Between traveling to see family and tackling gift lists, the winter holiday season rarely fails to be a jam-packed time of year. Throwing a party into the mix might seem like the fuel for a holiday headache, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here’s a blueprint for throwing a lavish get-together guests won’t forget.

Breckenridge-based Christy Rost’s party-throwing skills landed her airtime slots on PBS along with features on Oprah.com and Martha Stewart Radio. Entertaining is a passion Rost has been able to turn into a decades-long career. Whether entertaining for work or pleasure, she said she is always looking for ways to spoil her guests, which she says is a key ingredient to an ideal holiday party. 

“I like to provide a setting that wows them from the moment they walk in the door or enter the room. … I love creating this element of surprise,” she said. 

Rost doesn’t like to follow minimalist decorating trends. She said shimmer and shine are essential elements that help add depth to her decor. 

For Rost, things that sparkle pair perfectly with the holidays. If she has candles in her decor, she will place glass or crystal accents nearby so the light catches them. Something as small as placing pearls around a hurricane lamp can help enhance the shimmer in a room, she said. 

Rost gravitates towards using fabrics that have bits of silver, gold, bronze and copper woven into them to add some pizzazz to flat surfaces like tables and counters. 

“I don’t just put fabrics flat on a table,” she said. “I always billow them out and gather them to make waves, and that creates wonderful depth on a table and starts to bring a table up from a flat surface into a surface that has multiple dimensions.”

Rost said a staple of a good holiday party is a signature drink. And these days, with more and more people hopping on the sober train, she said having nonalcoholic options is a must. 

A go-to Rost uses is a cranberry cosmopolitan, which she said can be made nonalcoholic easily thanks to new spirits out on the market that are zero-proof. Low-alcohol or alcohol-free options can be found on sites such as The Zero Proof, which can be accessed through this link — TinyURL.com/3mksdzhx — and Proof No More, which can be accessed through this link —TinyURL.com/yc8n8jyj. Another drink she frequently serves during the holidays is a sidecar, a cocktail featuring cognac, orange liqueur, lemon and brandy.

Rebekah Allgood, founder of Summit Bartenders, said a peppermint martini is always a fan favorite. Allgood starts this cocktail recipe off with a vodka-vanilla base, using two ounces of 360 Vodka. Next, she adds one ounce of peppermint schnapps and one ounce of creme de menthe liqueur. 

“I’ll crush up some candy canes and use that on the rim of the glass to make the topper more festive,” Allgood said. 

She said she also loves to put a holiday twist on an old fashioned by swapping sugar for maple syrup and garnishing it with a cinnamon stick. For those who aren’t looking to scramble making drinks before or amid the party, she recommends prepping a mulled wine ahead of time by adding things like spices, fruit and brandy to a red wine and heating it. 

Rost said that when it comes to the wine she serves, she frequently finds herself putting drinks with bubbles on the bar such as Prosecco, champagne and cava, a Spanish sparkling wine. 

Allgood’s business, Summit Bartenders, aims to relieve hosts of bartending duties by doing it for them. Her traveling bar will go as far as 100 miles to bartend for private holiday parties, weddings, corporate events and more. To learn more about booking Summit Bartenders, visit SummitBartenders.com.

Good hors d’oeuvres are another way to spoil guests, Rost said. 

“One thing that has come back and is quite popular again, and this is back from the 1970s, is fondue,” she said. “I love it because it’s interactive. It gets people talking to one another while they’re busy dipping.”

She said she’ll pair the fondue with cubes of bread and lots of fresh vegetables. She will also offer romesco for people to dunk these in, which is a Spanish tomato-based sauce.

Rost said charcuterie boards are always a crowd pleaser that take minimal time. 

“You don’t have to add just meat and cheese. You can add pastas to it and things like that. … I love adding apples to them, particularly cosmic crisp apples because they don’t oxidize,” she said. 

A perfect finishing touch to a holiday party, Rost said, is some dessert plates with baked goods such as cookies. She said, while it’s not something people are expecting, it’s something she finds they appreciate at the end of the night.