Deciding Who to Invite to a Holiday Party

Holiday parties can be a great way to relax and have fun with friends and family. However, planning a holiday party can be a little intimidating. Probably the most difficult decision to make when planning a party is the guest list. Who to invite and who not to invite can be stressful. But if you take a moment to consider both your party and its guest list, the process can be made simpler.

Before you can even think of a guest list, you have to know your space. If you intend to host the party in your living room, and you only have room for ten people, then that limits your guest list considerably. If, on the other hand, you’d like to rent a hall for a hundred people, your list of guests expands quite a bit.

The next step is to decide what kind of party you’ll be having. Are you having a sit-down dinner or a buffet, or perhaps cocktails? Is your party primarily for friends, family, colleagues, or a mixture of all three? What kind of entertainment will you be planning? Will you include children in your party?
These questions will all slightly alter your guest list. For example, if the party is primarily for your colleagues, then you might not want to include children, and you probably won’t invite your sister. You can mix your groups, of course, but you have to do this carefully. A party full of family and friends can be wonderful, but don’t invite only one friend in a sea of family members. It will just make everyone uncomfortable. You have to achieve some kind of balance, or limit yourself to only one group.

Children are an important issue when it comes to planning a party. Babies, in particular, require some attention to detail. They may be tiny, but they come with stuff. Expect that a parent bringing their little one might have a playpen or carrier for the baby to rest in. If you invite any breastfeeding mothers, you might want to have a space, perhaps in a spare bedroom, where they can retreat, if they need to.

If your party is child friendly, and you have a maximum number of people you can invite, remember to count each attending child as a guest. This is especially important if you’re in a rented space, as you’ll have to abide by fire codes, and fire codes do count children as people. Even parents, however, are entitled to have a child-free party. Sitters can be found, after all.

Try to keep it simple, and remember that the point of a holiday party is to have fun with people you enjoy being around. Be creative, invite those people who mean the most to you, and remember, it’s a holiday party. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just fun.