Capsule x RUA
Sip, savour, exhale… and connect! We’ve officially made it to Christmas, team! The season of gatherings, last-minute supermarket dashes, emotional support mince pies and the annual hunt for the good serving platter is upon us (we swear they must disappear for the whole year to the same place Ainslie Allen and the rest of the Christmas in the Park performers go to?!)
And while the mental load might be sky-high and your calendar might be groaning, festive hosting truly doesn’t have to be fancy, fussy or financially ruinous. In fact, this year we’re calling it: connection over perfection. Always.
With a little help from our friends at RUA, we’ve pulled together the ultimate festive hosting edit that’s all about keeping things achievable, low-stress and genuinely joyful. Think girl-dinner energy but make it Christmas: a few knockout hero dishes that look wildly impressive despite being criminally easy, smart shortcuts for everything else, and wine matches that make your table feel instantly elevated without you needing to attempt a soufflé (IN WHAT UNIVERSE).
Inside this guide you’ll find recipes that slap without stealing your entire afternoon, platter hacks that require nothing more than raiding your fridge, low-effort décor ideas that still feel special, playlist tips, and fun little touches that spark real conversation (because good chat is half the magic). It’s your permission slip to keep things simple, delicious and connection-forward.
Because when it comes down to it, festive hosting isn’t about symmetry or centrepieces or whether your cutlery matches. It’s about people. It’s about clinking glasses with the ones you adore, telling stories you’ve all heard a hundred times AND those you’ve never shared before, laughing until your mascara smudges and remembering what this season is actually about.
Your table doesn’t have to be perfect – just full of people who pass the wine without asking.
So take a breath, pour a glass of something gorgeous, and let’s make hosting feel fun again. Cheers to that!
FOOD
Putting on a whole Christmas spread can seem absolutely wildly daunting, especially at this time of the year when you have a million things to do, the mental load is HIGH and the care factor can be, understandably, low. The key for high payoff and low stress? Put your effort into a few things that LOOK fancy, but are incredibly easy to make – and just assemble the rest! Here’s our girl dinner-inspired festive feast, including recipes and wine matches that make it simple to whip up an impressive spread that’ll be the perfect accompaniment to the moments that truly matter.
Whipped Feta with Pomegranate
There is nothing that’s more impressive (but actually so, so easy) than a bowl piled high of whipped feta on a Christmas spread. Kind of fancy but as simple to throw together as adding vinegar to Kiwi dip, this is the perfect centrepiece for your platter.
Makes: honestly, heaps – if you have a small gathering, halve this recipe
- 2 packets feta
- 2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
- Juice of one lemon
- A drizzle of olive oil
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Pomegranate arils (you can buy these in a pot in the fruit section of the supermarket)
1. Crumble your feta into a food processor, mixer or blender
2. Add in the yoghurt and half of the lemon juice
3. While blending/mixing, add in a drizzle of olive oil until your desired thickness. Taste, and season with salt, pepper and more lemon juice if you want it tangier.
4. Top with pomegranate for a festive twist, and serve with toasted bread, crackers or crudités.
Cranberry and Camembert Festive Pastry Wreath
I’ve been seeing versions of pasty wreaths all over social media and after making this for the first time, it’s going STRAIGHT into the December rotation because it looks like you’ve put so much effort in… but in reality, it’s wildly simple. Use this recipe as a base to customise your own wreath – instead of cranberry sauce, use pesto, and sub in pistachios or almonds for the pine nuts. Also, a cheddar and hot honey version would absolutely slap!
Makes: 1 wreath (that’ll serve 4-6 as part of a spread)
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
- 1 camembert wheel, sliced thinly (or brie)
- 3 tablespoons cranberry sauce
- Handful of basil
- 2 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
- 1 egg, beaten
1. Preheat your oven to bake 200 degrees.
2. Allow the pastry to defrost, and roll out very slightly. Pop on a sheet of baking paper.
3. Grab a small bowl and place in the centre, using the edges to mark a circle.
4. From the middle of the circle through to its circumference, cut a cross in the middle of the pastry (four cuts, like you were cutting a pie into eight pieces)
5. Around this circle, in a wreath shape, spread the cranberry sauce, and then lay over the camembert slices. Top with basil leaves.
6. Bring one point of the centre ‘star’ over the sauce and cheese, bringing the outer edge of the pastry together at the same time. Pinch both sides of the pastry tight together. Repeat until you have a wreath shape.
7. Brush pastry with egg wash.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and sprinkle over pine nuts. Return to oven and bake a further five minutes.
