A holiday housewarming party for twelve
My New York City apartment is starting to come together! As soon as the couch arrived, I scheduled a housewarming party which doubled as a holiday party. I’ll share an official apartment tour soon, but here’s a sneak peek on how my husband and I comfortably fit and fed twelve guests in our small one bedroom apartment.
Schedule your party as an open house and not during meal times
In order to host a manageable party but still invite all of our friends, we scheduled it open house style and not during typical meal times—from 1 to 5 pm. By letting our guests know they could pop in at any time during the four hour window, it made it more convenient for them and meant that everyone wouldn’t show up all at once. By choosing hours that aren’t typical meal times, that meant a little less expectation and work on our end to serve a full meal with plates and flatware.
Decorate minimalist style
To decorate I opted for smaller items that don’t take up much room and can be easily relocated if space becomes scarce. A cedar wreath with fairy lights, winter bouquet, and Frasier fir candle kept things simple, but festive!
To see more ideas for minimalistic Christmas decorating without a tree, check out this post →
Make room for shoes and coats
We emptied our shoe shelf and coat rack to make room for guests. We’re a no-shoes household and having a place to tuck away shoes and hats keeps the entryway clear. The shoe shelf from Ikea deserves a post of its own since it stylishly fits over 8 pairs of adult shoes!
Arrange the seating
The modular couch is normally setup as one piece across the right wall and my keyboard usually lives under the guitars. But in order to fit everyone comfortably in our living room, we stored the keyboard in the bedroom and unclipped the couch to break up the seating. The “side table” between the chairs is a leather sling stool with a shallow tray for people to put their drinks on. If it gets real cramped the tray can make way for one more tush.
Assemble a “refillable” seafood brunch
We assembled a seafood brunch of lox, deviled eggs, and clam chowder. The “cake platter” with the eggs is just an upside down bowl and side plate. To keep the food chilled and save space, we only put out small portions at a time.
You can read all the details for this fancy, yet no-fuss seafood brunch here →
Self-serve drinks and cookies
This hallway is usually filled with a few more “artful storage” items—like my hairdryer and gym toiletries. I moved some into the bedroom (behind that closed door) to make room for a beverage station and cookie platter. We kept hot coffee in our Corkcicle thermos and bought the cookies from a bakery down the street. The treats lured people into the hallway and took edge off of the energy in the living room.
It was a fun and simple holiday party and the perfect way to break in our new digs!
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