Christmas is undoubtedly the busiest time of year for everyone and it is of most importance to get your home prepared, and not just in terms of the decorations. You will need to provide as much space as possible for the family, the presents, the food and the wonderful winter celebrations to come.
Know your Numbers
Before hosting Christmas, you should make sure you are aware of how many you are actually catering for. This includes both sleeping arrangements and those you are going to be feeding. If you do have guest rooms, lucky you! If you do not, you can still make Christmas work and work well.
This is the best place to start before planning anything else.
Spare Room Preparation
If you are one of the lucky ones that do have a spare room in your home, or even a room such as an office which could house a bed, even if its blow up, you should get these rooms ready before people arrive. There is nothing worse than having to set up a bedroom when the family is all gathered together in beautiful chaos.
It is likely that your spare room also passes for something else; in a lot of cases, people use a spare room to dump their laundry or other items they do not wish to deal with.
Get the bedding washed, dried and put onto the bed beforehand. It may also be a perfect opportunity to air the room and make sure the radiators are on if they are not already.
Take into account things like their suitcase and their boxes of gifts, so make sure you clear enough space for them to be comfortable and for them to have places to put their stuff. In addition, try and clear some hanging space if you have wardrobes in your spare room.
Clear the fridge and freezer
If you are having a large number of people to feed, you will likely have large quantities of food and drink. And that food and drink do have to go somewhere. Therefore, you should dedicate some to clean and organise the fridge and freezer, throwing out or making an effort to eat up anything which is going off before Christmas time.
Don’t forget, it may not just be Christmas dinner you have to think about. What about breakfast? Snacks for later in the evening? Are you doing food for Christmas eve for your guests who are staying over? This all needs to be planned well in advance.
Clear Clutter
In the rooms that you are going to be spending a lot of time, so places like the living room, the kitchen and the dining room, you need to make sure that there is going to be enough space for all the decorations, all your family and friends and all the presents under the tree.
Take time to clear clutter and move around some furniture if necessary. This may be the perfect opportunity to get rid of things in your home which are adding nothing but unnecessary clutter. You can go around the rooms and make a list of all the things you do not want or do not need for the Christmas period and get rid of them or move them accordingly.
Choose where the Christmas tree is going to go and make room for it when clearing the room, it is going to sit in. This is usually going to be the living room. You tree is likely to be the focal point of the room, so move some furniture round in order to make this happen if that is what it will take.
