New Year’s Eve Food – What To Feed Party Guests
Ask Everyone To Bring Their Own Appetizer
Call up everyone that’s coming to your party at let them know that this event is BYOA: Bring Your Own Appetizers. Guests can bring all kinds of simple and inexpensive appetizers for the party. If a guest asks you for suggestions, cheese, veggie, and fruit plates all tend to be big hits. You could also ask someone to bring a few containers of mixed nuts; it doesn’t get much easier than that!
Have Guests To Toast Champagne Sangria At Midnight
Champagne can be expensive, and this tasty recipe is a terrific way to reduce your spending. If you’ve never made champagne sangria before, just follow this easy recipe:
Ingredients:
- Apple juice, 32 oz
- Frozen cranberry juice concentrate, 12 oz
- Orange juice, 1 cup
- Champagne, 1 and 1/2 liters (ginger ale can be used as an alcohol-free substitute)
Instructions:
- Keep all of the ingredients chilled until they’re ready to use.
- Mix the apple, cranberry, and orange juice in a big bowl. Keep stirring until everything is completely combined.
- You may want to add in some fruit, such as orange or kiwi slices.
- Little by little, add in the champagne and ginger ale. Save it until the last second so that it will stay bubbly.
- This recipe is designed to serve up to 12, but you might want to double up. After all, your guests might be serving.
Champagne Toast At Midnight
Dine At Midnight
After everyone has toasted to the new year, shut down the bar and invite everyone to eat. You could try something fun and affordable, like a baked potato bar. Make some huge potatoes and make sure you serve dessert as well!
You should cook the potatoes for around one hour at 400 degrees. To ensure that they’re still hot when you’re ready to serve food, put them in the oven at 10:30 pm.
Make sure you set out all kinds of appealing toppings, like butter, sour cream, chives, shredded cheese, bacon bits, salsa, chili, and any other toppings you’d like to include. Your guests will be able to cover their potatoes with the toppings of their choice.
You can use a box mix to make a simple chocolate cake for dessert! Top it with plain white icing and some fun sprinkles. Serve your cake along with some ice cream and fudge sauce.
You may also want to offer your guests coffee so that they’ll be able to stay alert as they drive home.
A menu like this will cost around $2 for each guest, which is quite affordable. If you’re willing to increase your budget, you could try offering a decadent cheesecake for dessert as well.
A Midnight Dinner After Toast
Timing Is Essential
You’ll want to make sure your party is lively until midnight or later. A 10 pm start time might be appropriate. If you want an earlier start, it’s best to have your potato bar ready by 10 pm. That way, your guests won’t be starving.
If you’re willing to spend lots of time with your guests, you could host a large potluck earlier in the evening. If you do this, you can hold off on appetizers, but you’ll still want to serve food at midnight.
Making Things Fun
Have Every Guest Bring Some Sort Of Noisemaker
Host a contest for the weirdest noisemaker. Have everyone bring some sort of unusual noisemaker. Vote to see who the winner is. Give the winner a fun and simple prize, like a set of earmuffs. When you count down to midnight, everyone will be able to make some noise. Make sure you capture video of the noisemakers in action.
Capturing Photos
If you have a guest that loves to shoot photos, you could ask them to take some pictures at the event. Alternatively, you could serve as a photographer. When guests arrive, you should have them pose for a picture. You could even give them a few fun props to use in the photos!
Once the new year has officially started, you can take new photos of the guests with their noisemakers. You can post the before and after photos side by side online.
Light it Up
Provide glow sticks, glow necklaces, glow bracelets for the party, no New Years Eve party is complete without a bit of dancing! Get your props from premierglow.
Have Everyone Make New Year Predictions
Ask all your guests to make a prediction for the new year. Put those predictions into a box or a bowl. During dinner, you can all take turns reading those predictions online. You may also want to guess who made what prediction. This is a fun way to wind down after a lively night.