The lazy girl’s guide to throwing a New Year’s Eve party

I am all for elaborate, well-planned bashes, but sometimes ain’t nobody got the time for that.

With the holiday season in full swing, between getting ready for Santa, work being busy at the end of the calendar year, and other commitments, there is just no room in our days to Martha Stewart-ize this party we want to throw.

So I threw together a party game plan with minimal effort, and am sharing with you the fruits of my (limited) labor.

1. Guest List

The first step of any party is to decide who you’re going to invite. That helps determine everything else. Know your crowd and what they would like to do. Forget postage or anything crazy like that, Facebook invite or a mass text is sufficient for my crowd.

2. Look at what you have on hand

Imagine if you had to throw the party rightthissecond, with no time to prepare or shop. What would you be able to pull together? In planning my own party, I realized I had a set of unopened holiday flavored martini mixes that I received as a gift, so a martini bar sounded like a fantastic and easy drink option. The internet also makes it really easy to Google what kind of cocktails you can make with the bits and bobs you’ve got in your home bar.

If drinking isn’t your thing (and even if it is) consider other possible activities. Board games and movie marathons are my personal favorites. What do you have in your cupboards that will give you and your guests a giggle? Food is my downfall. The only thing I could serve to a crowd on short notice that’s in my cupboards is a bag of SmartFood cheesy popcorn. So the next logical step is…

3. Plan a menu and shopping list

We cannot live on martinis alone (try though we may), and food is a must especially if there is drinking. I think a New Year’s party (if you’re planning on going until midnight and after) should start no earlier than 8pm. That’s also the lazy way, because that means you don’t have to worry about feeding people a meal.

Appetizers and desserts are your best bet. What I like to do is to make dips — both sweet and savory. And then when people ask what to bring I tell them to bring pretzels, graham crackers, chips, cut up fruit and veggies etc to use to dip. You have fewer dishes to do and there are a lot of delicious options. (I have an entire Pinterest board devoted to this very topic.) Double points if you pick dips that have similar ingredients to shorten your shopping list. Didn’t know we were playing for points? Doesn’t matter, I’m too lazy to keep track anyway.

4. Put on something fancy

Whatever you have in your closet that you deem to be fancy, put that on. It makes the party instantly more festive, plus then you will look fabulous in the pictures that surface on Facebook the next day.

5. Don’t decorate

That’s for overachievers. Focus on the experience instead of the look. Besides, you probably still have your winter holiday decorations up, since you’re lazy and aren’t going to bother taking them down till Valentine’s Day, so who needs anything more than that?