Susan Felt
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 2, 2007 07:20 PM
There are 22 days until Christmas. How did that happen?

Decorating the tree, hanging wreaths, buying presents, baking cookies. It's your version of the 12 Days of Christmas. But the partridge in a pear tree looks more like a goose cooking in the oven. Yours.

Relax. We have 12 days' worth of ideas that will let you count down the days to the 25th with what we all need: hope, faith and a lot of charity.
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Here's the first of 12 little packages we've wrapped up just for you:

An easy open house

Author and design expert Kathy Peterson reminds hosts that they are not the most important people at their party; their guests are. Plan the food around guests' tastes while putting your signature on the party.

Remember that small is better, says interior designer and author Christopher Lowell. Let the food and drinks you serve be not only the entertainment but the decoration, he suggests.

Here are three ideas for festive gathering spots for your guests' drinking and noshing.

Shrimp bar

Mound shrimp on a platter of ice. Use three oversize martini glasses for the sauces. Fill one with cocktail sauce, another with Japanese dipping sauce (mix 1 cup mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, 3/4 teaspoon paprika and 3/8 teaspoon garlic powder) and the third with Green Goddess dipping sauce (mix 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup chopped fresh scallions, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, 2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon, 1 tablespoon anchovy paste, 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper).

Chocolate-fondue bar

Prepare pots of melted chocolate fondue. Fill a glass cylinder vase with cubed angel food cake. Fill another with strawberries and another with miniature pretzels. Provide fondue forks for dipping.

Martini bar

Use your kitchen island or the dining-room table as a service area.

First, decorate it with three glass-cylinder vases (available at arts and crafts stores) in different sizes. Fill one with shiny silver and red tree ornaments. Put pomegranates and sprigs of holly or pine boughs in another. In the third, place pecans or roasted almonds.

Premix pomegranate martinis: 4 parts vodka, 2 parts triple sec; 1 part lime juice and 2 parts pomegranate juice. Premixing lets the host control the alcohol content of the martinis and can eliminate the need for a bartender.