Christmas parties are a great time to get everyone together, and have a great time, imbibing massive amount of liquor, destroying piles of food, and dancing enough to kick up a storm. When it comes to setting the party up, there is the debate of whether to let the guests sit down and be served, or to give them a buffet line.

Each has its pluses and minuses. The buffet allows people to serve themselves and decide what they want with little waste on their plates. They can decide their portions, and how much they wish to eat. Also, set up can be as little (just put plates and silverware in a central location), or as much (with full setting) as you like. Drinks are also debatable, as you can have a central location, wait staff to serve drinks, or just have drinks available on the table. A good compromise, especially if you are serving champagne, is to have drinks available at a central location, and a bottle or two of champagne at each table.

From a cost perspective, you do save some, as the waiting is not necessary and you only need a clean-up crew late in the meal. However, clean-up can take longer, as thee various chafing dishes need to cleaned up at the end of the night, and the various dishes may need to be checked for how long they have been out (some foods have a limit as to how long they can be in an open-air dish). Also, if you have a large number of people walking around, this may be preferable as otherwise they will be running into wait staff constantly.

Serving your guests, however, adds a certain level of elegance to the affair. Although the wait staff will definitely earn their money, especially when it comes to refilling drinks, a sit-down dinner is definitely more elegant. Although will try to get larger or smaller portions, there will be enough variety that most will be happy, especially if they are given a choice of entre and salad dressing. Also, you will have fewer accidents and spills.

The basic two considerations are if you expect the crowd to do a lot of walking around, and if you want to do something truly special. If you expect a lot of walking around, the buffet is obviously superior, as otherwise there will be a lot of crashes between the wait staff and the partiers. However, a sit-down dinner is better if there will be a lot of speeches and toasts given. Also, the sit-down is generally considered classier, and that may be a consideration with the right crowd.

Regardless of which method you choose, do see what preferences people have as to what you will serve. Always make sure that there is a vegetarian dish, especially as vegetarianism is on the rise. Otherwise, choose which method would seem to fit your crowd better, and enjoy the party!