A few years ago, frustrated at not being able to meet new people in a new town, my wife took things into her own hands and created a Wine Club through a local Facebook Group.
The idea is simple really: once a month a group gets together at someone’s house to socialize, gossip, and drink wine. Each month there is a theme around a varietal or country, and everyone gets to try something new, meet some people, and get out for a night out in the neighbourhood.
She’s met some new people, she’s tried lots of new wines (she’s a wine sales rep, so trying new things is always good), and she gets out of the house and away from life with 3 boys at least once a month.
As the holidays approach, we decided to have an open house to mix some of my new work colleagues, some of her wine club friends, and some of our neighbours. Nothing fancy, just a nice wine and cheese and charcuterie open house evening with everything found at Real Canadian Superstore.
From decorations to dessert, serving ware to soft drinks, I got everything done in a #OneStopShop at my local Real Canadian Superstore!
The first department I checked out was home decor. After being inundated with Canadiana this year during Canada 150 celebrations, the selection of handmade ornaments immediately got me.
From rustic bird houses, to knit sweaters, to handmade felt canoes, they were just the best. And how cute is that mirrored wreath window?
Everything in decor is set up according to colour scheme. There’s red, gold, and blue palettes to choose from this year, with similar styles in different colours.
There are stockings, wreaths, decorations, glittery deer, cozy polar bears, and more.
These decor colour schemes carry over into the serving ware. Each colour scheme has a big card giving you some layout ideas and how they go together.
I dug right into the red, black, and white again with faux wood serving chargers, nut bowls and pillows screaming “Oh Deer!” and that lumberjack plaid all over the place.
As I finished up in the decor sections and moved into the grocery aisles, I stumbled on to the most magical thing ever: empty aisles.
Seriously, look at this. If you’re afraid of holiday shopping dodging the crowds, the best time ever to go grocery shopping is on a Friday night around dinner time.
Cue the angels singing …
It was a glorious time to wander, imagine, stop and think, and just take my time to find what I needed and get my shop on.
Wine and cheese and charcuteries is an easy kind of night to host. You just get some fresh slices on some boards (we got 3 fantastic cheese boards at Real Canadian Superstore) surrounded by pickles, olives, and chips, and you’re good to go.
The selection of cheeses from around the world was fantastic.
I hopped over to the deli counter to get some fresh salami and prosciutto to go with the Copa di Parama.
Real Canadian Superstore has a wide selection of fresh food at the best value. I got ready-to-go platters of fruit, veggies, and sourdough with spinach dip before moving into the freezer section.
The PC Insider’s Collection is awesome around the holidays. Fun, exotic, fancy combinations to get on your table that are easy to prepare.
Just look for this big sign and you’ll be good to go:
Some of the things I picked up for our holiday table included poutine bites and maple bacon popcorn (hey, it’s a Canadiana theme), spanakopita, quiches, some spring rolls
and .. candy cane and chocolate covered cheesecake lollipops.
Are you kidding me?
Then there was the egg nog, which one goes better with all the rum in it?
I picked up the candy cane, and I can confirm it tastes awesome with rum AND in your morning coffee. Nice!
So after about an hour wandering from decor to the deli to the dairy aisle, I got everything I needed to do some holiday entertaining in a #OneStopShop.
At least I think I did.
Check out Part 2 of this post, to see the menu and some tips to get your entertaining done easily with a #OneStopShop at Real Canadian Superstore.
Here’s an idea of how things turned out:
This post is sponsored by Real Canadian Superstore.
