Although I love to bake, I have seldom done much cooking for these parties, relying instead on proven crowd-pleasers like Honey Baked Ham[tm], Double-Stuf Oreos [tm], etc. that don't require any work, at least not by me.
However, in 1995 my cousin Melissa made such a fabulous crab dip on Christmas Day that I was forced to shake her down for the recipe and make it myself for New Year's. Luckily, it's extremely easy.