It’s never too early to start planning your holiday festivities at home. Hosting events at the holiday season can be utterly disastrous without proper planning and vision. Even if you retain the services of a caterer and event professionals, you still need to plan ahead. Let’s begin with five important questions you should be asking yourself right now.
- Which events will you be hosting this holiday season?
- How many people do you envision hosting this holiday season?
- How will you entertain your guests at your hosted events? Will you be lodging anyone? Will you be hosting a cocktail party for one event while serving a formal dinner at another?
- What time of day will your home events take place?
- AND, what is your budget?
Here’s another important set of questions: Will you need to retain outside help as in an event planner and caterer? Will you, honestly, be able to do all of the work yourself? If the answer to the last question is “no,” then get on the phone and schedule in your planner and caterers now. (Most event planners have their own catering vendors.)
Now, here are the tips, so pull out your trusty calendar as well as your favorite task application or a pen and pad.
- Think through everything that went wrong at your last holiday event. Create a list of things to do that will avert those problems.
- Think of which dishes and drinks served well and were a hit. Create a list of those items to discuss with your caterer and/or event planner.
- Schedule a thorough house-cleaning (or two) the two weeks leading to your event.
- Schedule home maintenance that needs to be accomplished to greet guests. (Carpet cleaning, touch-up painting, outdoor manicuring as well as outdoor design…anything that requires work and out-sourcing.)
- Start the guest list and create a cut-off number, if possible.
Next month, we’ll provide you with a list of last-minute tasks and tips. In the meantime, you probably want to retain an event planner to save yourself some stress and TIME.