There’s just two weeks or so left before the big day arrives. You may have bought all the presents, you may have an excellent Christmas tree, you may know exactly what and how you’re going to cook, but do you know if your home is ready?
Christmas parties are unlike any other because they involve the entire house. Usually, for birthday parties and the like, the fun is kept to one or two rooms. You’re mainly downstairs and all the rest of the people in the home to have their own space. This won’t be happening on the 25th, because the whole house will be covered in decorations, you’ll have many people over who will all want to hang out in their own way.
Multiple generations will be sharing the same house so they’re bound to go off and do their own thing at some point. That means, your home needs to be spotless and ready for everyone to be comfortable.
Time for a deep clean
The most important thing about your preparation is the cleaning of the house. Giving your house a deep clean is the only way to hit all the crevices, remove all the dust, and really make the home smell and look welcoming. Firstly you need to cover all the bases regarding the surfaces.
This includes the floor, kitchen countertops, dining, and coffee tables too. Call a professional to clean your rug as it harbors the most germs and odors. Devine Rug Cleaning is known to remove any kind of stain, including blood and wine splotches.
Get a cloth and soak it in almost boiling water. Wear protective cleaning gloves before you pick up the cloth. Go over and loosen up the surfaces around your home ready for the chemicals.
After you’ve done this, use the best cleaning products you can find to quickly scrub and wipe the surfaces clean of any stains, hard dried crumbs, and germs. Once more, wipe the surface with the cloth that’s been soaked in near-boiling water. Leave the surface to dry on its own, don’t wipe it down as this can leave smear marks.
Tidying up the imperfections
Gardens may not seem as if they’re important to your party. But ask yourself, how would you feel if you were an invited guest to a party and you saw that there was loose soil on the garden path, food wrappers in the bushes and dead leaves or petals littered over the lawn?
It would kind of look like the host didn’t really care about the exterior. They just put on a shindig and as soon as everyone leaves, they’ll just take everything down quickly and get back to normal. Don’t be that kind of person.
Go outside and really tidy up the imperfections in your garden. Brush all the loose soil off your garden path. Make sure that the lawn is impeccable green and clean. Cut the dead plants and tree branches aware instead of letting them hang down.
When you turn your Christmas lights on, your home will look all the more like a true fairytale.
Decorations around the home
If you’re having a lot of people over, you have to go all out and make sure every room has that Christmas feeling. Everyone will be in small groups because you can’t all fit into one room except for dinner.
So, hanging Christmas decorations all around the home is going to keep the flow and continuity of your decor. Hanging all your Christmas cards from the doors is, therefore, one of your best moves. Everyone can see and read them, and it costs you nothing to poke a small hole in each card and string them together.
Tinsel and glitter balls can also be hung from door handles. Having Christmas figurines standing and displayed all around the home, such as on the coffee table, drawers, in the display cabinet, on the kitchen counter, on the window sills and on top of the mantel and or television.
Be creative with the types of figurines you get, buy different styles and sizes so there’s something for everyone’s tastes.
The Christmas party is the crescendo of the year. It’s more important than a birthday party because it’s when everyone who you love and care for, comes to your home. As such, you might even prepare some nice cakes, snacks, or even buy champagne online for those lovely celebratory movie nights leading up to the big day, or to plan out some small dinner parties in anticipation of the main event.
Got Something to Add?
What are your top tips for getting your home ready for the festive season? Let us know by commenting below.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Helen, Nial and Lewis.
Welcome to Pikalily, an award-winning food, travel and lifestyle blog. We are Nial and Helen, a happily married couple from Northern Ireland, who share a passion for food and travel among many things. We became parents to our beautiful boy Lewis in 2017. Follow our adventures through the blog.
