No matter whether you spend Christmas with friends or with family, it’s a crazy time of year if you are to be the festive host. We are so focused on gift giving and food buying that it becomes very easy to forget our duties as hosts when Christmas rolls around.
Hosting is so often a part of Christmas and even if you are just hosting friends you still want the event to be exciting. Whether you all have a good Christmas lunch, or you are having people stay for a few days, there are lots of jobs that you need to get done before the big day. From cell phone repair so that you can remember to take pictures, to choosing the right tablecloths, you are going to be able to have the best possible Christmas as a host with as little stress as possible when you take on our tips below for making your hosting duties exciting and not boring.
- Plan ahead. You should be giving yourself months of planning, but as we are only a couple of weeks away you can plan from here as much as you possibly can to make the day a good one. The thing to remember here is that a great host is one who isn’t fumbling and frantic. You want to make sure that you feel calm as if you are moving from activity to activity seamlessly. Your planning should include whether or not people are staying over, or whether you are simply just hosting the day and people are going home. If you can plan for the time that you are going to have people around you and in your home, you’re going to feel far more calm about the whole thing.
- Get your guests involved. Preparation is going to be pouring drinks and making sure that you have cocktails on the menu. Ask your guests to help by mixing up their own drinks while you are busy serving food. It may not feel conventional as a Hostess you may want to get everything done yourself, but it’s your holiday too, and your friend should want to jump in and help you with all the preparations.
- Budget for outsourcing. You may not have considered it, but outsourcing some of your Christmas activities can really help you to stay organized and feel like you’re getting things done. For example, have a cleaner come to the house and clean it from top to bottom the week before your guests arrive because from here all you have to do is keep on top of it. It’s much easier to keep on top of a clean house than it is to try and clean and stay on top of a messy one.
- Get the guest room ready. If you have people staying over at your home as part of your Christmas celebrations, don’t forget to get your guest room ready. Changing up the sheets and airing out the room if it’s not somewhere that’s used often is important and people will feel like you are prepared and ready for them to come and enjoy the Christmas vacation.
