I start my holiday prep in October. I am a big list maker. I make a gift list, broken down by friends/family/colleagues/businesses. I also look ahead and think about what I am making for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve/Christmas, New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day. Since it is such a busy time, it is a good idea to set reminders in your phone or using Post it’s to get your ordered in early.
- Order the turkey
- order the specialty cut meat for Christmas Eve, Christmas Dinner, NYE, and New Year’s Day.
- Order favors for Thanksgiving and Christmas
- Send invites to let your loved ones know what time to show up
- If it is your first holiday hosting, don’t overdue it. You can keep it simple and festive
- Order the wines you want to serve and if you have questions, always feel free, never embarrassed to ask at your local wine shop
- Order flower arrangements for your table, garland for your mantle and if you prefer lights around your house
Try and get ahead so you can enjoy. Set some new traditions with your partner and children. We love Christmas as we are just the 4 of us. Every day we run around and have obligations and places to be! Christmas is our family day. Now that our children are older, we love to get up, have a hearty breakfast and go for a hike or a snow shoe. We come back and sit by the fire, watch football and relax. My husband and I prepare the Christmas feast and it makes for a very fun, chill and memorable day. We don’t do stockings anymore, the kids each get 1 big gift. Last year it was Taylor Swift for our daughter and for our son a basketball game in the city. The kids enjoy time spent together and time having fun all of us. The memories of the day and the feelings are what we treasure throughout the year.
Since it is such a festive time, make sure to not run out of wines. It is always good to have a good selection of sparkling (especially for NYE), whites and reds. If you are into dessert wines, a beautiful port is perfect to finish off the evening.
