How to Organize a Christmas or Holiday Potluck

December is baking season. Left alone, everyone brings the thing they bake every year, and the table ends up with four kinds of cookies and one main dish.

• Use a sign-up sheet with categories, not a blank page: mains, sides, salad, bread, desserts, drinks.
• Put a number on each category. For 20 people, four or five sides and two or three desserts is plenty.
• Make desserts one line that several people join, so the fourth baker can see they're the fourth.
• Ask the keen bakers for a side, with cookies as a bonus. Most are happy to do both.
• A week out, ask for whatever's still open by name.

On Joinue, a line like Desserts can take several people and shows everyone who's already on it.

For about 16 to 20 people, a menu skeleton like this one keeps the table balanced. Swap in your family's traditions; latkes, tamales and a big pot of chili all belong on a holiday table.

• The main, from the host: a ham, a turkey breast, a roast, or a vegetarian main that can stand on its own.
• Two appetizers or a cheese board for people who arrive hungry.
• Four or five sides: mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, mac and cheese, a green salad, stuffing.
• Rolls or bread, with a number on it.
• Two or three desserts, cookies and pie included.
• Drinks: eggnog or cider, wine, and something without alcohol that isn't water.
• The unglamorous list: ice, plates, cups, napkins, foil, and containers for leftovers.

How much each dish should feed is in our potluck guide. On Joinue, a holiday potluck starts with dishes like these as ideas the host taps onto the list.

An office potluck runs on the same sign-up sheet, with a few things a house party doesn't have to think about.

• Check the kitchen first: fridge space, one microwave for thirty people, and whether there's an outlet for slow cookers.
• Make store-bought welcome. Not everyone cooks, and a bakery pie is a real contribution.
• Call it a holiday or year-end potluck. Not everyone at work celebrates Christmas.
• Keep it optional. Nobody should have to bring something to get a plate.
• Name a cleanup crew before the day, or it's whoever sits nearest the sink.

On Joinue, coworkers open the invite link in any browser and claim a dish with just their name, with no account or app to install.

A potluck is the dinner. Plenty of groups add one thing to make it the party.

• An ugly sweater theme: say so on the invite two weeks out, so people can find one, and let the room vote on a winner by applause.
• A gift swap after dinner: set one price limit, and decide whether it's a White Elephant with stealing or a Secret Santa with assigned names.
• A cookie plate to take home: ask bakers to bring a few extra and set out containers.

How each swap works is on the White Elephant and Secret Santa pages. On Joinue, a White Elephant or Secret Santa event can turn on the same bring list, so the swap and the dishes share one invite.

Holiday food hides things: nuts in the cookies, bacon in the green beans, gelatin in the dessert, dairy in nearly everything.

• Ask on the invite, before the menu is set.
• If the main is a ham, make sure there's another main. Some guests keep kosher or halal, and some don't eat meat at all.
• Ask cooks to label their dish and its common allergens.
• One serving spoon per dish, and set the allergy-friendly dishes first in line.

• Four weeks out: pick the date, decide on any sweater or swap, and send the invite with the sign-up sheet.
• Two to three weeks out: watch the list fill and plan around any allergies. Borrow folding chairs, slow cookers and an extension cord.
• The week of: ask for whatever's still open by name, and settle the headcount.
• The day before: chill the drinks, clear fridge space, and set out serving spoons, labels and trash bags.
• The day of: plan the oven, since the main has it first, and keep a spot on the table for the dish that arrives late.

Put foil and a stack of containers by the door. Leftovers go home with people, and so does their own dish.