According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in three Americans are sleep deprived. This means that if you throw a party for 24 people, 8 of them will likely be getting less sleep than they should.
What in the world does this have to do with a sit-down dinner party?
When you throw a party, you can’t just expect people to arrive energized and engaged, and you certainly can’t expect them to stay that way through the evening. If you don’t plan accordingly, one guest could start to yawn, which may lead to another, and another, and another…
But you can keep people energized, engaged, and interacting all throughout the evening, and these tips can help make it happen!
Keep the Energy Alive at Your Sit-Down Dinner Party with these Tips!
First, we should discuss what we really mean by keeping the “energy alive” at your party. In this case, we don’t mean throwing a rowdy event; we don’t mean a rambunctious block party worthy of your college years. Rather, we mean hosting a party where people are constantly interacting with fellow guests, enthusiastically participating in events, and simply engaged in the evening. If people are mingling, conversing, and laughing, you’ve done your work to keep the energy high.
Simple color changes can significantly impact the mood and energy level of your dinner party. According to numerous studies, including a study on color and its effect on the mood of college students, color can have “a profound effect on our mood and on our behavior.”
There is a surprising amount of research on this topic, but the overall point is simple: if you want to create sustained energy and interaction at your dinner party, you should select the right colors.
Colors to consider for your dinner party include:
Family-style dining, which is the practice of serving food on larger platters or trays and allowing people to share each dish, is a wonderful way to increase interaction and conversation at your event. Also known as casual dining, it’s an inviting method that creates more interaction, and it’s far more dynamic and social than simply serving an individually-plated meal to each guest.
If you want your guests to become drowsy, lazy, and lethargic, then by all means serve heavy dishes like mashed potatoes, hams, beef, or thick soups. However, if you want to keep the energy going from start to finish, avoid this common mistake and take a different approach.
Foods that make people feel full require lots of physical energy to digest, sapping the energy out from your party. Instead of heavy, dense foods, choose lighter fare that can be served family style, such as:
These are just a few examples of the light cuisine you can choose for your dinner party.
If people simply sit in their chairs all night, keeping themselves planted for hours on end, they will lose energy. Create movement and interaction by including a few activities throughout the evening.
You can increase interaction by adding adult favorites such as charades, karaoke, poetry reading, or even trivia contests. It’s not game night, so these activities should only be a small part of the evening, but they can go a long way towards keeping interaction and energy high.
To help avoid the post-meal slump in energy, offer coffee to your guests. You can spice things up (literally and figuratively) by offering unique coffee flavors that make the hot beverage more interesting. Go beyond the typical sugar and cream and offer cinnamon, vanilla extract, or even specialty syrups to make the coffee more interesting.
You deserve a wonderful party that you can actually enjoy! Let us take the work out of your hands by planning and catering your next sit-down dinner party. Impress your guest by hiring an experienced catering company in San Francisco who can handle all your needs!
