Doing some holiday entertaining this year? It’s never too early to start planning. After all — holiday entertaining requires a surprising amount of organization and preparation.
With this step-by-step guide, you’ll be able to create a festive affair for your loved ones that goes off without a hitch.
Your Guide For Holiday Entertaining
Get Started on Your Planning Now
It's never too early to start preparing. Holiday entertaining takes time and organization so you should start thinking about:
- Guests. Think carefully and mindfully of who you are going to invite. What are the COVID guidelines and recommendations in your area? These are very important things to keep in mind as you entertain during the holiday season.
- Timing. When is a good date and time to entertain?
- Theme and Decor. Do you want to incorporate a theme for your get together? What kind of decorations will you put up?
- Food. What kind of food will you serve? H'or deurves? A full meal? Snacks?
- Music. Start thinking of playlist or live music options as soon as possible.
Brainstorm these elements now and create a spreadsheet with all of these key details so that you have a solid base to work with and reference as you plan.
Select Your Holiday Theme
If you want your holiday entertaining to be extra memorable, select a theme for your decorations! Here are a few our our favourite festive themes:
● Narnia. Set up a "closet" in your front hall so that your guests can step through the wardrobe and into the magical wintery land of narnia. Fill your home with decorations that look like snow, heavily flocked Christmas trees and serve a few fun Narnia themed finger foods and mocktails.
● North Pole. We love this fun, festive and family friendly party theme. Use snowy, wintry decorations, and set up a few stations like Santa's home, the workshop, and so on.
● The Nutcracker. Fans of ballet will love "The Nutcracker" theme! Include decorations for all of the characters: the nutcracker, the snowflakes, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and so on.
If you’re looking to keep the decor a bit more scaled back, but still make an impact, read our blog on 2021 Christmas Decor trends or how to decorate your kitchen for Christmas.
Getting Set Up
Once you've decided when you’re entertaining, who you’re inviting, and how you want to decorate, it's time to start setting up. Here are a few tips on how to set up your whole party with plenty of time to spare.
One Month Out: Send Out Invitations and Decorate
Even when you're still fine tuning details, try to get out your invitations well in advance. The sooner you send out information about your gathering, the more likely your loved ones will be able to attend!
This is also a great time to start decorating your home for the holidays. And if you’re feeling like you want to give your kitchen a bit of an upgrade before the big day - here’s a few of our favourite ways to instantly upgrade your kitchen!
Five Days Out: Clean and Prep Your Food and Drinks in Advance
The key to an organized dinner party is prepping as much as you can ahead of time. Spend the week leading up to your gathering cleaning and getting your food and drinks ready. Buy the drinks you need, tackle daily cleaning tasks, prep your food so that it's ready to cook or serve, arrange your festive tablescape - the more you do in advance, the less stressed you'll be on the day of!
A clean and well organized kitchen is essential to easy holiday entertaining. Here’s our guide to cleaning your kitchen cabinets and some of our favourite tools to organize your kitchen!
Two Days Out: Create a Smart Layout With Your Space
When prepping for your gathering, think about how people will flow through your space. There are some simple, superficial ways to ensure your home has good flow for the holidays, like designating a coat room near the front entryway, allowing for plenty of room around the appetizer station, clearing up the hallways that lead to the bathroom, and so on.
However - sometimes good flow can’t be superficially fixed or altered! A happy, well functioning kitchen is one that leverages space properly, you can read about the importance of kitchen flow here!
The Day Of: Enjoy!
After all your planning, the only thing left to do is enjoy yourself! Give yourself plenty of time to get ready before your loved ones arrive, and once it's begun, try to simply relax and have a great time.
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