This year make your decorations edible. Start with the dining room or buffet table. Catching the eyes of your guests greatly influences access to their stomachs. What will be the focal point or centerpiece? Flowers are traditional, but how about an elegant dessert or holiday cake? Guests will be able to decide how much stomach room they want to leave for the end of the meal sweets. There are many beautifully detailed bundt™ pans to choose from that would make an elegant centerpiece. A cake filled with pudding or ice cream can easily be made with a dome cake pan set and decorated for the holidays. Another idea would be to display holiday cupcakes in a tree-shaped stand. Cheesecake topped with a fruit filling is always a hit.

Seat your guests at the right place with a bonbon decorated with their name. Use a bonbon mold, chocolate, and favorite candy filling to make sweet take home-treats and put them in small or mini truffle boxes. Tie with ribbon and name tag.

Other food table decorations could include beautiful garnishes - cucumber fans, tomato roses, swans made from apples, peppers turned into flowers, etc. These types of relishes are great for appetizers or hors d’oeuvres before the meal. You can also use mini Christmas cutters to cut shapes from salami and different cheeses.

If you plan to have a dessert buffet to show off all the homemade candy or holiday cookies that you've made, use a small cupcake display stand and paper doilies to offer your guests their choice. Place chocolate truffles or filled chocolates in mini foil cups and scatter them along the center of the dining table. Sweets make wonderful decorations!

Finally, use a dessert whipper to make flavored cream to top off a specialty coffee, latte, or cappuccino. Your guests can sip their coffee and eat their bonbons and enjoy that satisfied feeling that comes after a delicious meal. You may have to turn out the lights and hand your guests a boxed mini holiday cake or a Santa bag full of holiday cookies before they are willing to leave.