoction makers. While not cheap, at a price tag of about $400 each, they work great! As a professional bartending service we strive to create drinks that look and taste great. Jimmy Buffet's machine allows us to both.

The concoction maker is a great tool and can be adapted to work well for high volume needs. In the photo above you can see a beatiful frozen strawberry dairuirie made in the eye of the storm. Although we were in the weeds, we were able to maintain high quality drink service with the blender. We actually own two of their larger models and love them both. For high volume service it is definitely necessary to have atleast two of the mixing pitchers available.

Commonly, we serve a selection of standard frozen drinks like margaritas, daiquiries, and pina coladas when using the blender. It's always easy to use real fruits, as opposed to pre-mixes, when using the maker. At Tennessee Bartenders we offer blender packages with the Jimmy Buffet Concoction Maker that come complete with fresh mixing fruits, custom garnish flags, colored salts, and more, for any event.