This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sam's Club®. The opinions and text are all mine.

A few days ago, I shared how Sam's Club® can help you with all of your holiday meal planning needs, and gave my best advice on hosting a stress-free holiday meal. Hopefully all of your Thanksgiving dinners went off without a hitch! (The same advice can help you if you're hosting Christmas dinner this year.)

Today I want to talk holiday cocktail parties. I love the holiday season and all of the beautiful, sparkly, celebratory things that come with it. And while I enjoy entertaining and often fantasize about hosting an elaborate holiday cocktail party where no detail is spared, my budget and time constraints are firmly rooted in reality.

But that doesn't mean that I can't put together some fantastic, festive food and drinks for holiday guests. If you follow this blog, you know I'm all about keeping things simple, and today I want to share some simple tips to help you party plan this Christmas, whether you're hosting a large cocktail party, having a small gathering of a few friends or family members, helping out with a company party, or taking a platter to someone else's home.

You can add some fun, delicious and inexpensive holiday flair to any gathering using one simple item:

Pomegranates!

When I went to my local Sam's Club® in search of some holiday party inspiration, I discovered this beautiful pomegranate display. I knew I could use one carton of pomegranates to add a festive touch to my decor, brighten up my food, add pizzazz to my cocktails, AND add a decorative holiday element to a platter. I grabbed a crate and went home to see what I could come up with.

Use Pomegranates in Your Holiday Decor

My dining room table had already been decorated for Thanksgiving, so all I needed to do to get it ready for Christmas was swap out some of my fall decorative elements with a few fresh pomegranates:

I love how they give a natural, rustic look to the dining table, and add that beautiful, yet subtle pop of holiday red amidst the greens and golds. You can use pomegranates in so many ways throughout your home — on a mantle, on an entry table, or piled in a bowl with some sprigs of greenery. They pair well with other rustic decor elements, including pine cones, greens, twigs, and cranberries, and I love combining them with mercury glass and other metallics for a sparkly contrast.

Use Pomegranate Seeds in Your Appetizers

When you're entertaining during the holiday season, you'll want to serve something slightly more exciting than the standard sliced cheese and crackers. To create a beautiful and festive cheese plate, all you have to do is take some pomegranate seeds and sprinkle them on top of your favorite cheese and cracker combinations. You will instantly have a holiday appetizer that tastes as good as it looks.

My personal favorite combination is pomegranate seeds and blue cheese because the sweet-tart flavor of the pomegranate blends so well with the tang of the blue cheese. But if you're not a blue cheese fan, the pomegranate seeds also pair well with brie, cheddar, or virtually any cheese you love.

To make my platter look even prettier, I sliced one of the pomegranates in half and paired it with a few bay leaves for a nice presentation:

Use Pomegranate Seeds in Your Cocktails

If you don't have the time or budget to mix up a signature holiday cocktail for your gathering, simply add a few pomegranate seeds to a glass of champagne or sparkling wine. The bubbles make the seeds dance around in the glass, and these drinks will look beautiful on a tray and in your party guests' hands.

To make life even easier — if you don't want to de-seed your own pomegranates before a party, you can buy these pomegranate arils at Sam's Club®, too!