The holiday season is officially here and I couldn’t be more excited! This is definitely my favorite time of year. I love all the pretty lights and holiday decorations, not to mention all the savory meals and sweet treats. There’s no better time of year to gather together as a family to eat delicious food and enjoy quality time together.
Every year I host Christmas Eve dinner with my side of the family. My mom, dad, sisters and nieces all come over to eat and open presents together. Growing up, my mom always made a spiral ham and all the fixings for Christmas Eve dinner. I’ve carried on the tradition and now every year I make a ham, cheesy hash browns, green beans and an appetizer or two. My sister, Jody, usually brings a couple of pies and cookies and my sister, Nicole, brings a salad and rolls. The meal never fails to hit the spot and we always have leftovers!
This year I’ve made it a goal of mine to plan and shop early for all of my holiday essentials. No more last-minute stuff for me. I get way too stressed out. I’m happy to say that I’ve already planned out my Christmas Eve dinner and bought most of what I need for it at Walmart. I like to shop there for all of my holiday essentials. They have everything you need to host the perfect holiday party or family gathering!
I snuck away from home the other day and shopped at my local Walmart for holiday decorations and Christmas Eve dinner essentials. I picked up a couple of holiday decor items, as well as a spiral ham, hash browns, sour cream, cream cheese, shredded cheese, green beans, artichoke hearts, spinach and most importantly, KING‘S HAWAIIAN® Sweet Round Bread.
KING’S HAWAIIAN bread and rolls are a family favorite, whether served alone or as part of a delicious recipe creation. I’m really excited to use the Sweet Round Bread to make an appetizer I’ve been wanting to try (I’ll be sharing the recipe later). I think it is going to be a hit at our family dinner!
Before you head out to shop for all of your holiday dinner essentials, make sure you check out these helpful money-saving tips:
Plan Early
Make your holiday menu plans at 2-3 weeks in advance. This will give you plenty of time to scope out the sales to find the absolute best price that you can. Plus, it will let you know just how long you need to plan for cooking and other preparation that will need to be done.
Use Coupons
The holidays are a great time to use coupons! The nice thing is you can usually find them for the ingredients you need to make those yummy dishes. Even if you don’t use coupons normally, putting them into play and combining them with already great sales can help you spend considerably less. You can find a coupon for $1 off any two KING’S HAWAIIAN products here.
Divide and Conquer
If you’re hosting family at your holiday dinner, ask everyone to bring a dish to share. This not only saves you money, but also time spent in the kitchen!
Get Creative
If your budget really can’t handle a full dinner with all of the trimmings, don’t stress about it. Instead, get everyone together for drinks, appetizers or dessert and play games. The most important thing is that you enjoy the time spent together!
Stay tuned for my simple and delicious recipe featuring KING’S HAWAIIAN Sweet Round Bread. I’ll be sharing that in the next week. In the meantime, check out these helpful holiday tips, ideas and recipes from KING’S HAWAIIAN!
What are some of your tips for hosting a holiday dinner on a budget?
This blog post was sponsored by KING’S HAWAIIAN® but the opinions are all my own. #HostWithKH
Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip in a Bread Bowl - The PennyWiseMama
Friday 18th of December 2015
[…] Still planning your holiday dinner? Make sure you check out these tips for hosting a holiday dinner on a budget! […]
Karen Glatt
Wednesday 9th of December 2015
Use coupons is so good to help me save on a budget, and buying meat marked down and saving it for the Holidays is such a good way to save on dinner for the Holidays. I look for marked down items and find ways to make my Holidays foods cheaper.