9. Rest for a few minutes, then enjoy! Serve with extra cranberry sauce, if you like. This pairs beautifully with the RUA 2023 Pinot Noir, with the cranberry complementing the black cherry, raspberry and plum notes *oh so perfectly*!
Ok you’ve made two things – here’s how to make the rest of the spread easier!
– Two words: fridge platter. Grab everything you have in your fridge – meat, cheese, random thingies in jars like pickles and olives, that weird chutney your aunty gave you for your birthday – and pop it all together on a plate. Platters do not – we repeat, do not – have to be fancy affairs that bankrupt you. For this platter, I used the leftover camembert from the pastry wreath, grabbed a tray of cured meat on special, bought one packet of gruyere, fished out crackers from the back of the cupboard and used the last of a huge jar of gherkins we bought when Costco first opened. Basically, I just let the whipped feta do the heavy lifting, and as long as you have some kind of bread/cracker, cheese and meat, you’re golden!
– Mini pre-made pavlovas are a busy gal’s salvation. I simply whipped some cream with sugar and vanilla and, to complement the gorgeous RUA Pinot Noir we’re serving, a single cherry and honestly these mini pavs were so chic and so delicious. Sometimes simple is best!
VIBES
We’re not going for fuss or formality for our Christmas gatherings this year – rather, when thinking about the *vibes*, we’re thinking low effort, high impact little touches that are memorable, easy and, of course, bring your guests together. Here’s a few tried and true tips:
– Make your festive spread a little more elevated by suggesting wine pairings for your dishes! We Christmas-ified our spread by handing our suggestions – the RUA Pinot Noir with our Cranberry & Camembert Festive Pastry Wreath; the RUA Rosé with our Whipped Feta and Pomegranate and the RUA Pinot Noir with our Xmas Girl Dinner Platter.
– Nail your playlist! Spotify have so many different Christmas options, but they are very different – if you’re with your gals and you want something more contemporary, go with Christmas Hits. If you’re with the whānau and you’re after the classics, Christmas Classics (shocking!) is your best bet. Personally, and for a mix of the two (and because it has Fairytale of New York on it which, as we’ve rhapsodised about before, is the best Christmas song of all time) I go with Christmas Favourites. If you’re super-organised (and huge props if you are!) and you’re really wanting to connect with your guests, ask them to fire through their favourites ahead of time and make your own custom playlist, or else set up a jukebox-cueing system on the day.
DÉCOR
Here’s where your best-laid budget plans can do awry – well, for me anyway because apparently I can’t walk through The Warehouse or Kmart without coming out with a heaving trolley. Décor is certainly a gorgeous thing to have, but by focussing on connection and simple elements, you can nail it with minimal fuss. Here’s what we did:
– To anchor everything we went for Christmas-coloured placemats that gave the table a festive nod without breaking the bank (these ones were $2 each at Kmart).
– Using an existing tablecloth, we then placed simple brown paper as a runner down the middle, and gave each guest a marker where they could scribble down their Christmas wishes, any festive thoughts or dreams for the New Year.
– For a bit of festive fun, each guest was gifted a chic and fun Christmas headband ($3 each at Kmart) to allow everyone to get in the spirit, and they looked gorgeous on the table settings, along with a simple gingerbread biscuit that paired gorgeously with our RUA Pinot Noir.
PLAY
Gatherings should be all about meaningful connection – but let’s be honest, sometimes with the pressures of life, that’s hard to achieve. So, to celebrate this series with RUA, and to encourage us all to savour a little more depth with each other, we’ve created these CONVERSATION WITH CAPSULE downloadable convo cards – perfect for your next gathering, dinner party or Christmas dinner, which you can use to inspire deeper, fulfilling chats with your nearest and dearest.
Simply download here, and print out at home or at a printers (we went to Warehouse Stationery and printed on a durable stock that means they won’t rip, so they can be used again and again).
We’ve also included some blank cards, for you to write your own questions on for a customised level of connection!
DRINK
There’s nothing better than sharing a gorgeous bottle of wine with people you love, especially at Christmas. You want a bottle that feels a little fancy, but still slips into any spread or gathering effortlessly – the Goldilocks of wine, perhaps – not too much, not too little, just right for drinks on the back deck with the sun setting, or on a Christmas table spread, or just with your ‘person’ as you look back on the year that was.
Our bottle of choice this year is the RUA Pinot Noir – because let’s be honest, a beautifully balanced Central Otago Pinot Noir has a way of making special moments feel even more magical.
RUA Pinot Noir, RRP $27 – available at supermarkets and liquor stores nationwide. Drink responsibly, R18.
