Sparkle & Save with Budget-friendly, Easy Holiday Entertaining

 

WESTBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Make the holiday season even brighter this year, and let BJ's Wholesale Club make it shine with savings. BJ's offers festive living selections at great values and shows you how to make the holidays sing with easy entertaining and dazzling decor.

"People want to offer their friends and families a lovely and warm holiday experience with the highest-quality products, while staying within their budgets. As always, BJ's buyers have worked with manufacturers to customize the best products for our members to easily decorate, host a party and give exciting gifts all while keeping savings top of mind," said Chris Neppl, executive vice president of merchandising at BJ's Wholesale Club.  "I also challenged BJ's buying team to share their own tips about how to make these products standout even more and make the host or hostess truly shine."

Deck the halls with the following suggestions for entertaining and decorating on a budget that are all available at BJ's. 

EASY ENTERTAINING

Entertain in style with ease with BJ's vast assortment of high-quality and value-priced selections.  From gourmet appetizers, unique artisan cheeses, delicious desserts as well as cookie and chocolate gift assortments, BJ's has all of the ingredients for a fantastic and festive soiree. Some great food ideas both for entertaining and as gifts include:

Easy Appetizers & Decadent Desserts

• Easy heat-and-serve hors d'oeuvres give hosts the pleasure of mingling more with guests. Add that to the great taste, selection and affordability of BJ's frozen gourmet appetizers and see why they make the perfect choice. The GoodWives® Collection is handcrafted in small batches to ensure the highest quality. BJ's carries Mini Steakhouse Beef Shepherd's Tarts, 20 count ($9.99), new Boneless Braised Beef Short Ribs Wrapped in Applewood Smoked Bacon, 20 count ($10.99), tender Chicken Thai Peanut Satay, 24 count ($12.99) and Mini Beef Wellingtons in a 24 count package ($15.99).

• Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse offers their famous hors d'oeuvres in a frozen, heat-and-serve variety. BJ's carries Lobster Rangoon in a 28-count size ($10.99) and Philly Cheese Steak Spring Rolls and Shrimp Cotija Rolls in a 24 count ($13.99).

• Enhance a display of appetizers with a gourmet assortment of cheeses, including imported specialty, domestic and BJ's exclusive Wellsley Farms^™ Artisan Collection to tantalize taste buds. The Wellsley Farms Artisan Collection has new, infused-flavored cheeses, like Cranberry Cinnamon Cheddar at $5.99 per pound.  Other selections include Landana® 1,000 Days Aged Gouda at $9.99 per 13 oz. and indulgent Isigny Ste. Mere Petit Brie Double Crème at $5.99 for a 12.3 oz. package. Serve the cheeses with Berkley & Jensen ™ Cracker Variety or Wellsley Farms™ Artisan Collection of breads.

• Complete the picture with BJ's beautiful and trendy desserts, filled with the finest ingredients sure to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth. BJ's Fresh Bakery offers Wellsley Farms® 7" Red Velvet Cake, a mild chocolate beauty topped with mounds of white frosting. This three-layer cake is joined by Wellsley Farms Tiramisu, Chocolate Bomb and German Chocolate varieties – all trans fat free for $9.99 each. In addition, The Perfect Kitchen Co. Ready to Bake Cookie Variety Pack comes in amazing flavors, including Pumpkin Milk Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk and Double Fudge made with all-natural ingredients and no trans fats (48 ct. for $9.99).  Also found in BJ's frozen foods aisle are the new Chudleigh's® Chocolate Pocket Cookies, fresh baked cookies filled with a lava fudge center (6 ct. for $7.99).

• Edible decor makes this an irresistible feast. Proudly display the BJ's-exclusive Lyndon Reede Gingerbread House Kit ($10.99) or the classic plaid gift tin of the legendary rich and buttery Walkers Shortbread ($17.99).

• BJ's Buyer's Tip: Arrange and serve BJ's appetizers, cheeses and desserts on your own china and serving platters.  Your guests will be amazed and delighted that you went to so much effort for them!  Don't worry, we'll never tell how easy it was. 

