At GirlfriendCelebrations, we know you want ways to make entertaining easier so you can enjoy getting together with your girlfriends more often. That’s why we’re excited to share what we learned at the Home for the Holidays event hosted by 1-800-BASKETS and its family of companies, including 1-800-FLOWERS, WineTasting.com, Fannie May Candies, Cheryl’s, The Popcorn Factory, and Celebrations.com.  The event featured celebrity event planner Shawn Rabideau of Celebrations.com. Shawn has appeared on on the Bravo TV’s reality series Bethenny Getting Married?, ABC’s Good Morning America and the Style Network’s Whose Wedding is it Anyway? In addition, he has contributed to many national television shows including  The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, and The View.

What we really enjoyed about this event—aside from learning how to make a top-notch gift basket—was getting entertaining tips that help you make an impact when entertaining, without spending a fortune or needing special skills. Here are just a few:

Dashing Displays: Instead of buying new serving pieces for the holidays, focus on using—and reusing—pieces you already have for serving food in a more visually pleasing way. For example, display desserts on a “cake stand” made with plates and inverted rocks glasses. Or, use martini glasses to serve popcorn (or nuts) and suddenly these “ordinary” treats look a lot more special.

One Great Cocktail: Mixing up a signature cocktail for your girls night can make things a whole lot easier while giving your party a more festive air. Shawn shared his recipe for the Cranberry Mimosa Twist, pictured above. Find the recipe for this delicious sparkler right here.

Gracious Gift Baskets: At holiday time, many of us receive gift baskets, but we don’t know quite what to do with them. Well, girlfriends, those baskets are meant to be used! If you receive a gift basket from a friend, or even order one for yourself, be sure to display the contents. When arranged in small glass dishes on a pretty tray, for example, the contents of a goodie basket become an impressive offering at your holiday party. The basket itself can be reused in many ways, including lining it with plastic to make a decorative wine chiller.

Fun with Food: Shawn also showed us how he arranged Cheryl’s delicious buttercream frosted cookies into an adorable and edible wreath (pictured above), using only a few toothpicks to hold it together. This is something ANY of our girlfriends could do, and it makes a delicious and pretty adornment for your food table. He also assembled some other Cheryl’s treats into a cute, pink and brown holiday tree, also pictured, that definitely says “girls night” to us.

Tabletop Tips: Having a dinner party? Try using a beautiful votive candleholder to anchor your placecards. Simply tie the placecard to it with ribbon. Then, guests can take them home as party favors – double duty! If you don’t have matching silver or glassware, don’t panic! Just mix it up, Shawn says. “Don’t get nervous. Relax and let your creativity flow.” We’d like to echo his sentiment. Your girlfriends really don’t care about your tableware, and if they do, maybe you need new friends!

Leave a comment: How are you planning to celebrate with your girlfriends this holiday season? Do you have any tips for making entertaining easier?

SPECIAL OFFER: For a limited time, save 15% at 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-800-BASKETS, WineTasting.com, Cheryl’s Cookies, and the Popcorn Factory with code “SHAWN.” To save 15% with Fannie May Candies, use code “1225″.

Disclosure: 1-800-Baskets invited us to participate in this Home for the Holidays event. We each received a gift basket, cookies, popcorn tin, box of candy, votive holder and bottle of wine. This blog post was not requested.