One important aspect that should be considered while preparing for Christmas celebrations is to understand the target audience and the Guests that will be visiting the house. Based on the guest list there are several small things that can be done to make the house more welcoming for the guests.
Some useful tips are:
- Identify the guest list and try to divide the guest list into groups. It is important that your house is full of positive energy during Christmas. Therefore, while inviting people, try to invite like-minded people. If any individual has a known hatred for some individual, avoid inviting them at the same time. Try to invite people who know each other together. By doing so they interact with each other giving you more time to serve all gusts appropriately.
- Also, try to invite people of same age group together. Generally people of same age group will have similar likes and dislikes and by having people with similar likes and dislikes reduces efforts.
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Before welcoming those weekend guests into your home, ensure their comfort by addressing these creature comforts. Christmas is a time of festivity and it is common to expect guests. Have proper sitting arrangements for guests. The sitting options should be comfortable for all ages. Have very low sitting arrangements may not be suitable for all ages. Therefore, have adequate sitting arrangements depending of the guest expected during Christmas. Temporary sitting can be arranged by getting some furniture on rent or purchasing folding sitting options. The landscaping of the house can be effectively used as a sitting option by little reorganization of furniture.
- Follow an open door policy. Depending on the security of the locality that you live in, the front door can be kept open during Christmas celebrations. Closing internal doors like bedroom doors etc does not send positive signals to the guests. Inside the house, curtains should be used for privacy.
- Have adequate snacks read at all times. During Christmas celebrations there are a number of things on agenda and therefore there might not be enough time left for cooking. Stuff you refrigerator with frozen food to serve unexpected guests. Christmas is a festival of joy and celebrations are incomplete without a proper meal. Therefore, even when there are unexpected guests, they should be served well. Have food stored for all ages as you never know who would visit your house. However, be careful of expiries and finish the stored food before it expires. Not serving food is better than serving spoiled food. Guest feel more welcomed if served with hot food.
- Find appropriate gifts for your guests especially if they are children. Everyone loves to get gifts. However, have some extra gifts ready just in case there are some unexpected guests.
- Keep the house clean. Even if not heavily decorated, a clean house is always more inviting than an unkempt house. It is important to regularly clean the house during Christmas as with a number of guests visiting the house, the probability of house getting messed up are high. In case some guests are messing the house, do not hesitate to ask them to use the facilities of dustbin and garbage cans for disposing things off. As soon as the guests are gone, spare some time to clean things up before retiring to bed.
- Use house scent or perfume to give a pleasant smell to your house. No one likes to visit a house that smells like fish. Occasionally spraying a perfume can help in giving the desired fragrance to the house.
- Have multiple sets of crockery ready for serving gusts. It is not possible to wash the spoiled dishes every time they are used. It is always better to have alternative arrangements ready. The best way is to use disposable plates as it saves a lot of dish-cleaning time. However, for special guests, use of crockery is suggested.
- Welcome the guests with a welcome drink. It is important to tell your guests that they are important and therefore, give options wherever possible. In case you can offer multiple things for drinks or snakes, it is a good idea to ask your guests what they would prefer to have rather than given them something of your choice. Though the effort required for each alternative could be same, by giving alternative, you give importance to guests.
- Lastly have proper temperature control in the areas were guests are to be seated.
