Happy New Year everyone! I hope by now you’ve recovered from the New Year’s Eve festivities and are enjoying the rest of the holiday break before work starts up again on Monday.

My husband and I hosted a small dinner party for 6 people to ring in the new year and wanted to share the menu and table setting. Even though the table is set for New Year’s Eve, you can still take ideas away for future dinner parties.

For the decor, I started by laying my favorite West Elm painted metallic table runner down the center of the table. I added sequin placemats (no longer available at H&M, but similar here) and silver charger plates to each setting. I topped the chargers with silver foiled napkins (no longer available at West Elm, but similar here) and added a party popper to each. I sprinkled the runner with festive confetti, added candles of varying heights, and put some festive fringe blowouts in a glass as a centerpiece.

As for food, we knew we wanted to keep the main course fairly simple so we didn’t have to slave away in the kitchen the whole night rather than visiting with our guests. We decided to do a slow-cooker meal so we could prepare it early and then just set it on a timer so it was ready and waiting when it was time for dinner. The salad and the appetizers were also easy to prep ahead of time, and about 15 minutes before guests arrived I set out the apps and threw the little smokies in the oven.

NEW YEAR’S EVE MENU
Appetizers
– Bacon wrapped little smokies (recipe here)
– Shrimp cocktail
– Smoked salmon served with cream cheese and capers on crackers
– Brie and salami with crackers
Main Course
Thai-style pork over steamed white rice (recipe here) with a seasame ginger miso cucumber salad I found on Pinterest (recipe here)
Dessert
Pumpkin pie (brought by a guest). Chocolate covered strawberries are also a great option and pair well with champagne.

What did you do for New Year’s Eve? I hope everyone has had a great start to 2016!

xoxo,
Veronica