Alex Williams of The New York Times has a must-read article
for anyone who's trying to entertain on a budget this holiday season. Alex convinced top-notch Manhattan party planner David Munn to create a fabulous dinner party for eight at Alex's small apartment. The catch? David, who is used to working with sky-high budgets for socialites and billionaires could only spend $30 per person. That includes food, wine and decorations. David gamely headed off to
Kmart and the local dollar store. After decreeing that the theme would be a Winter Wonderland (white items are much cheaper to buy), he let his creativity run wild. He turned a ream of plain white paper into snowflakes that hung from the ceiling. He created a centerpiece that looks like he paid an artist a bundle to do it. He lit the room by candlelight, added fake snow and even turned Alex's fake fireplace into a showpiece.
The dinner ended up being vegetarian -- meat was not in the budget. The main course was a giant twice baked potato, which followed a chestnut puree soup. As for dessert, he hit Food Emporium for angel food cake that could be turned into a rich-looking coconut cream cake.
"When you have a budget, you have to think, 'What's going to make the biggest impact with the least amount of money?'" he explained. For my party, for example, he decided on a "winter wonderland theme." This was not simple nostalgia for the days before global warming wiped out the holiday sleigh ride. Rather, he chose it because winter is white, and white is cheap.
"There are so many utilitarian items that are in white," he said, informing me of our shopping list for that Thursday, two days before the party: a roll of quilting batting ($12.99), for instance, to use as a tablecloth; a 500-sheet bundle of copy paper ($4.89), which he planned to use to make delicate paper snowflake cutouts to suspend from my living room ceiling with fishing line. Cover them with glitter and dim the lights and they might as well be Steuben crystal.
Watching Mr. Monn reinvent the humble wares of Kmart was like seeing Gabriel García Marquez channel Martha Stewart. He showed a magic-realist's ability to stare down endless aisles of Crock-Pots, diapers and circular saws, and conjure an ice palace of czarist proportions.
Still, with only about $100 to spend on groceries, he said, we would have to keep things simple. For dinner, we would start with a pureed-chestnut soup. Perked up by a half-cup of heavy cream and a cup of Sauternes, that didn't sound too austere, I thought, even if the ingredients were inexpensive.
On a tight budget, we couldn't afford cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery down the street for dessert. Instead, Mr. Monn said, we would make do with an angel food cake from Food Emporium ($4.29). Slather it in store-bought frosting and dried coconut shavings, however, and who would know the difference?
And for the main course, he said, we would have potatoes.
We found it all immensely inspiring. Clearly, those with a gift for crafts do quite well in a recession.
There's a slideshow that shows how he put it together, and how it all turned out (fabulous, except for the guests' good-natured Great Potato Famine jokes). Creativity is the key here. Although, to be honest, we'd have to have had a lot of that cheap Trader Joe's wine not to notice that the frosting on the cake was out of a can. Because there is no substitute for real buttercream frosting. We think Alex should have made cupcakes from scratch. Or, if he can't cook, he should have begged his co-host to do it. But, really, who can't turn out a batch of delicious cupcakes?
Alex Williams of The New York Times has a must-read 
