Holiday Parties on the Cheap
“I had called Mr. Monn with a challenge: to see if he could design a transcendent holiday dinner party for eight at my West Village apartment on a recessionary budget — say, $30 a head (or less than one-hundredth the budget he’s sometimes used to) for food, décor, everything.”
Working with a fraction of the budget Mr. Monn typically works with, he was able to put together a pretty fabulous dinner party. Mr. Monn explains:
“When you have a budget, you have to think, ‘What’s going to make the biggest impact with the least amount of money?'”
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Web Search: Inexpensive Holiday Meal Ideas
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Mr. Monn chose a winter wonderland theme which worked out well, as Mr. Williams points out, because white is cheap. They bought two bags of quilting batting to use as a snow laden tablecloth, and white copy paper to make delicate snowflakes to hang from the ceiling with fishing wire.
One interesting twist came in the menu. To keep costs down, instead of having a meat course, they opted to go without one and instead served twice-baked potatoes for the main course. Here’s how it went down:
“When I told them what was for dinner, more than one guest referenced the Irish potato famine. But after it was served, most guests — including Tasha Garcia Gibson, an owner of the restaurant Little Giant on the Lower East Side, and her husband, DW Gibson, a writer — seemed to find this curiously tuber-centric meal as satisfyingly indulgent as the Thanksgiving dinner just around the corner.”
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Web Search: Holiday Decorating Tips
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With a small budget and a little creativity, you can put together a memorable holiday party. Be sure to read the full article and also check out the audio slide show. NY Times: Having a Holiday Party on the Cheap
Do you have any tips for throwing a holiday party on the cheap? Please share them with the Tip Hero community by posting a comment below. And thanks for being a Tip Hero!
Photo credit: Carodean Road Designs
