Celebrating Christmas in Style
If you were to win this house, you would have room for everybody and there is no doubt that it would make the perfect location for a fantastic Christmas celebration. What does it take to throw a fabulous Christmas party that your loved ones will be talking about for years? Read on – we have got everything you need to know right here!
Picking a theme
Picking a theme might sound a little serious and unnecessary for a celebration with friends and loved ones but in fact, setting a theme early on helps make organising the event much simpler. For example, having a theme helps you decide what colour and style of decorations you need, what people will wear, what your table and serve wear should be, and what the entertainment might look like.
The theme should reflect what you and your guests enjoy – some families love the opportunity to dress in costumes, for example, and others prefer a classic celebration including all the time-honoured components of Christmas. It is important to consider what usually happens with your friends and family to make sure that no one is going to be too far out of their comfort zone at your house.
Some great themes for Christmas on Bribie Island could include a beach party – brightly coloured paper lanterns as decor, Hawaiian shirts, cold salads, bbq meats and games in the pool will all be appropriate with this. Another fun option could be to turn Aussie summer on its head and host a winter wonderland party. You could serve traditional roasts and Christmas puddings, play board games, have a Christmas jumper competition, and a blue and silver theme with lots of icicle decorations. The options are endless!
Dressing the tree
No Christmas celebration would be complete without a magnificent tree. The stunning home available in the Mater Prize Home Lottery has plenty of room for a tree, or two! Your theme should help you figure out the best colours for your decorations, and then you can easily pick out some inexpensive multipacks of decorations that will work with your theme. These multipacks can be teamed with some of your own special or more unique decorations to personalise the tree.
You may not realise but there is actually a correct order for putting decorations on the tree. For best results you should always put the lights on first and check that they are working. After lights, you should place the topper on your tree. This is the point where you are most likely to knock the tree over and if that were to happen, the fewer ornaments on board the better! After that you can place any ribbons, tinsel and garlands you want to use and then fill in the gaps with the smaller ornaments. Keeping the tree balanced is important and to do this you should organise the ornaments into groups before placing them on the tree to ensure the same amount of each kind makes it into each area of the tree.
The food
Food is a massive part of the festive season for many of us and for lots of hosts it can also be hugely stressful pulling together a feast for everyone. It doesn’t have to be like that though! Think about the theme and let that guide you. This beautiful home has a big kitchen too so there is lots of room for everyone to chip in. If it suits your family, you could even allocate different meals or courses to different family members or groups to share the labour around.
Another great idea is to select at least some dishes that can be prepared in advance to ensure that you don’t have to feel too much stress on Christmas morning. Fortunately there is plenty of room to store things in this fabulous house! It is also a good idea to write out what time everything needs to go in the oven or fridge on a piece of paper well before Christmas Day arrives. This makes it easy to keep track of what to do and when without it becoming too onerous.
Christmas Presents
Presents are a big part of Christmas Day for many of us and yet can cause a huge amount of stress for people who aren’t sure what to buy or how much they should spend. A very popular and successful idea is to put the names of everyone who will be there on the day into a hat and allocate everyone one other person to buy a gift for. You can set a price limit too to give people a guide of what they should spend. As the host it can also be a good idea to stash a couple of easy gifts in your cupboard just in case someone forgets or isn’t able to make it at the last minute.
Boxing Day
With a location like this, you are not going to want yourselves or your guests to have to race away so why not extend the celebration to include Boxing Day. This is a chance to informally spend time with friends and families, and to include those loved ones who were not able to join you on Christmas Day itself. The stunning home that you could win in the Mater Prize Home Lottery has a fabulous outdoor entertaining area so why not have a pool party? Stock the bar, serve up lots of easy salads and fresh breads with a BBQ or leftover cold meat from Christmas Day.
Buy Now!
Buying tickets in the Mater Prize Home lottery could change your life and it will certainly change the lives of Mater’s most vulnerable patients. All money raised through the lottery goes towards improving patient care and on Mater’s research program so you can be confident that it is going to a great cause. Purchase a ticket now and you could win a home that you will want to share with your loved ones for many Christmases to come.