The Potluck Club—Takes the Cake (41 page)
Lisa Leann’s Cook’s Notes
Hams are perfect for big galas. I like to use my electric knife to slice it thin, though for smaller groups, thick slices are nice. One 12-pound ham can serve 30 to 50, depending on portions. So, if I’m serving ham to 200, I’ll cook 4 or 5 of them, depending on how many other options are available on the menu.
Easy Oatmeal Crispies
½ cup butter
½ cup margarine
½ cup sugar
1 cup flour
1½ cups quick oats
With electric mixer, cream butter and margarine. Next, add sugar, flour, and oatmeal, one at a time, into mixing bowl and blend. Chill
dough for 1 to 3 hours. Shape dough into teaspoon-sized balls.
Place cookie balls three inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Flatten balls with bottom of glass dipped in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 12–15 minutes. Let cool.
Yield: 4 dozen.
Donna’s Cook’s Notes
I always need a little sweet to tide me over. But I don’t want to overdo the sugar. This is a good compromise, as it’s low in sugar and high in oatmeal. I like to bake a couple of batches to freeze in large freezer bags. Then, I just pop the cold cookies, straight from the freezer, into my lunch. They’re perfect for my afternoon break.
The Recipe for Friendship
2 heaping cups of patience
2 handfuls of generosity
1 heart of love
a dash of laughter
2 well-rounded scoops of respect
2 heaping measures of trust
1 head of understanding
sprinkle generously with kindness
add plenty of faith and mix well
Spread over a lifetime and serve everyone you meet.
If you have suddenly found yourself as the grande dame of a Christmas tea (as I did), and whether or not you are forced to share these duties with someone else (as I was), I’d like to share a bit of wisdom I’ve acquired.
First, set a date. Many churches find that having the tea the first of December works best for the ladies of the community. After all, people have lives, and the holidays seem to bring out the best in folks and the worst in their calendars.
You will also want to plan where. Most church-sponsored Christmas teas are held either in the church sanctuary or fellowship hall, though there may be a lady or two in your church or community with the perfect home setting for your tea. If you decide to have the tea in your church building, account for both setup time and breakdown time. (Oh, and you’ll want to coordinate with the men in your community or church so you’ll have some brawn to help with table setup and breakdown; perhaps the husbands, sons, or fiancés of the girls.)
Next, decide if you want to have an evening or an afternoon tea. Or, you could do both, and in this way—should you have your tea on a weekday—the ladies who work outside of the home and those who work inside of the home can all find a way to attend.
Then, get the ladies of your church or organization to sign up as table hostesses and helpers as early as possible. I cannot stress this enough, and I suggest giving them at least a month to six weeks lead time. Instruct your hostesses that they will be responsible for the setting and theme of their table, which should hold no more than six to eight, typically. This is also a lot of fun, seeing the themes for the first time the day of the tea. For the most part, women simply love to get out all the pretty stuff and play.
Have one of your ladies be responsible for decorating a greeting table in the front entrance, reception area, etc. I suggest that this be done a couple of weeks before the tea so as to add to the promotion of the tea.
Promoting the Christmas tea is never difficult. Bible studies, potluck clubs (like ours!), church bulletins, flyers about the community, an announcement in the local paper, something on your church website— the list goes on and on. If you are having a special speaker or music (and don’t get me started on the mess Lisa Leann created this year), make sure you give adequate information. You might want to add photos from past teas on your flyers or invitational letters as well.
When it comes to organizational meetings, I suggest you hold two meetings specifically for the table hostesses, the first about four weeks out, the second a week from the event. Always call the ladies before the meetings, because with so much going on during the season with a Reason they could easily forget. Have a list of details ready to share with the ladies and be sure to remind them that the focus of the tea is Christ and glorifying God (some people we know need reminding of this more than others).
Checklists for the hostesses should be passed out at the meeting.
Now here’s a little ministry tool you might want to consider: ask that the centerpieces for the tables not be secular in nature. No reindeer, Santas, or snowmen. This gives those who are unchurched something to focus on that might, in turn, become a seed planted. Of course, Lisa Leann vehemently disagrees with me on this, and I’m not saying I’m for it 100 percent. I’ve seen some secular centerpieces that’ll thrill you to pieces. I’m just saying consider it. You know your group better than I do.
