Menu for Yule/Solstice gathering ideas

Hello, all!

I'm having a few friends over for an informal observance of the Winter Solstice next week (the 21st). I was planning to take the afternoon off work to bake a ham, but I just found I can't leave early that day. Rats!!!

Does anyone have prep-ahead or crockpot meal ideas for me? I would like to keep the menu traditionally holiday-ish. If I didn't care about mood, I'd just make crockpot carnitas. =D I get home from work at 4:00 and people will be gathering at 5:00. So I do have an hour at least to pull stuff together, and I plan to do items like the dessert ahead of time. Nobody involved has food allergies or dietary restrictions. I do have a few venison tenderloins left from last hunting season, so if you've got venison recipes, I'll take 'em.

To show my gratitude in advance, I give you to you what I was planning to make:
My uncle's slightly modified baked ham recipe from the 1953 Joy of Cooking
I got the recipe from the 1953 edition before they sucked the life out of it by making it "now" and trendy. This was originally meant to be a sauce added over the ham about an hour before baking is complete. I added the extra liquid in the form of wine to make it into more of a basting sauce because I find basting to be very Zen like. The sauce is as follows with my variations:

1 and 1/3 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/3 cup fine bread crumbs (which I omitted because I thought the baster would likely get clogged)
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons wine (any type as long as it's not Muscatel)

Mix it well and pour over the ham. Baste frequently, but not so frequent that it's impossible to keep your oven at the desired temperature, which by-the-by, is 325 degrees. If you're going to bake a whole ham like I did for Thanksgiving, bake the ham about halfway first and then add the basting sauce. I felt the sauce got a little dark and thick, as did the outside of the ham. It was still tasty, but the appearance left something to be desired. Also, I basted it so frequently that the center did not get cooked to the full 170 degrees the recipe called for.

Hear and obey the words of Uncle Bruce.

Thanks in advance! I'm very much enjoying this community.