No one knows about your beautiful Christmas dinner unless you post it all over the ‘gram right? In this day and age of instant, you can set your Christmas dinner up for success by reading the following tips on how to create a Christmas meal worthy of 100’s of likes.
Deciding and Setting a Theme
By selecting a theme for your beautiful Christmas spread, you make it easier for everyone. A theme could be as simple as red and green, to as complicated as assigning a dress code to your guests such as: men wear plaid, and women wear green. You know your guest list best, so do what everyone will enjoy. A theme helps you pick out décor, gives you a color palette, and gives you peace of mind. Christmas trees are often themed, why not match your theme to your Christmas tree so you can style your food and get the perfect backdrop.
Plates and Silverware
Sure, your food might be delicious but if you’re serving those delicious bites on mismatched plates, it probably won’t be worthy of the ‘gram. We’re not telling you to go out and spend hundreds on a new plate set that you’ll only use once but there are other affordable options. The dollar store comes out with Christmas plates every year, and even has affordable chargers! If you already own all white plates, you’re in luck because it’s easy to dress up those plates with a little holly berry, or a cute gold pinecone.
Food Prepping for Christmas Dinner
Somethings don’t require same day cooking. A lot of Christmas favorites can be made ahead of time, so you have more time to enjoy with friends and loved ones the day of your Christmas meal. Desserts can be made the day ahead, such as cookies, cakes, and perfectly cute tarts with Cooks Innovations’ set of 4 tart pants.
Drinks? Water doesn’t have to be boring.
Only serving water at your party? No problem! Elevate that water in a fancy glass! Try some infusion recipes! Add some cranberries (they’re extremely tart on their own, but in water they add a festive touch)! Add some sprigs of rosemary. You could have just plain H2O in your drinking glasses, but the additions of simple garnishes will add depth, color, and texture to your Instagram shots.
Wanting to add a grown-up drink to the menu? Check out these must drink Christmas Cocktails!
Christmas Sensory
A smell that we always associate with Christmas is the smell of fresh pine, and the stereotypical Christmas tree candle. Just because you don’t have a 12’ Christmas tree in your living room doesn’t mean you can’t trick people into thinking your living room is a Christmas tree forest! Some options for making it smell and feel more festive is having Christmas tree scent sticks in your artificial tree, putting pine scented soap in your guest bathroom, and making sure you have wintry candles lined up on your mantle!
Foliage Centerpieces
Nothing screams Instagram like a beautiful pine tree and eucalyptus centerpiece intertwined with tiny ornaments and sparkly fairy lights. This tiny detail is totally capable of wowing your guests and making all your Instagram followers jealous that they’re not enjoying this great meal with you. You could borrow some ornaments from your Christmas tree, and if you don’t have any fairy lights, I’m sure those extra Christmas tree lights you have laying around in the attic will suffice for this.
Potluck Style Elevated
If you’re worried about preparing 10+ dishes, invite your guests to contribute to this meal via potluck style. Have some nicer containers to transfer their meals in, so when you’re ready to snap that picture, it’ll look like you home cooked everything. No one needs to know you ordered the ham from your local grocery store: present it on a beautiful silver platter and no one will be the wiser.
Show your guests what you’re made of: Meat & Cheese!
A meat and cheese board is a great way to welcome your guests to the party and can be a great focal point for you Instagram shot! It can be intimidating at first to put together, but with this tried and true tip you’ll be ready! In the world of charcuterie boards, the ideal ratio is 4x3: 3 meats, 3 cheeses, 3 starches, and 3 accompaniments. You could add some chocolate covered oranges, or some festive pomegranates. Whatever you have, or whatever you buy specialty will make this meat and cheese board a hit!
Clean Up Time
While you might not show your cleaning up on Instagram; we all know it’s a crucial part of any party. You came, you ate, and now it’s time to do the dishes. Some Cooks Innovations products that will help speed up clean up time include:
- Non-Stick Oven Liner
- Heating up all those meals can sometimes cause food to overflow and drip into the bottom of the oven. It’s never easy to clean up caked on food, but with the nonstick oven liner all you have to do is take it out, clean it, and put it back. Your oven can’t thank you enough.
- Non-Stick Liner Roll
- Sometimes when you’re baking a cake, in the process of taking it out of the cake pan, you don’t get the whole thing out and now you have a cake with a crumbled bottom that is NOT Instagram worthy. With the nonstick liner roll, you can cut the exact shape you need for the bottom of your pans and have it in there already to go for you. These liners are reusable and will help you save time by not having to grab the parchment paper and trace out the bottom of the cake pan for the hundredth time.