While we’re on the secular versus religious issue, I have two other comments.
1. This is a
Christmas
tea. Not a
holiday
tea. If God had wanted us to call it a holiday tea, he would have called his son “the Holly” rather than “the Christ.” That’s my opinion, anyway.
2. But on the other hand, I see no problem with having a little Bing Crosby “White Christmas” on the stereo system followed by Perry Como’s “O Holy Night.” For pity’s sake, if Barbra Streisand can sing “Silent Night” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” on her Christmas album, then why not?
Make sure the hostesses have the correct date and time, and especially when the venue for the event will be open to them so they can come in and decorate their tables, etc. If you plan the tea correctly, you can actually have a tea decorating party the evening before the event.
Some churches choose to sell tickets for the tea (either to support their ministry or another ministry or to supply funds for the speaker or musical entertainment, etc.). If you do—and you certainly shouldn’t feel bad about doing this—keep your hostesses apprised as to how many tickets are selling. You may have to invite additional hostesses to join, and wouldn’t that just be grand! (I suggest having two or three additional tables set up for unexpected guests.) One last thought on this is to be sure to have a ticket receiving table where additional tickets can be purchased the day of and where name tags can be picked up.
Though the event is called a tea, be sure to offer other drinks as well, such as coffee and wassail. Prepare all of these as early as possible (about three hours ahead of time) and try to get one-hundred-cup pots for brewing and then thermal serving pots for serving. (Of course, for the tea, you will simply need to get thermal pots of hot water ready with a nice assortment of teas.) Offer an assortment of cold drinks as well. Consider having the young ladies of your youth ministry help with the preparation and distribution of the drinks, allowing them to apprentice in the art of hosting a tea.
For food setup and distribution you have a couple of choices: either setting up long tables (we, at Grace Church, like the round tables for tea and long tables for serving) and having the ladies serve themselves one table at a time or having servers wait on the ladies. Some churches have the fellows in their congregation take on the role of servers, dressing them up in penguin suits and draping a white towel over their arm.
Food can either be catered in or brought in by the good cooks
of your church or community.
A Christmas tea should reflect the personality or personalities of those who are giving it. Create or organize fun games and activities (nothing too flamboyant; after all, this is a tea not a three-year-old’s birthday party). Have door prizes. Perhaps a dramatic sketch or reading. Above all, give the gift of love, a fitting thing during the holiday season.
Linda Evans Shepherd
has turned the “pits” of her life into stepping stones following a violent car crash that left her then-infant daughter in a yearlong coma and permanently disabled (see LindaAndLaura.com).
Linda is the president of Right to the Heart Ministries and is also an international speaker (see ShepPro.com), radio host of the nationally syndicated Right to the Heart radio, guest television host of Daystar’s Denver Celebration, the founder and leader of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association (see AWSAWomen. com), and the publisher of Right to the Heart of Women ezine (see RightToTheHeartOfWomen.com), which goes to more than ten thousand women leaders of the church.
She’s been married twenty-seven years to Paul and has two children, Laura and Jimmy.
Linda has written more than eighteen books, including
Intimate
Moments with God
(co-authored with Eva Marie Everson),
Tangled
Heart: A Mystery Devotional
, and
Grief Relief
.
Award-winning author and speaker
Eva Marie Everson
is a Southern girl who’s not that crazy about being in the kitchen unless she’s being called to eat some of her mama’s or daddy’s cooking. She is married to a wonderful man, Dennis, and is a mother and grandmother to the most precious children in the world.
Eva’s writing career and ministry began in 1999 when a friend asked her what she’d want to do for the Lord, if she could do anything. “Write and speak,” she said. And so it began.
Since that time, she has written, co-written, contributed to, and edited and compiled a number of works, including
Sex, Lies, and the
Media
and
Sex, Lies, and High School
(co-written with her daughter, Jessica). She is a Right to the Heart board member and a member of a number of other organizations, and is a mentor with Christian Writers Guild.
A graduate of Andersonville Theological Seminary, she speaks nationally, drawing others to the heart of God. In 2002, she was one of six journalists chosen to visit Israel. She was forever changed.
For more fun with the Potluck Club, go to: www.PotLuckClub.com
