How To Prepare Your Home For Christmas

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There are many obvious things you can do to get your festive festivities underway; think putting up the Christmas tree, wrapping presents and getting some get-togethers in the diary. However, you mustn't neglect your humble abode along the way, even if little of your partying will happen there. 

After all, your home could be left overly vulnerable to winter weather for that exact reason - and you never know who you might want to spontaneously invite back. Therefore, without further ado... 

Keep everything at close hand in the kitchen 

Someone must sort out the Christmas dinner, and if that someone is you or another member of your household, you don't want to leave your kitchen strewn with out-of-date food or clutter. To help make any time spent in the kitchen over Christmas as stress free as possible try and have a clear out before the festive season starts. Clearing out any out of date food and donating any new items that you wont eat. 

Tidy away any items that are taking up worktop space that you know you wont be using to give you more room to prepare and serve up food too. 

Most kitchen could also benefit from having is a drinks table as well as a tray where tea, coffee and sugar are all arranged together, as House Beautiful advocates. Anticipate pouring a lot of wine, but lack cupboard space for the glasses? Hang a wire stemware rack below overhead cabinets. All of these things will make it easy, stress and clutter free for you. 

Make your hallway feel welcoming 

If the big Christmas party happens at your house, you naturally want your hallway to leave a positive early impression on guests, especially if their visits are usually rare. Therefore, you should act to curb the clutter - and prevent it from accumulating as the guests arrive. When guests arrive, whether these are family, friends or work colleagues you want them to feel warm, happy and welcome to get them into the Christmas spirit! 

You could even add a second row of coat hooks to make that mass of hanging coats less discernibly bulky - and, near the door, place a stand where guests can hang wet umbrellas.  

Streamline and tidy up your living room 

If you've often treated the room as a place to deposit redundant items without disposing of them properly, lets face it we've all done it! Now is a good time for you to give away, sell or donate them - or, at least, tidy them away in boxes. Toys can go into boxes but should remain readily accessible for the kids to play with and reach. 

Then, of course, there's the tree. Make it the focal point of the room in place of the TV; people will be too busy unwrapping presents to want to watch a lot of TV! Don't forget to place it near a plug socket for easy access to the lights and of course decorate it within your Christmas colour scheme. 

Treat the children

If your children have been on their best behaviour this Christmas, why not treat them by secretly putting a TV in their room. Apart from providing sheer entertainment, educational channels are a fantastic way of teaching children new things and kids will enjoy being able to have their own space to relax in as well as being able to choose what they watch. 

To ensure they have a large variety of channels to choose from, make sure to get an aerial installation in Wiltshire or wherever you happen to live for the best signal reception without needing any extras. 

Hang Christmas lights outside your home 

You've probably already got a fair few festive lights stored away, whether they be of the incandescent, LED, transparent or any other variety. Before stringing them though, decide where exactly you should do so. Perhaps along rakes, eaves or gutters and near windows and doors this could be indoors or outdoors. If you have kids especially, they love seeing all the lights outside of their home on an evening. 

Conveniently, Popular Mechanics provides an in-depth but easy-to-follow explanation of how to attach lights and make sure they stay connected to the electrical outlet. Ensuring you and your light displays stay safe over the festive period.  

Watch out for risks that could be exacerbated by storms or rainfall  

While you're hanging up lights outside, stop to look at your roof, as Country Living recommends. Do any of the slates look loose? Guttering need clearing? or windows need repairing or replacing?. 

If you can't tell for definite, a local roofing firm could check more thoroughly; the Durham roofing company Findley Roofing & Building, for example, offers free inspections. Then, the firm could patch up issues before winter weather has a chance to worsen them. Nobody wants a costly bill at any time of the year, but especially more so over Christmas! So finding the problem early and fixing it can not only save you lots of problems and stress, but money too. 

How do you get your home ready for Christmas? Please do share your top tips in the comments below. 

xXx

**This is a collaborative post in which I recevied a fee.**