The big day is getting closer and if, like the Summerdown team, you’ve been busy focusing on Christmas shopping (or haven’t even started in some cases!), your thoughts may not have yet turned to entertaining. Whether you’re hosting family and friends on the big day, or having a Christmas party at home, we’ve got a few tips to help prepare your home and make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible.
Hosting the big day? Stay sane with these tips
Choose one chef and follow them. You may be lucky enough to have age-old family traditions and know exactly how long your turkey needs cooking and at what temperature and which stuffing everyone likes. But if like us you need to follow a recipe or Christmas guide, we’ve found that every chef offers different conflicting advice. So whether it’s
Delia, Nigella, Mary or
Heston – choose one chef’s guide to Christmas dinner and stick with it.
Keep everyone out of the kitchen. Enlist help from someone else in the family to keep everyone else entertained (a walk, games, play with new presents) whilst you’re in the kitchen – stress levels rise when you’ve got little Johnny playing with his new football under your feet and Great Aunt Deidre hovering around looking to fill up her sherry!
Accept help. You’re not wonder woman and superman. If family and friends offer to make a dish, gratefully accept it.
Do as much in advance as possible. It’s amazing what you can freeze ahead, from bread sauce to par-boiled roast potatoes!
Getting the home ready
When it comes to decorations, at Summerdown we’re naturally inclined to favour home-made wreaths, holly picked from around the farm hung over pictures, twigs and sprigs picked from the garden and sprayed. But if you haven’t got time to channel your inner Kirstie-Allsopp, some of our favourite decorations come from
Cox and Cox
Create an ambiance with candle-light – our aromatic candle not only smells delicious but looks beautiful too. Why not place this at the centre of your table decoration?
If you’ve got overnight guests, make their rooms really special with our best-selling diffuser and update your bath linen - our favourites are our friends at
Draper London.
Hannah in our team creates a gorgeous table centrepiece by filling a glass bowl or jar with our individually-wrapped
Heritage mint creams and crisps.
You’re being entertained… you lucky thing! Surprise someone with Summerdown
Perhaps its not your turn this year and you can sit back and relax. You’ll want to say thank you to your hosts. Our customers are always stocking up on
soaps and
Chocolates for just this reason – starting at £5, they make the perfect little thank you presents.
Alternatively, we’ve been taking peppermint tea to dinner parties recently. Entertaining is changing with the trend for far more casual dining and less formality all around. Gone are the days when everyone has a coffee after dinner – many people opting for a peppermint tea. Well what better way to end a meal than with the gift of
Summerdown peppermint tea.
If you’re looking for something extra special, why not take our new
truffles along? They are pure Christmas indulgence. Or our best-selling
diffuser makes a lovely gift.
And finally, look after yourself
With all the entertaining it’s easy to forget about number one. But you’re only going to enjoy the festivities if you’re in mint (sorry!) condition.
That means taking time out for yourself. Take advantage of one of our
special offers on body, bath and home or treat yourself to a
bath soak so you can steal 30 minutes to enjoy a relaxing, de-stressing bath with the power of peppermint.
Create an ambiance with candle-light – our aromatic candle not only smells delicious but looks beautiful too. Why not place this at the centre of your table decoration?
If you’ve got overnight guests, make their rooms really special with our best-selling diffuser and update your bath linen - our favourites are our friends at Draper London.
Hannah in our team creates a gorgeous table centrepiece by filling a glass bowl or jar with our individually-wrapped Heritage mint creams and crisps.
