2019 Christmas Tablescapes Collab: Christmas Party Tips, Dessert Table, & Charcuterie Board

Hello I'm Jennifer Davenport. This video is going to be all about holiday entertaining and I have a really special surprise for you so stay tuned. I am participating with eight fabulous YouTubers on a holiday tablescape collaboration. We have created a playlist that's going to be in the description of this video. It's going to make it super easy for you guys to watch all eight videos. So let me share with you my top five holiday entertaining tips. So the first one is to prep and clean ahead of time. Always clean and buy your groceries a day or two before the party. That way on party day all you have to do is prep the table and cook and you will be a much more relaxed hostess. Tip number two is music. It is so important. It's just like in decorating. There's a ton of layers that make up a wonderful feel. Music is one of them. I like to choose a little bit of Christmas jazz or maybe some soft Christmas classical playing in the background. It's just warm and inviting. Tip number three is aromas. Now your house might already be filled with good cooking smells. I typically will burn a pine scented candle and this is just another way to invoke the senses and just add another layer of comfort. Tip number four is lighting. Now you might already have some Christmas lights on in your home but don't forget about turning lamps on. I typically like to use a 40 watt bulb. It gives just a lower light and candles are another way to add beauty for your holiday entertaining. Tip number five and I honestly think this is the most important one and that is understanding the true definition of hospitality. When I was younger and having company I was a nervous wreck. It was all about me, the impression I was going to give everybody and what they thought. This is embarrassing but I remember one time I was having company and my vacuum was broke and back then I had kind of a thicker shag carpet. So what did I do? I just vacuumed with the vacuum off so that I had the appearance of a very clean floor. Hospitality is about taking care of others. It's about serving others and when you approach it with that attitude you are calmer, you are happier. I mean you guys have all been to somebody's house when it was all about them and what they wanted to show off and what they thought was so cool and don't touch this and don't touch that. Hospitality really is about taking care of others and when you do that it really is the true meaning of joy. So this is Cole. She is part of the JD's team and she is going to talk to you about how to create a stylish dessert bar. Take it away pretty girl. Okay so we have created a sweet station and we did it on something like a kitchen island so it's going to be smaller and more compact. So one fun idea to keep it festive is to use your containers creatively. So we have used the dough bowl for popcorn and we use some little glass canisters for some festive colored candies. It's functional but it's also festive. Another fun idea is to layer. Layer for height variations to keep it interesting and balanced. Another thing you can layer is your textures. So a runner can add some softness and some greenery can add some other. It just adds yummy prettiness. It does. Doesn't it? Especially if you guys added the glitter. I love that. I do too. Well I love this. I think I really love the idea of a dough bowl with the chocolate popcorn. That's my favorite. Thank you Cole. We love her. For this next segment this is Kayla and we are going to talk about something that I had no idea about just a few months ago and that was a charcuterie board. So I'm gonna let her take it away. Okay so one thing I do want to talk to you guys about is that charcuterie boards are really more like works of art. So don't be afraid to be creative and be messy with it. So if you look at my tray you'll notice that there's not very many things that are in containers. Everything is kind of scattered around the board and that's intentional. So there's no dead space in the board and that's just kind of a rule of thumb with doing charcuterie. So what I did was I separated my sections by using a cracker divider wall into sweet and savory. So I did my favorite which is cream cheese. I did some prosciutto, some goat cheese with blueberry, apricot preserves and some thinly sliced pears because they're in season right now. So that is what I put on my sweet side. Can I stop you right there? How did you how did you slice that? What do you use to slice? I actually just used a knife and I got really really tight with it. Okay okay. They're not all perfect but all the pretty ones I put on top. Okay that looks great. On the savory side though I did salami, some fresh mozzarella pearls, sharp cheddar cheese, spicy mustard and some bread and butter pickles. Oh it looks so good. Yeah that's what I did. I like to play around with different tastes and different textures too so don't be afraid to mix and match just to see what flavors that you like that complement each other best. And then so if I'm going to prepare this for company, how far ahead before guests arrive should I have this ready and sitting out? So what I would probably do is you can actually put the meat and the cheese and some of your condiments on there a little bit earlier so you can do it. I did mine the night before. Now any fruits or vegetables things that need to stay fresh I wouldn't slice until about 30 minutes to an hour prior to the event. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay well I love this and we saw a ton of different ideas too that people can look on Pinterest too if they want to see a whole there's a whole different culture. I'm like I didn't even know. It's a very trendy thing right now so they're awesome dishes to bring to holiday parties. I love that. Thank you so much and guys I want to thank Kayla for showing us this because I'm this is a whole new world for me. I love it. Yeah well it was fun to tell you about it. Thank you. Well what a very fun video. I absolutely love holiday entertaining. Be sure to go click on the playlist that's in the description of my video and you can go see what the other fabulous eight ladies have in store for you all about holiday tablescapes. Thank you so much for watching. Be sure to subscribe to my channel because I'm going to have more videos coming out later and have an absolutely wonderful holiday.