When it comes to hosting holiday parties, your guests will most likely expect you to serve alcohol. After all, nothing says ‘happy holidays’ like spiked eggnog. However, serving alcohol at your party can leave some guests quite intoxicated and needing a ride home. As the host, you certainly want to make sure everyone has fun. However, you also want to host a safe holiday party for all to enjoy. So, what can I do to keep my guests happy and safe this holiday season?
Safe Holiday Party Hosting: Don’t Let Friends Drink and Drive
Offer Alcohol-Free Beverages
One of the best ways to host a safe holiday party is to make sure there are plenty of non-alcoholic drinks. Most of the time, we tend to focus on making sure there is enough alcohol, and a wide selection of great drinks. So, it can be easy to forget to provide plenty of other, non-alcoholic drinks. In order to make them more appealing, you may even want to come up with some fun, alcohol-free holiday drinks or mocktails. By doing so, your guest can enjoy a special drink without worrying about driving.
Prepare Snacks
Another way to help ensure you have a safe holiday party is to make sure there’s plenty to snack on. Drinking on an empty stomach can allow the alcohol to hit the blood stream much quicker. So, it’s important to offer guest some food in order to help their bodies metabolize the alcohol. In addition, many people can’t drink as much on a full stomach. Therefore, offering food or light snacks may encourage your guests to drink less.
Invite Guests to Stay
When hosting a safe holiday party, you want to offer your guests to stay if needed. While it may feel like an inconvenience to open up your home, you can rest easy knowing that you’re keeping your friends from drunk driving. However, if this is something you cannot ensure for every guest, save the invites for those who really need it.
Don’t Be Afraid to Intervene
If you see a friend drinking too much or grabbing the keys to drive, don’t hesitate to step in. While it may be awkward to intervene, it’s part of hosting a safe holiday party. Stopping a friend from driving may cause tension. However, a bit of tension now is undeniably worth the avoided potential accidents and charges later.
So, keep an eye out at your party for friends that have had too much to drink. Plan to give them a ride, offer your house as a place to crash, or call a ride service. By taking these steps to intervene, you can make sure to have a safe holiday party.