The Holiday Season is here again, bringing more opportunities to be with friends and family, enjoy delicious meals together, and spread the spirit of the season! Whether for a work party or a large family gathering, sometimes it’s nice to leave the cooking up to someone else! If you have a holiday event this year for which you are looking to hire a caterer, use these 4 tips for finding the perfect meal:

1. Consider the non-traditional. Everyone likely has dozens of holiday gatherings to attend between November and January. What will the spread be at those gatherings? Turkey, ham, stuffing, pumpkin pie? (Yum!) While those dishes are all delicious, we don’t necessarily need more of the traditional choices this season. Want to consider having something a little different? An Italian night with garlic bread and baked ziti will be filling and delicious, plus it would bring in some great opportunities for wine pairings and mixology competitions! Or, go all-American with barbecue pork, ribs, cornbread, and mac n’ cheese. The kids will be extra happy with this choice!
2. Choose a caterer with fresh, local ingredients. Nothing feels better during the holiday season than supporting your local businesses and farms! The food you serve your family is important to you, and it should be important to your caterer too. Locally-sourced produce, dairy, and meat not only feels better, it tastes better too! You can’t beat the freshness of farm-to-table. Here in Indiana, we are pretty lucky to have great local businesses to rely on and support.
3. Decide on a drink menu. Depending on the size of your gathering, you may want to have the caterer take care of beverages. If you want to provide alcoholic drinks to your guests, make sure the caterer you hire has the proper licensing and serving staff to serve alcohol at your venue. Almost all company holiday parties need some drinks to liven up the crowd!
4. Don’t forget dessert. It’s easier than you think to go all-in on the entrees and forget to budget in dessert. If you’re trying to take a hands-off approach to the cooking for one of your holiday get-togethers, you would be doing yourself an injustice not to have dessert catered too! You can either find options on your meal caterer’s dessert menu or have an entirely different company bring in dessert. Do you have a favorite bakery or café nearby? You might be surprised at how many pies, cookies, cakes, and crumbles a baker can whip up for your big gathering. Just think of all the work you won’t have to worry about and all the tasty treats you can still offer to your guests!

Holiday gatherings are surely about quality time, conversation, and memory-creating, but no one can argue that food becomes the center of all! If you’d like to take a break from cooking for one of your holiday gatherings this year, let the Wever’s BBQ family bring you a delicious, home-cooked meal! We hope your winter is delicious and full of joy.