The Chirping Moms

Holiday Entertaining Made Easy

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I have decided that the perfect way to get your house ready for the holiday season is to plan a holiday party…at the beginning of the season!  Many of you will call me crazy, but honestly I think I am going to make an early holiday party an annual tradition.  Planning a party early on in the holiday season forces you to get your house clean & decorated before the holiday madness really sets in.  Last week, I hosted a holiday party for a big group of friends one evening.  All the preparation and decorating now allows me to sit back and enjoy a fully decorated house for the holiday season & if I wasn’t forced to prepare, then I would probably still be working on getting decorated and set for the holiday season.  We all know that entertaining a group of people requires effort and time, but today I am going to share some simple tips on how to get your house “holiday party” ready with minimum effort.
12 Tips for Holiday Entertaining : The Chirping Moms
12 Tips for Holiday Entertaining Made Easy

1.  Do a quick clean through the house a few hours before.  AND I mean quick, like fifteen minutes.  Wipe down the walls.  Clean the windows.  Clean surfaces.  Wipe down scuff marks on the floors.  You can do all of these chores with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  
2.  Move the clutter out of sight.  We are all busy & clutter happens.  Trust me, I have three little kids.  The easiest thing to do is just move it somewhere it won’t be visible.  For me, I moved all of our miscellaneous piles and stuff to the upstairs because I knew that our guest wouldn’t be up there.    
3.  Do another quick clean of just the kitchen.  Since our kitchen is the central part of our house & much of our entertaining occurs in here, I like to spend a little more attention to detail in here as I clean.  Again, I spray down the counters and table.   Clean the stove top well & wipe down the counters.  Again, these simple tasks can be done with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  
4.  Earlier in the day, run the dishwasher and unload so it is mostly clear.  Then, after the party ends, you can throw all the dirty party dishes into the dishwasher and run it overnight making for a quick end of the night party clean-up.
5.  Keep it simple.  Buy paper plates, disposable napkins, and plastic silverware in a fun and cute pattern.  Place disposable, but festive, tablecloths on the tables so you can easily dispose of at the end of the party.  Have everything out in a place that people can easily grab & make sure you have more than enough so you aren’t scrambling for more when the party starts.
6.  Make it a potluck holiday party where everyone brings a dish.  I love doing this because it’s fun to have a wide range of appetizers and desserts & you don’t have to stress about preparing everything for everyone.
7.  Make sure there are lots of drinks to offer.  Wine, beer, soda, water, & a festive non-alcoholic punch is a great idea.
8.  Run around the house with a aerosol spray freshener to get rid of unwanted smells about an hour before the party.  Then, light a candle or simmer a stovetop potpourri throughout the party duration.
9.  “Dim” the lighting.  The less light, the less likely they will notice all the dirt & makes for a more party feel.
10.  Vacumn an hour before people arrive.  Nothing makes this busy mom feel better than a freshly vacuumed carpet!
11.  Don’t stress about special party decor.  The beauty of the holiday season is that your own special holiday decorations is enough to make the party look festive.  Turn on the lights on the tree, make sure your seasonal decorations is out, & light some fun candles and you are set!
11.  For the new decor you do decide purchase, use a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to help get those sticky, stubborn price tags off.  (Great tip I just learned about!)
12.  Put on some holiday music & get the mood set.  
 I have mentioned a few simple holiday entertaining tips above that use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, but I also wanted to share this fun and unique tip in the video below:
So I tried this handy little tip at my holiday party.  I put out a Sharpie with the wine glasses so people could know whose glass was whose.  And it works…
Label a Wine Glass with Sharpie & Remove It with Mr Clean Magic Eraser
No getting drinks mixed up and at the end of the night, the Sharpie came off with few simple rubs using the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser!  What a fun and simple way to keep track of whose drink is whose.  (Now, I recommend trying on your own glassware before doing a whole set of glasses, but it totally worked on my glass wine glasses!  And you could totally do this on glass serving dishes as well.)
Now that your house & glasses are all “holiday party” ready, it’s time to settle back and enjoy the time with your friends and guests!
After the party, I recommend that for a quick clean-up, recruit a few close friends to help clean up & send them home with a plate of all the extra desserts to say “thank-you”!  I hope these tips help you with your holiday entertaining & once you have thrown your “early” holiday party, settle back and relax in the holiday comforts in your own home and enjoy the parties out and about at family and friend’s houses.  For an extra special holiday giveaway, we are excited to be giving away to one lucky reader Mr. Clean Magic Erasers AND a $50 AMEX Gift Card.  All you have to do is enter in the Rafflecopter below and good luck!

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“This review was made possible by Double Duty Divas and Mr. Clean. I was provided the featured product and compensations to facilitate this post, but all opinions are 100% mine.”
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Comments

  2. My favorite tip…WelI know one of my favorite things to use magic erasers on…. shoes. SO easy to clean scuff marks and any other discoloration. Great for kid's shoes you want to keep nice.

    Reply

  18. I mostly use it to clean walls of scuff marks, but I love the tip about using the sharpies to mark glasses, and then clean it off with the magic eraser. I'm definitely going to use that one!

    Reply

  19. My favorite is to use them on toys! We love to buy older neat toys at garage sales, we come home and clean them up with the magic erasers….and they look brand new! Takes all the scruffy marks off!

    Reply

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