With Christmas looming round the corner, now is the perfect time to start preparing your home for the holidays. At this point, you have just enough time left to make your house perfect for the big day. But, don’t worry, even this late, there’s still things you can do! This post will go through some of the easy ways that you can get your home Christmas-ready this year.
Of course, any effort like this is one for the whole family. And, when it comes to the more creative parts of Christmas, it should be easy to get everyone involved. You may have to work a little harder on getting help with other areas, though! Just remind your family that Christmas is for everyone, and so, everyone should do some of the work.
Stocking Up
The holiday season is a time for laziness and gluttony, of course. So, one of the first things to think about is food. You’ll need to consider several days when choosing the food to stock up on. Are you hosting others? Or, are you spending Christmas at other people’s homes? You’ll need to make some good plans, detailing exactly what you need to get for each meal. Some days you might not need to buy anything. But, usually, it’s a good idea to take at least something even when someone else is catering. You’ll have to make those arrangements yourself, though!
When it comes to getting your food; the early bird catches the worm. Supermarkets and large stores will struggle to meet the demand during the Christmas rush. So, it’s best to avoid the struggle entirely. If the shop runs out of something you need, you may be stuck with expensive alternatives or not options at all. With some of the bigger items you need for Christmas, this can be devastating. By shopping early, you’ll also give yourself more time when it gets closer to the big day.
A lot of big stores will let you order your food ahead of time, and have it delivered closer to the day. When you make the original order, the store will hold back all of the products you ordered. This guarantees that you’ll get what you want. It also limits the space that you have to use running up to Christmas and will save you a lot of time trying to fight the crowds in the actual shop.
Getting Tidy
You’re probably going to be entertaining over Christmas; so, the house needs to be spick and span. Obviously, this can be a massive time sink for one person. So, it’s best to get the entire family involved. People should be responsible for cleaning their own messes, as well as making a team effort on the areas that everyone uses. If everyone helps, it won’t leave anyone feeling bad, and it will make everyone feel like they’ve put in an effort.
It’s easiest to start cleaning in advance, with one big clean and then several smaller cleans building up to the big day. This will make the cleaning work that has to be done for the day much easier and stress-free. You’ll also need to plan for cleaning to be done between holidays, like Christmas and New Year. Everyone will be in the holiday mood at this point, so it can be harder to get them to work!
If you fancy laying back this year and avoiding any of the dirty work, you can pass the buck to someone else. You’ll have to pay a bit of money, but the entirety of your house can be cleaned up by someone else. Companies like tidy.com offer professional cleaning services that can be used once, or on a recurring basis. They’ll clean your house for you, making sure that it’s to an industry standard of excellence.
Decoration
The festive decoration in your home is another area that can be handled by the whole gang. Kids especially love decorating a Christmas tree and decking the halls! This is an excellent opportunity to let your kids run wild and get creative, without making a huge mess. Well, there will be a mess, but nothing more than the usual fiasco that comes with Christmas!
If you have kids, it’s worth thinking about home-made decorations. If you start nice and early in the year, you can have your children make all sorts of little trinkets to hang on the tree or mantle piece. This will create loads of little keepsakes that will be brought out each year to remind you of the previous holidays you’ve shared. Your children will feel like they’ve made Christmas and will have a small piece of their childhood to use each year. Although it may seem small now, these items can mean a great deal to you in the future.
Alternatively, you can just grab everything from the store. Unfortunately, the best time to do this is just after the holiday. During January, big stores are likely to have decorations that they still need to get rid of. They’ll have different products next year, so any left overs are useless to them. This gets you great discounts on the items, and you’ll probably get loads of choice.
Prepare To Host
When you’re getting ready to host, you need to think about more than food and cleanliness. Although, those aspects are still very important. Around the holidays, everyone should look their best. So, you might need to help some of your family members to get their Sunday best in order. This will involve some washing and ironing, depending on what your family likes to wear.
You’ll need to think about the table setup, and they table cloth and napkins that you use. These little touches will make your guests feel like they’re well and truly catered for, making your Christmas do a memorable one.
Christmas entertainment is also an important feature when it comes to hosting. You don’t want your guests stuck watching old reruns of Christmas specials. Instead, you can invest in a service like Netflix or Amazon Prime, and you’ll have access to loads of movies and TV. Or, if you want a more traditional approach, board games are a great option. Just be careful to make sure that the games that you choose are appropriate for the whole family. You don’t want to leave anyone out of the fun!
Ultimately, the Christmas season is about enjoying yourself and being thankful for the blessings of the year. It isn’t a time for stress, arguments, and worrying about the little things. If you plan everything you need to do far ahead, you’ll save yourself from work nearer the time. This frees you up to have as much fun as possible!
This is also a great time of year to think about others and give something to someone who needs to more than you. A lot of people don’t have anyone around Christmas time. So, to make a difference in someone else’s Christmas, look up some local charities and spend some of Christmas with someone less fortunate. Of course, this isn’t for everyone. But, you can still make a little bit of effort in other areas!
Hopefully, this post will help you make Christmas as easy as possible. Just remember to plan ahead, and get everything out of the way early. You still have a lot to think about! Don’t get distracted from the important things this season; you’re out to have fun! With that, there’s just one thing left to say; Happy Holidays!
I am going to start decorating for Christmas next week