Is your kitchen ready for Christmas?

Get ready for the festive season with new kitchen cabinets

Christmas is fast approaching. And we’re all hoping that Christmas 2021 will be a bit more normal than Christmas 2020. Which means that you may be hosting Christmas Day or Christmas parties for family and/or friends this year.

Hosting Christmas events can be very stressful. As much as you try to avoid it, it’s difficult not to get taken in by the glossy magazine images of the perfect Christmas and start to panic. Not only are your hosting and culinary skills simply not up to that standard, but neither is your home.

If this is where you are at, the first thing to do is take a deep breath and put things back into perspective. The whole idea of Christmas entertaining is to be able to spend quality time with the people you love and want to be with. People who don’t expect perfection, and would not want you to be stressed. As a host, you need to do enough to lay the foundation for everyone to have a great time, but also need to have enough energy left to enjoy that time yourself.

So don’t aim for perfection. But there are a few simple things you can do to get your home – and particularly your kitchen – into a great place for the festive season.

Four favourite ways to get your kitchen ready for Christmas

Declutter your kitchen

If you’re hosting Christmas you will need lots of space to store seasonal items. So before you start stocking up, take the opportunity to declutter your kitchen. Get rid of everything you don’t want or need. The more ruthless you are, the better you will feel about it. And even though you’re doing it in preparation for Christmas, chances are it’s long overdue anyway.

You may also want to invest in some new kitchen storage solutions to make the most of every inch of storage space. For example DIY Homefit pull out baskets, such as the one pictured below, can dramatically increase the amount of accessible storage available in your kitchen cabinets.

Make your kitchen squeaky clean

Another task that’s probably also long overdue is a deep clean of your kitchen. So why not make that happen too. Use Christmas as the excuse for what you needed to do anyway. 

Our recent article How Clean is Your Kitchen? has lots of hints and tips about how to get your kitchen squeaky clean. Or why not treat yourself to an early Christmas present and pay someone else to do it for you? 

Either way, you will really appreciate having a wonderful clean kitchen, all ready for the festive season.

Get stocked up

Christmas is a funny time of year in that all our normal routines go out of the window: everything is different. And it’s just the same for food shopping over the Christmas period. There are day to day things we normally buy that we probably won’t need over the festive season. Then there is all the other stuff that we wouldn’t normally buy that we suddenly decide that we need.

First and foremost, don’t go overboard. It is all too easy to buy far too much food and end up wasting a lot of it. So it is definitely worth spending time on planning your meals and party food carefully. Take into account different tastes: not everyone will eat everything. Also consider portion sizes. You want to make sure there’s enough food to go round but not overload people and waste food.

And don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to provide absolutely everything that anybody may want. You just can’t do that. So if your guests ask if they can bring anything, say yes! It’s far better to ask people to bring any particular items of food or drink that they want rather than trying to do it all yourself.

Accessorise

Once you have a clean uncluttered kitchen stocked up with Christmas goodies, it is easy to add a touch of festive flair. Simply accessorise your kitchen with a few bright, colourful festive items. 

The size, shape and design of your kitchen will determine what works best for you, but a few ideas are:

• Christmas decorations

Whether you display a small tree, baubles or Christmas stockings, these items can quickly convert your kitchen into a mini Christmas grotto ready to be enjoyed.

• Twinkling lights

Fairy lights and candles can totally transform the look and feel of your kitchen. The flickering ambient lighting will get everyone into the Christmas spirit, and also cleverly conceal any kitchen flaws.

• Festive fabrics

Christmas cushions, tablecloths and placemats can all add a rich festive touch to your kitchen. Whether you use them on your kitchen table, a worktop or an island, they will make a big contribution to the festive feel of your kitchen.

• Christmas crockery

Whether you display a few items on open shelving or a glass wall unit, or bring out Christmas mugs and plates to be used, Christmas crockery can help to get everyone into the Christmas spirit.

• Fancy flowers

Flowers are the perfect finishing touch to any Christmas kitchen. Floral wreaths, hanging displays of holly, ivy or mistletoe, or dramatic floral displays including Christmas favourites such as poinsettia, amaryllis, azalea, roses and orchids can all add the perfect finishing touch to your Christmas kitchen.

We hope that this article has helped you to think of ways to get your kitchen ready for Christmas without going overboard.

Enjoy your Christmas preparations, and remember to check back here soon for more lifestyle tips from DIY Homefit.