DAZZLING DECOR

BJ's brings the holidays home with charming and cheerful decor that will dazzle friends and family.

Holiday Table

• The beautifully designed Bardwell Winter Joy tablecloth and napkin sets in holiday damask solids or poinsettia print ($19.99) in a variety of sizes sets the scene for holiday fare.

• Pretty up your beautifully-dressed table with a Set of 12 Tom Smith® Christmas Crackers Table Favors ($9.99) filled with small collectibles and ornaments.

• BJ's Buyer's Tip: Small surprises during the holidays can make them even more special.  When a person sits down to a meal, it's fun to surprise them with a little gift.  The Lindt® Lindor® Truffles Party Favor Boxes, with four delicious chocolate truffles in each box, (six for $14.99) make pretty placeholders!      

Inside and Outdoor Decor

• Friends and Family will enjoy receiving holiday cards from Paper Magic® (18ct for $9.99). These handcrafted cards with fabric, ribbon and glitter accents look great decorating a mantle any day.  This year these cards, with matching self-stick envelopes, are designed with traditional, country or whimsical themes.

• Let your holiday glow shine with Sylvania® Stay Lit® M5 LED Lights (180 ct. for $19.99). These energy savers stay lit for up to 50,000 hours and can be used indoor or outdoor. Colors include warm white, cool while and multicolored. Greet guests or those passing by with Living Home® Christmas LED Pre-Lit Crystal Swirl 48" Reindeer with 54" Sleigh with twinkling energy-saving LED lights ($119.99).

• BJ's Buyer's Tip:  There's already so much to do at the holidays that decorating can become a chore.  We wanted to make indoor decorating easier by offering decorative lights that run on batteries so people could spend more time trimming their homes and less time worrying if there are power outlets close to what they want to decorate. Try a Sylvania®  Pre-lit LED 9' garland ($29.99) or 30" wreath ($34.99) with realistic Forest Cut molded branches and no-cord battery power use anywhere indoor.

Gift Wrap Galore

• Now for the best part – wrapping all those wonderful gifts bought at BJ's. The Living Home® Christmas holographic Gift Wrap (150 sq. ft. for $9.99) with sparkly holographic effects that make this heavy weight paper extra special or the Living Home® Christmas Gift Wrap Ensemble (120 sq. ft. for $11.99) that allows for loads of creativity with five rolls of foil and holographic wraps and coordinating bows, ribbon and die-cut tags in four different color themes.
  
  
• For even more package splendor add Living Home® Holiday Premium Bows or Ribbons, ($9.99) that offers a choice of 50 star bows or 500 feet of ribbon in holographic, metallic and hot-stamped styles. Choose traditional or bold colors. Add friends' and family's names with Living Home® Holiday Handcrafted Gift Tags, 60 ct. ($8.99).

• BJ's Buyer's Tip:  One way to add a little, extra sweetness to your gift packages is to use the new Swiss Miss Cocoa Gift Tags, 15 ct. ($9.99) in your wrapping.  Each gift tag contains a serving of Swiss Miss hot chocolate!

About BJ's Wholesale Club

BJ's is dedicated to providing members with high-quality, brand-name food and merchandise at prices that are significantly lower than supermarkets, supercenters, department stores, drug stores and specialty retail stores.  BJ's carries the most product variety of any wholesale club with more than 7,000 items, including supermarket-sized staples, USDA Choice meats, all-natural and organic products and stock-up items. BJ's is the only wholesale club to accept all manufacturers' coupons and for greater convenience, offers the most payment options including EBT.

Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc. is a leading operator of warehouse clubs in the eastern United States.  The Company currently operates 192 clubs and 107 gas stations in 15 eastern states.  Learn more and shop online at BJs.com or for exclusive content visit Facebook.com/bjswholesaleclub and Twitter.com/bjswholesale.

SOURCE BJ's Wholesale Club