Enchanted guest #3...say hi to Elizabeth from Pine Cones and Acorns!

Good morning, so happy to bring you yet another wonderful enchanted guest, say hi to Elizabeth from Pine Cones and Acorns. Another daily stop for me, Pine Cones and Acorns is a newer blog and Elizabeth always dishes about something wonderful, whether its a recent trip to Paris and her highlights or one of her many delectable recent baking conquests, she always has something beautiful  cooking over there.....literally and figuratively!  So I am happy to have her here today to share with us her ideas on holiday entertaining, and Elizabeth, a baker and entertainer extraordinaire fits the bill perfectly to do so. Thank you Elizabeth and take it away.............

I am excited and honored to be here at The Enchanted Home guest posting for Tina while she prepares to move into her beautiful, dream home. 

Holiday Party Pizazz

I love the holidays and I love to entertain, so I thought I would put together an easy party that still has pizazz. The house is already clean and decorated and now all you need is a little preplanned menu, food, drinks and your guests.  Then you can sit back and relax and enjoy your friends! The easy part about this party, is that if you want you can purchase the majority of the food at places like Costco, or Trader Joe's. It's mainly finger food and little bites!

Traditional Home

The Holidays are a beautiful, hectic, wonderful, stressful, time for everyone. We all want to have time to decorate, bake, buy and wrap presents, and of course entertain our family and friends, while working, attending Christmas parties, school plays, the theatre and many other holiday activities; and we have to do it all in the three weeks before Christmas. Often times there are so many other parties going on the weekends you might think there is not time for yours, that is why having a weeknight party is the answer!

via Tiny Prints

Invite your friends to come for a holiday open house after work and serve heavy hors d' oeuvres, a few carefully selected drinks and of course lots of desserts!

Drinks
Champagne or Specialty Cocktail

(This way you do not need to worry about a stocked bar and all of the rest)

pinterest

Kir Royale

Very Berry Champagne Cocktail

Easy Buffet Menu

Holiday ham with either biscuits or mini rolls

Cheese tray with a beautiful selection of cheeses and fruit
Spinach, Artichoke Dip with crackers

Baked Brie with pecans and brown sugar praline or

Baked brie with cranberries

Caprese salad on a toothpick

Blue Cheese and Caramelized Onion Empanadas
Swedish Meatballs
Spiced Pecans
Blue cheese Walnut Crackers

Ham and Rolls via Southern Living

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Brie with pecans via here

Brie with cranberries via here

Empanadas via here

Swedish Meatballs

via here

Beautiful Cheese and fruit tray via Food Whirl

Sugar and Spice Pecans

Blue cheese walnut crackers

Chocolate Dessert Bar
Dark chocolate brownies

Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling and frosting

Chocolate cheesecake with raspberries

Chocolate Scotcheroos

Chocolate marshmallow treats
Assorted Christmas Cookies

A selection of fine chocolates; assorted truffles, Frango mints, Kohler Turtles

You can use any chocolates and people will be happy to sample them all.

Image via Bing

more cookies

cookies

I hope this gives you a few ideas for a great weeknight party! Remember the Holidays are about family and friends, don't let entertaining get you stressed, your friends are there to see and enjoy you!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

Wow Elizabeth, I am seriously hungry now and my bowl of oatmeal is so not cutting it! Can we please start with the "chocolate course" first!  Thank you for this absolutely fabulous spread, all the inspirational and yummy holiday entertaining ideas and  for spreading good cheer and creative ideas this way!! And great minds think alike, Elizabeth, empanadas and baked brie are must haves for my holiday entertaining! I got some great ideas for our family party next week..... I bet being in your house over the holidays is a treat for all the senses! Thank you again for this lovely post and if you are not familiar with Pine Cones and Acorns, please click here to visit!  She would love to hear from you and you can gush over how much you enjoyed her post! Wishing you a peaceful and happy day.......Jingle jingle!