We don’t quite hear sleigh bells ringing yet, but Spring has sprung, and it is now the perfect time to start planning a memorable Christmas for your troupe. See these unmissable tips from our Christmas experts to get ahead and stay well on top of all things festive this year.
You had better watch out and you had better not pout. Because Santa Claus will be here again before you know it! Our team at The Christmas Cart know that when the birds and bees are out and about doing their Springtime dance, it is the perfect time to start planning a memorable Christmas.
Take advantage of the lead up time provided now to start getting your Christmas festivities in order. Here are our top tips and expert hacks for planning a memorable Christmas of your own.
The Christmas Cart’s top four tips for planning a memorable Christmas
For a stress-free Christmas this year, follow our simple check list and start planning for a memorable Christmas nice and early.
#1 Planning for your guests
If you are hosting any type of Christmas shindig this year, whether that be for family, friends, big gathering or small, you must plan accordingly for your guests. Following are a few reminders on what to cover when you are planning for a memorable Christmas with guests.
Christmas party seating
Ensure that you have enough seats to cater for your guests. If you don’t have enough on hand, you might think about asking some, or all, of your guests to bring a chair along with them.
Alternatively, for the thrifty people amongst us, you might like to organise a few pre-loved seats to decorate specially for the occasion. We love this idea as it provides the perfect opportunity to get as festively creative as you like. There are usually some great pre-loved bargains, perfect for a bit of DIY love and attention, locally on Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree. From time to time, you can also nab dining chairs for free! A lather of new paint (if needed) and some oversized Christmas bows, ribbons and picks to use on the chair backs can work some beautiful Christmas magic. Now, is the time to get started!
As a simple option, just add a Christmas cushion onto plain chairs for some bonus Christmas décor.
Serve up a storm
Depending on what type of catering you intend to serve up, your guests will need somewhere to consume your Christmas creations. Will you need additional tables to plate up and put food down? Will guests need extra table space to sit and eat?
When planning your memorable Christmas, remember to cater for people to sit and eat (or stand if you are having finger food), as well as places to serve the food from.
* Tip: for some Christmas table setting tips and ideas, check out this Christmas Table Place Setting video by Deb, our décor guru.
Store your culinary creations
Increased catering generally calls for more cold storage. And there is no bigger demand on household fridges than at Christmas time. Do you have enough cold storage to support all your catering as well as the odd drink or three? Will you need to buy a new esky for the event? Do you need to ensure that guests bring their own esky or cold storage with them?
If needed, don’t forget to add ‘purchasing ice’ to your list for Christmas Eve for your extra esky or two. Plan a memorable Christmas by saving any last-minute panic due to having limited storage space.
Serve your guests
Don’t forget plates and cutlery, table placemats, and all those extra serving ware bits and pieces that you will need when making your plans for memorable Christmas. How many extra people are you catering for? Do you have enough Christmas platters, plates, cutlery, etc to cater for everyone?
Make your guests feel extra special with personalised place cards.
#2 Entertaining your guests
If you want to ensure that everyone has a great time, you can plan a memorable Christmas with a little bit of extra entertainment for your guests. Here are a few simple ideas to try.
The gift of Secret Santa
Ensure that everyone gets involved in the gift-giving process by organising an easy Secret Santa task.
There are many different ways to do a Secret Santa gift exchange. You can do a draw beforehand to allocate who has to buy for who, or for a more lucky-dip style experience on the day, you could try this.
Give guests a budget and ask them to buy a gift that will be appropriate to both male and female. Ask them to bring their Christmas gift wrapped on the day. You then gather the gifts and attach a number to each one. When all guests have arrived, and you are ready on the day, do a random draw with the numbers to see which gift each guest receives. The fun with this is that guests could end up with their own gift back. Or, they can swap with someone else if their gift looks “more inviting” before unwrapping them.
Festive tunes
A party is not a party without some music to keep everyone entertained. Plan your memorable Christmas with a fun Christmas CD or playlist. Start adding your favourites to the list as you hear them pop up in the coming months. Easy!
Snap happy Christmas photo table
Plan a memorable Christmas by encouraging guests to get involved in a Christmas photo table and snap happy memories. Add some Christmas décor and fun pieces like headbands and hats to use as props. You can also create a giant Christmas photo frame for guests to hold and pose with. You can find plenty of ideas and inspiration for this on a Google or Pinterest search.
#3 Christmas comfort
From the moment guests arrive, plan a memorable Christmas day for them by making them feel at home and comfortable. Here are a few simple ideas:
- arrange a personalised plaque or festive welcome sign at your front door or at your front gate
- if you want to encourage guests to remove their shoes – add a little sign and a shoe rack at the entry
- if you are planning a memorable Christmas from day to night, remember to ensure there is adequate lighting for guests as they leave – extra garden solar lights along the path or some fairy lights in the trees are always a nice touch
- for the warmer weather (remember that it usually gets quite hot at our summer Christmas), do you have plans in place to keep your guests cool? An extra fan or two inside the house. How about creating some Christmas paper fans for guests to cool themselves down with too? This is a neat little idea that you could get your kids involved with too.
#4 Christmas budget
The biggest tip we can provide for planning a memorable Christmas is to budget and purchase wisely. Take the opportunity to grab catering ingredients, Christmas gifts and other essentials that you and your guests might need on the day (such as toilet paper, tissues, rubbish bin bags, hand soap, etc) as you see them on sale in the coming months. Cooking ingredients like coconut, biscuits, condensed milk and condiments generally have very good shelf life and always go on and off sale.
There is no better time for planning a memorable Christmas than Springtime! The birds are singing, the sun is shining and there is still plenty of time to get organised without the rush.
For plenty of Christmas inspiration pop into our online shop at The Christmas Cart. We have a full swag of Christmas gifts, décor, serveware as well as plenty of helpful Christmas tips and tricks to get you well underway for planning a memorable Christmas.