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Planning your holiday party—with the Internet??? Written for CBC Ottawa's Radio Show, CBO Morning For the past ten years, I’ve hosted an annual Xmas time shindig, which always accumulates with unprepared me running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off the moment before my guests are supposed to arrive. One year I decided to gash my thumb open while I was cutting up the crudities. Another year, I decided that our beige carpet needed a liberal dash of red wine just before the doorbell started ringing. And last year, while I was freshening up in the loo, the cat decided to start early on the appetizers. Needless to say, I need as much help as I can get. And so I’m very happy to report that, as per usual, the Internet is there to save me. This year, I’ll be the hostess with the mostest for sure, lounging luxuriously on my couch with gin and tonics before the guests arrive, making brilliant conversation, and charming all the cute boys with my delicate laughter and grace. Or at least I’ll be marginally more organized. How? Well, let me explain. Apparently I’m not the only computer geek in the universe who enjoys a good cocktail party. A plethora of party-planning sites have sprung up online, promising to enhance the party lives of us nerds. (Ha! Don’t we have to spend time away from the computer for that?) So, where to start? Well, let’s assume that I’m planning something a little bit different this time. After all, we want a memorable holiday party, right? There are some great, wacky ideas for parties at a site called Party411.com. The best holiday suggestion they gave me was for an "Alien Xmas Party", where you decorate with little green men in Santa hats. (I’m sure my friends would remember that ‘do! ) Because Party411’s a business venture, you can, of course, order all of your supplies for the aforementioned shindig online. But, even if you don’t, there’s some great ideas there. Party 411 also has some fun features such as tips, dips, and jokes of the week, and an "ask the party girl" section. Now that we’ve got the theme, it’s time to figure out invitations. Rather than spending a entire night on the phone, I hit an awesome new site called evite.com. Evite.com is a site tailored for planning parties and sending out invitations online. When you first visit evite, you create an evite account for yourself. Using this account, you can plan your party, and invite everyone—over the net, using, you guessed it, "evites" as invitations. Creating an evite is easy—you name your party, the location, the date, the place and the e-mail address of everyone you want to invite. Evite automatically sends out e-mails to your guests, which leads them to your evite party web page, where they can find out more information about your party, RSVP, leave notes, and sign up to bring stuff. You can customize your invitation page in a big way as well, by adding graphics and messages. There is some cool interactive stuff you can do too—let’s say you’re having a dinner potluck and you want everyone to bring one course. You can list everything you need (salad course, dessert, etc.) on your evite. Then, when your friends hit your evite party page, all they have to do is check off a box to chose what to bring. Then, the evite service will tell you about who’s bringing what. After the party’s over, evite even lets you set up an online photo gallery to share with your friends. And, once you’ve activated your evite account the first time, it’s really easy to use evite for future get-togethers. Evite also has an area for party suggestions and tips, ranging from millennium brunches to movie nights with the girls. OK, so now that we’ve got a party theme and the invitations all figured out, I need some supplies, right? Well, guess what? We still don’t need to leave the house. Instead, let’s log onto iparty.com, a nice little site that will fix us up with all the party supplies we’ll ever need. On iparty.com, you choose your party theme (in this case, Xmas), and it sets you up with any number of themed prearranged party packages, featuring plates, napkins, tablecloths, cups, and even wine glasses and decorations. And, you can scale the iparty packages for whatever size of shindig you’re hosting—whether it be a few close friends or a family reunion. And, because everything’s already been put together for you, you get to save a little bit of money, and a lot of time. Now, just one more thing…if I’m having a holiday party, we need some holiday libations, right? Fine drink recipes abound online at two sites: cocktail.com, and martinisonline.com. Cocktail.com features lots of recipes, cocktail quizzes and commentary. I found lots of yummy recipes, there, for things ranging from the "Maple Leaf Martini" to "Toucan Punch". The slightly more glib martinisonline is devoted strictly to that most sophisticated of cocktails, the Martini, and features lots of good recipes and a searchable worldwide lounge index. According to Martinisonline, the most popular martinis we should serve our guests are the cosmopolitan, and the James Bond Martini #1. So, now I’ve got a theme. I’ve got invitations. I’ve got supplies. And I’ve got drinks. The only thing missing is friends now, and for that, yes, I do need to get off the computer. Until next time, cheers! Sites discussed in this column:
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