It's Handmade: How to be an Expert Party Guest

Saturday, 1 December 2018

How to be an Expert Party Guest

This post is sponsored by NABISCO and Evite.

‘Tis the season to make adorably festive sweet and savory treats! Your friends and family will be so glad to see you at their potlucks, parties, and get-togethers this holiday season when you show up with these handmade goodies. Today we’ve teamed up with NABISCO and Evite to share a few holiday recipes and how to be the expert party guest!

First off, wow your hosts with this tasty appetizer: pine cone pesto-cheese toppers! Instead of preparing these ahead of time and worrying about balancing them on a platter on your drive to the party, we love the idea of prepping a super simple tray with all the ingredients you need: RITZ®  Crackers, almonds, basil, cheese, and pesto. This way, you’ve got everything ready to go when you arrive at the party and assembling these little pinecones is a breeze. As an added bonus, we like to pack extra ingredients on the tray and include the recipe card as well as a few festive mini gifts like these golden measuring spoons and pom pom garland. Leave the tray with the host as a small thank you gift for hosting the holiday party!

See the recipe for these pinecone pesto-cheese toppers here and download our free printable recipe card here to make assembling your own hostess gift a piece of cake.

And if you have a sweet tooth like we do, you’ll love these two recipes that both feature OREO® Chocolate Candy Bars. Both these trees and snowmen travel really well, so they’re great options to make the morning before the party with your kids.

Older kids will love helping out with these friendly OREO® Chocolate Candy Bar Snowmen! With just a few ingredients, these candy bars get a festive makeover perfect for the kids’ table.

The OREO® Chocolate Candy Bar Trees are especially great to do with littler kids since the Christmas tree shapes are simple squiggles of melted green chocolate.

Plus, make this super simple wooden stand to bring along to the party to display them as a winter wonderland forest! Made using basswood from the craft store and a craft knife, it takes no time to prepare this little stand.

Begin by cutting your piece of basswood into three pieces: one long rectangle for the top and two matching rectangles for the sides. You can find basswood or other similar options in the model section of the craft store – this piece was 3” wide so we stuck with that and cut the top piece to 12” long, with the sides at 2” tall each. Since the wood is only 1/8” thick, you can use a ruler and craft knife to easily make your cuts. Don’t forget to protect your work surface with a cutting mat first!

Time to drill some holes into the top! Make sure to pick a drill bit that is as close to the same size as your lollipop sticks as possible – if the holes are too big, the trees won’t want to stand up straight. We used a ruler and pencil to divide our stand evenly for 7 holes, but you can definitely eyeball this if you’re in a hurry, or adjust for whatever size of stand you’re making.

And to assemble, simply apply a thin line of hot glue onto one end of each of the sides and adhere to the bottom of the top piece as shown in the photo. And that’s it! Just make your trees and snowmen ahead of time, pack them up, and once you arrive at the party, transfer them from your containers onto the display and platter.

You can definitely make multiples of these stands if you’ve got a lot of OREO® Chocolate Candy Bar Trees you want on display, or do a mix-and-match set up like we did with some trees in the stand and others on a platter with the snowmen.

Are you headed to any potlucks this holiday season? It’s so easy to be an expert party guest with these tasty recipes and helpful hints! Head over to www.Evite.com/c/TidingsandTinsel for even more holiday inspiration.

And if you’re hosting a holiday party of your own this year, you don’t want to miss out on these amazing Evite invitations! We’re loving this festive Merry & Bright design but there are so many designs to choose from. Planning a party has never been simpler!