Ep. 444: Holiday Throwback Special, Pt. 2 - Taryn's Hosting Tips & Tricks

How to Decorate

Caroline McDonald

Arts, Business, Design

4.4 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We are back for part two of our special three-part holiday series! This week, Taryn takes over the host chair to introduce her favorite holiday episode from the archives. Taryn chose Episode 388: The 2024 Holiday Hosting Special, a sentimental favorite because it was recorded right at her own dining room table in her new home. In this cozy and practical conversation, the ladies discuss navigating family food traditions (like Taryn’s pierogies vs. her husband's healthy salads), Liz’s secret "Winter Berry Pie" recipe, and the ultimate timeline for stress-free hosting. Quick Decorating & Hosting Takeaways: The "Martha" Method: Caroline shares her system for stress-free hosting: create a master list 1-2 weeks in advance and assign every single task (even "fill ice trays") to a specific day so you never have to do everything at once. Focus on the Big Two: If you are low on energy for decorating, Taryn and the team suggest focusing only on a pre-lit Christmas tree and a great wreath for the front door. If you nail those two spots, you can let the rest of the house go. Shop Estate Sales: For unique, sustainable gifts, skip the mall and check out local estate sales (using apps like EstateSales.net) to find special items like silver trays, crystal, or vintage books. What You’ll Hear on This Episode: 00:00 Taryn introduces Part 2 of the Holiday Throwback series 02:00 Hosting Thanksgiving: From potlucks to seating 7 at a round table 04:00 Menu mashups: Combining family traditions (Pierogies vs. Salads) 08:00 Caroline’s "Master List" hosting strategy 13:00 Liz’s Winter Berry Pie & Caroline’s "Salty Pumpkin Pie" disaster 23:00 Christmas Decorating: The December 8th rule vs. decorating early 26:00 The debate: Real trees vs. Fake trees (and using both!) 28:00 DIY Flocking Tips: Mist, sprinkle, mist again 30:00 Ornaments: Tying glass icicles with satin ribbon 42:00 Stocking Holders: Why the ladies love the "Essential" holder 59:00 Gift Giving: Why estate sales are the best secret source Also Mentioned: Ina Garten’s Mashed Sweet Potatoes EstateSales.net (App for finding sales) Ballard Designs Essential Stocking Holder Shop Ballard Designs Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. You can always check back here to see new episodes, but if you subscribe, it’ll automatically download to your phone. Happy Decorating! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone and welcome back to the How to Decorate Podcast from Ballard Designs. I'm Taryn
0:04.5	and I'm so excited to be hosting part two of our three-part holiday throwback series. I know Caroline
0:10.7	kicked it off last week with episode 117 with Janney Moester where she shares some amazing insights
0:16.5	on tree decorating and holiday styling. So I hope you got a chance to listen back to that
0:20.6	goody because there were so many great tips and tricks in there. And next week, Liz got to
0:25.4	pick her favorite, but I'll keep it a surprise. For now, I'm going to share with you guys.
0:30.7	I chose episode 388, or 388. It's known as the 2024 holiday hosting special. I picked last years because we
0:41.9	recorded in my house and we talked a lot about Thanksgiving, complaining about pies to make.
0:50.9	And Caroline gives some tips and tricks on her system for planning out the task before a party
0:56.9	because Caroline's known for her big holiday party and we discussed that. I think you guys will find
1:02.8	some good practical tips tucked in there. So please enjoy this throwback episode and I hope you
1:09.8	are having the best 2025 holiday season and wishing you and your family. So much love and light this season. Now to the episode. This festive season of McDonald's get... Rinched deals every day. Okay, okay. With a sausage sandwich for just... Let's see. Nine and a mp. Six chiggin' mcnugermutgets for just... Nine-nit. Fine. Get Grinch deals every day in the McDonald's app. 18 plus app only ends 24th of December. One use per offer. Free supply to delivery. Participation varies. Please and C supply. I mean, we can kick off with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a week from now. Amazing. And yeah, let's talk about hosting. I don't know. I know Liz, we just were talking off Mike about Liz is going to be hosting this year. But everybody maybe go around and let's what are your hosting rituals? Do you have any? Well, did you have them before you were hosting?
2:01.6	Well, it's been a few years since I've hosted Thanksgiving. When we lived in Los Angeles, we would have
2:06.4	Friendsgiving for everyone who couldn't make it back to their respective homes. So, I mean, honestly,
2:13.4	that was early days of Facebook at this point. And so I would just put it on Facebook and say, hey, if you don't have a place to come, come over. And I think the largest one we had was maybe like 35 or 40 people. Gosh. And so we would put, because it was Los Angeles, we would have, we had two picnic tables and we would put them head to head and just do one big long banquet table. And it was,
2:35.8	it was fantastic. That's really fun. Outside it, I assume. Yeah, where it was more of a pot look
2:41.3	situation where I would make the dessert and the turkey and a couple sides and then everybody else
2:47.4	would bring things to share. Yeah, it's fantastic. So I'm actually really looking forward to hosting again.
2:53.4	It's been quite some time since I've hosted Thanksgiving, so I'm really looking forward to it.
2:59.3	And how many people?
3:02.7	For seven, seven people.
3:05.4	That's a good amount.
	...

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