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Are you playing host this Christmas? If so, you will know being in charge of the festive celebrations can get a little tense at times. While Christmas is one of the most enjoyable times of the year, as an adult, it does carry a lot of responsibility and can get hectic. Being a parent adds a whole new dimension of craziness to the festive season, as you need to try and juggle your preparations around the kids’ nativity plays, carol concerts, and a million other festive activities.

After a difficult eighteen months, being reunited with family and friends at Christmas is definitely something to look forward to. Being able to get together and have fun as a family will provide the opportunity to catch up on lost time. But, it can still feel like a lot of pressure to host Christmas dinner in your home. So, starting your preparations early and getting your home ready for your guests ahead of time is a great way to reduce some of the stress of hosting Christmas.

Take a look at these tips to help you get a head start on your preparations and ensure you are the host with the most this Christmas:

Get Organised

Getting organised from the start should help you to avoid any Christmas disasters and ease the pressure. Making a list of everything you need to do as part of your preparations will ensure you don’t forget anything and there are no last-minute panic situations. With everything written down, you won’t have the mental overload of trying to remember and can keep track of your progress more efficiently. 

Asking your guests to confirm when they are arriving at your home is also essential so you can get organised. While asking for confirmation of an arrival date may sound a little formal, and like you are running a hotel, it will make life a lot easier for you. Having guests arriving days earlier than you were expecting is never ideal and could scupper your carefully made plans.

Prepare Your Tableware

Checking your cupboards before the big day arrives is essential. Making sure you have enough cutlery, crockery, and serve-ware for your guests is vital. You definitely don’t want to wait until Christmas morning before realising you don’t have enough plates for everyone to eat at the same time! Shopping for new tableware as soon as you can is a great idea to be sure that you receive your order before the Christmas rush. If you want to go full-on festive, then shopping for Christmas tableware on websites such as https://veranoceramics.co.uk/ will make your Christmas place settings look extra-special.

Don’t forget to stock up on extra finishing touches for your Christmas table. Candles, a tablecloth, a centrepiece, and napkins are all great for bringing some additional festive magic to your celebrations. 

Make Some Space

When you have kids, it doesn’t matter whether you live in a flat or a mansion; it always seems there is not enough room for their stuff. Toys, games, books, and a whole host of other things that the kids have accumulated over the years can soon make your house look more like a storage unit than a home. If you seem to be drowning in clutter, now is the perfect time to start having a clear-out. Having a decluttering session before you put up your decorations will make the task a lot simpler and enable you to give the house a good clean in anticipation of your guests arriving. Clearing out items that your kids no longer need or use is a great way to free up lots of valuable space in your home at a time when you need it most.

Start Decorating

While it can feel like you are left doing everything yourself when preparing for Christmas, putting up the decorations is something the kids will definitely want to help out with. Sharing the workload by enlisting help from the kids is a great way to make them a bigger part of the preparations. With the whole family getting involved in decorating the house for Christmas, it will take far less time to get the decorations up and to get your home looking festively fantastic! Your guests are sure to be very impressed when they arrive at your home and see how great it looks adorned with twinkling lights and sparkling decorations.

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Prepare Your Feast

Visiting the supermarket around Christmas time can be a stressful experience and not one you want to repeat anytime soon. So, the first thing to do is to order your food early. Ordering your food now ready to be picked up closer to Christmas is a great way to guarantee you will have everything you need for your Christmas dinner. Ordering early will ensure you are not rummaging the supermarket shelves on Christmas Eve and heading home with just a few sad-looking sprouts for Christmas lunch. 

If the thought of a Christmas Day kitchen disaster is keeping you awake at night, it is helpful to do as much of your kitchen prep as you can ahead of the big day. Preparing your vegetables in advance and peeling your potatoes will mean that you won’t be stuck in the kitchen all morning at Christmas and will actually be able to spend time with your guests. If you want to be super-organised, you could even cook your roast potatoes weeks ahead of Christmas Day and freeze them, ready to whip out when you need them.

Make it Fun

While it may seem like there is a tonne of preparations needed to make Christmas special, it is essential to remember that Christmas should be a time of fun spent with friends and family. Ensuring that you keep your perspective will make Christmas as enjoyable for you as it is for your guests. Being organised will undoubtedly help to ease your stress at Christmas, but once the preparations are complete, don’t forget to join in and relax with everyone else.

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