12 Fun & Easy Ways to Prepare Your Home for the Holidays
12 Fun & Easy Ways to Prepare Your Home for the Holidays
Getting ready for the holidays is a big task, but one we can have a lot of fun doing. Whether you're decorating solo or the whole family is pitching in, there are many ways to prepare your home for family celebrations and holiday festivities.. Cleaning, cooking, and decorating in anticipation for the best family-shared days of the year is exciting if you have a plan ready to enact.
We've broken up your holiday home prep into twelve helpful and easy ways to get ready for the season.
Preparing for Holiday Guests
1. Deep Clean the House
Holiday prep is always a great time for a seasonal deep-cleaning before the decorations go up, and nothing is more motivating than arriving guests. When a guest is on their way, it's easier to see your clutter and dusty corners. This year, don't forget to spend a little extra time sanitizing surfaces and personal items to ensure your guest and family are safe sharing space.
2. Arrange Outdoor Seating
If you have a nice outdoor space, arrange some outdoor seating in a circle, ideally around a brazier, fire table, or stone-lined fire pit to keep everyone warm while you share-friendly outdoor conversation.
3. Decorate Your Guest Room
If you have one or more guests staying the night in your home, prepare the guest room as a lovely and holiday-rich place to stay. Change the bedspread and curtains to something more festive and match your color scheme so the entire room matches. Pull the decoration together with a few little touches like a candy bowl, a vase of holiday blooms, or a beautiful dried wreath that also matches your guest room design palette.
4. Bake Holiday Goodies
One of the best ways to prepare for guests, overnight or daytime visits, is to make treats. Bake holiday-decorated cookies, brownies, cakes, pies, and even flavored popcorn to celebrate the holiday season with your loved ones the traditional way: with sugar.
Preparing for Holiday Feasts
5. Unearth the Big Pans
Getting ready to cook or help with the big holiday feast? It's time to pull out your big holiday pans. In fact, doing the unearthing now can save you precious time on the big day when the turkey is ready and you can't find your turkey roasting dish. Get into the back of your kitchen cabinets, check the upper cabinets above the stove hood, and look in the furthest reaches of the pantry to find pans you haven't thought of since last New Years.
6. Polish Your Holiday Porcelain
Bust out the holiday porcelain and serving dishes. Most families have a special set of plates, painted water glasses, and/or special serving dishes that are only seen around the holidays. Find your family porcelain and lay out on a beautiful tablecloth. Lay out cloth napkins and napkin rings, set each glass upside down, and turn your table into feast-ready decoration.
7. Empty Your Pantry for a Food Drive
Now is the perfect time to clear out your pantry of canned goods and non-perishables. Pick what you'll cook with and what you won't. Anything in the "won't" or "probably not" category becomes this year's donation to the canned food drives that are so important for this time of year. That pumpkin pie filling and can of pinto beans you don't eat can make someone else's holiday food-secure.
8. Look Up the Family Recipes
Finally, it's time to look up the old family recipes for classic holiday dishes. You might have your grandmother's recipe for apple pie, corn bread, or leftover-turkey stew that your family knows and loves. Dishes you make every year, or dishes its your turn to make, can be just like grandma used to make using the family recipes - or you can innovate by adding your own twist this year.
Preparing for Holiday Festivities
9. Decorate with Linens and Throws
Getting your home beautiful for the holidays is also easy to do. Start with your linens. Dig out your holiday tablecloth for the dining room. Use festive cloth runners along the center of your coffee tables and side tables. Use holiday bedspreads and vividly colored sheets to brighten up the bedrooms and throw blankets on both indoor and outdoor seating to make conversation cozier. These little touches can make your entire home feel festive and decorated.
10. Pre-Wrap the Presents
Get your presents wrapped, then decorate with them! If your family can resist peeking, you can place beautifully wrapped presents all over the house. Use rolls of ribbon to accent your decorating easily by tying bows on banisters and around vases. Nestle presents in the stairwell, on windowsills, and as centerpieces until it's time for them all to migrate to a place of honor under the tree.
11. Hang the Holiday Drapes
Heavy drapes keep your home warm during cold winter nights, and festive drapes are the perfect way to brighten up your home interior when the sky turns gray. Choose vividly colored drapes either in elegant solid colors or festive florals that bring your home interior design together in a holiday-themed way.
12. Test Your Zoom Connection
Last but not least, test your technology. Pick one family-time computer to share and make sure it's ready in the living room to stream social afternoon between your household and extended family households. Do a test call with someone's phone on a separate count to make sure your internet connection, video, and audio settings are all correct to avoid tech SNAFUs during family time.
Is your home ready for the holidays? Contact us today for more great ideas on how to decorate with holiday cheer and prepare for shared family events.
