For a party in a Smaller Home

You may be inviting guests to your home more this time of year. When I’m entertaining, I like to set up easy but elegant cocktail areas for the perfect drink self-service. Take some inspiration from these ideas for entertaining any time of year! Adding some special touches depending on the season is fun, too (like the holiday ice cubes below).

Because my home is small, when I entertain it makes sense to set up various party stations so people can spread out and help themselves to food and drink. How you design, stock and lay out your bar and stations can really make a difference in keeping things low stress for you, yet really fun for all.

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I have a very cool cabinet I inherited from my mother-in-law, that is specially designed (I think?) to be used as a liquor cabinet, because it looks just like a regular cabinet and then opens up to showcase your bottles. I have liquor and wine on the top shelf and a selection of glasses on the bottom. I also have a great wine rack hanging from the wall above this cabinet, with yet more glasses and wines.

This makes for the perfect little cocktail area of my small home (see my post on ways to optimize space in a small house!).

If you’re hosting a party, there are a bunch of sites like this that help you calculate how much wine, beer and alcohol to buy depending on the number of guests. For a bigger party this would be very helpful, in my opinion. 

Setting it Up. A wine chiller is a must for your main bar area so you can keep bottle of white nice and cool. Also accessories like a wine bottle opener, shot glasses and a martini shaker. I thought a cute touch was a little bowl of Fire Ball cinnamon whiskeys, if anyone just wants to take one as a shot for fun. 

Glasses. I keep some festive wine glasses in a visible spot where guests congregate around the food for my cocktail party (a few charcuteries are perfect- see my post on these!). In addition, have a nice selection of drink glasses such as martini, whiskey, and margarita.

Re: margaritas, maybe not for this time of year (unless you live somewhere warm), but if you want to add a nice touch, set up an area near a blender with some pre-mixed margarita flavors (watermelon’s SO good) and glasses.

Include some cocktail salt and sugar and a few cut limes. Guests can rim their glasses with lime and salt or sugar to get the full margarita experience. (FYI if you’re ever interested in throwing a Mexican themed party, I’ll have some posts on different themed parties. My Mexican party includes SUPER easy and delicious home-made margaritas. See that closer to Spring!).

Wine. Like I mentioned, you want a chilled white wine out and ready. I keep a bottle of red in with my liquors as well. Two more bottles of each should be available, on the wine rack for red, and in the fridge for white. As far as varieties, think a bit about the audience. My friends and I are dry wine drinkers, but my daughters lean toward sweeter. My personal favorite is Savaugnon blanc (more on the best ones in an upcoming post), and my friends love it too, so I always have a couple bottles of that on hand. My daughters have loved Yellow Tail fruity blends of peach and mango lately.

Alcohol. I tend to think what people typically might want for a party mood. During the winter holiday season, it may be Baileys, Peppermint Schnapps, Ouzo (licorice liquor is so delicious). So I have these in my holiday bar, along with regulars- a good vodka (Tito’s is my fave), tequila, and rum. 

Mixers Station. Separate but close to the bar area, I have an island set where people can add mixers, should they choose a cocktail over wine.

And for those who don’t drink alcohol, there should be an ample amount of sodas (don’t forget plenty of diet). In addition to sodas, seltzers and tonics; and you can put out some fruit and a cutting board, as well as things like olives, maraschino cherries, and cocktail onions. Whatever you decide…if you’re doing Bloody Marys (brunch party?), then some celery stalks would be on my table. The last few years I’ve been into adding cranberries to my cosmos, which makes them look so festive. Consider some crushed peppermint sticks, for peppermint martinis perhaps? 

I love putting some holiday napkins and small toothpick skewers on this table as well. If you don’t have an automatic ice machine in your fridge or otherwise, you’ll want to put an ice bucket on this table as well. Either buy bags of ice to keep in your freezer, or make lots of trays well-ahead of time to keep in a bucket in your freezer so you can regularly replenish. If making your own ice cubes, consider continuing the theme with these special holiday cubes. I added cranberries and mint leaves- don’t they look adorable?

Even if you have an ice maker, you might want to have a few trays of these out in an ice bucket as well. So easy and and worth it. Extra large silicone ice trays are easiest to use if adding anything to your cubes. I’ve added lemons and limes in the summer.

Keep refrigerated juices, sodas, beer and a few canned drinks like White Claws in a drawer or section of your fridge. I have this nice divider for canned drinks and wine, which make it perfect for self-service!

Mixers I usually purchase are ginger ale, cola, a lemon-lime like Sprite or 7-up, tonics, ginger beer, and cranberry juice. You may have a special small fridge for your canned and bottled drinks. We have one of these on the porch at the lake, but I do not have enough space or a real need for one at home, given the fridge serves this purpose very well.

Hot drinks. My New Year’s party has a whole hot chocolate bar (perfect since we spend some time outdoors), but for any regular bar, a hot beverage station should be included (for the Baileys and schnapps for sure). Some whipped cream and cinnamon sprinkles would be a nice touch too.

Enjoy hosting family and friends this holiday season and throughout the new year! Drink responsibly, but have fun creating festive and inviting bars and cocktail stations!