Holiday Party Ideas 2015: 11 New Catering Trends

"Budgets for signature drinks are on the rise again. We are getting a lot of requests for welcome beverages for corporate events, especially with the huge cocktail craze," says Steve Sanchez, chief marketing officer at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based catering and events company JDK Group.

For the Cirque du Soleil-style holiday party for Traffic Control Services, held at its corporate office in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, in December 2014, JDK Group's culinary team created inventive food presentations, including torched meat.

A chef prepared a cloud of nitrogen popcorn at the JDK Group-produced circus-inspired bash.

For Comcast Spotlight's '70s shindig at the Chameleon Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in November 2014, designed by the JDK Group, guests sipped on raspberry-garnished champagne and Chambord cocktails with decorative LED ice cubes.

At an event for the Knot, held at the New York Public Library in October 2014, executive chef Robin Selden of Marcia Selden Catering & Event Planning hung small crystal orbs filled with two types of salad—a fruit and kale one with shaved coconut and a wheatberry salad with mushrooms, caramelized shallots, and roasted fennel—from a tree.

For the Knot event, Selden created a next-level breadstick bar. Hand-rolled breadsticks were served with flavored dips like spiced butternut squash, curried cream, and ricotta and fava bean, along with carrot and ginger and truffled wild mushroom soups. "You'd never guess it's a less expensive option because of the abundance of food on the table," the chef says.

At a party celebrating the Toms for Target partnership in Los Angeles last year, colorful nonalcoholic drinks were presented in glass decanters.

Guests could get toasty (and tipsy) at the hot chocolate bar with alcoholic mix-ins, which was set up at a private holiday party, held at 26 Bridge in December 2014 and produced by New York-based event firm Rock Paper Scissors Events.

At the How I Met Your Mother holiday party in Los Angeles at Fox Studios in December 2013, the show's cast and crew ate and played at a gingerbread-decorating station set up by Marina del Ray-based Schaffer's Genuine Foods.

Deutsch LA's Studio 54-theme holiday party, held at Hangar 8 in Santa Monica, California, in December 2014, featured a new classic—peppermint cake pops by Schaffer's Genuine Foods.

JDK Group served fruity spritzers at a private holiday party at Linwood Estate in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in January.