As 2021 creeps into its final stages, there is one major topic of conversation on everybody’s lips… Christmas! After what felt like a washout of a festive period for the vast majority of us last year, more people than ever are determined to make Christmas 2021 the best possible. After an 18-month period of being starved of the contact of our family and friends, big group celebrations are firmly back on the cards. We can’t wait!

Whilst the most important thing for everyone is just having the opportunity to be together, for those of us hosting there is a degree of pressure attached. Christmas is after all the ’Most Wonderful Time of the Year’! We can’t give you any advice on how to make the perfect roast potatoes, and we certainly can’t dish out tips on how to stop your turkey from going dry, but where we can advise is on how to create an entertaining space that will work well on a functional level and evoke that impalpable Christmas spirit. Whether you’ve had a new kitchen fitted this year, or your kitchen is due an upgrade, these tips are guaranteed to transform it into a cosy festive wonderland.

Where to start?

The first thing to consider when planning your festive entertaining space is what kind of party you are having. The way you need your space to work will be determined by this. If you are hosting an informal party with cocktails and nibbles, you will want to plan for easy access to drinks and food so guests can help themselves, as well as creating pockets of seating and different gathering spaces to avoid everybody congregating in one area. If you are hosting Christmas dinner, or perhaps a New Year’s dinner party you will require a more formal arrangement with designated seating for each guest and ample room around the dining table.

Whichever type of event you are planning for, if you’re hosting large numbers it is likely you’ll benefit from thinking about rearranging furniture to optimise your space and flow. This is especially true for your dining table .

If you’re hosting a sit down gathering over the festive period this usually involves seating more guests than at your typical Sunday lunch. If space is tight around your dining table, why not move it to a different spot in your room? Christmas dinner is for many considered to be the main event of the festive period so don’t worry about making your dining table a focal point by moving it into the middle of the room so there is more space. Once the table has been beautifully decorated you will feel proud to have it front and centre of your festivities and your guests will enjoy the comfort of having space to move around easily.

Many of us need to create more actual dining space for guests to be able to sit and eat Christmas dinner; there are after all only so many emergency chairs you can squeeze around a four seater table! If you find yourself in this position folding tables are a great solution as they’re inexpensive and come in a range of sizes and shapes. You can pick them up on Amazon for as little as around £30, which is a great investment when you consider they can be used year after year. Once your table is beautifully decorated you won’t even notice the addition and it will provide a much more comfortable dining experience.

If you don’t want to go to the expense of buying a folding table, instead think about how you can maximise space on your existing dining table. Keep things like candles and decorations on the minimal side, and consider either plating up guests’ food for them, or setting up a serving area elsewhere in your kitchen so you do not have bowls of food on the main dining table, just the plates people are eating from. You can also choose plates with narrower outer rims as these take up less space and allow more people to fit around the table.

What next?

Now we’ve got your layout and seating arrangements sorted, we need to think about creating that lovely festive atmosphere. As we’ve talked about before, lighting can play a huge role in defining the feel of your kitchen, and it can be easily adapted to evoke that Christmas feel. Christmas should feel warm and twinkly so candles and fairy lights play a bit part. Think about where to position/hang them; they are of course perfect in dark, cosy corners, but also look fabulous when draped across the ceiling, or even over windows. Why not also think about different coloured bulbs to add warmth and enhance the Christmas feel? Bright white bulbs give a cool, glacial vibe, perfect for a mystical, icy palace, whereas warm white bulbs have a more golden hue which creates a sense of warmth and luxury.

Another thing which really helps to build atmosphere is music. Music plays a huge role in helping to create the right mood, yet is so often an afterthought. When you have a new kitchen fitted now you can think about cool things like Bluetooth sound systems with speakers in the ceiling, which really put your music collection front and centre. If you don’t have a built in sound system think about where you want to position your speaker(s) so the music doesn’t dominate but adds ambiance. It is often a good idea to put the speaker just slightly away from the area everyone is seated in so that it is a pleasant background noise, but doesn’t interfere with the conversation – something particularly important if you are hosting more elderly guests. Don’t forget to make a playlist – we recommend you start to defrost Michael Bublé around now!

Make it beautiful!

Don’t forget to decorate your kitchen! Decorate your dining room! Decorate everywhere! In our opinion it should feel like Christmas all over the house, so don’t feel shy about adding a few (or a lot of) Christmas decorations to your kitchen. If you’ve got a mantle over your cooker, that lends itself perfectly to festive garlands and decorations, and even some Christmassy candles. Miniature Christmas trees can look fabulous on islands, and if you’ve got space, a full Christmas tree can really give your kitchen the wow factor – the more trees the better in our opinion! Even the Scrooge-iest guests can’t help but feel cheered when they’re surrounded by twinkling lights and beautiful decorations.

And Finally…

The most important thing of all for you to do this Christmas is to bask in the love and warmth of your friends and family. It has been a truly awful 18 months for everyone, and some families have been hit harder by the events of 2020/21 than we could ever have imagined, so gather your loved ones, keep them close and enjoy every second of being in each other’s company. Because that’s what it’s all about really.

If you’d like to create a magical entertaining space, why not get in touch today to book your FREE home design visit? We cover the Oxfordshire and Berkshire areas, including, but not limited to Didcot, Abingdon, Radley, Oxford City, Wantage, Wallingford, Benson, Berinsfield, Goring, Pangbourne.

With Kitchenroom you can always be assured of:

1. First class personal service from start to finish

2. 18 mm Rigid (assembled) wall and base units with doors already fitted

3. 10 cabinet colour options (so not just white / ivory or oak) to match the colour of the kitchen

4. 2 mm ABS edged cabinets

5. Soft close Blum doors & drawers that come with a lifetime guarantee

6. 25 year guarantee on our units / 10 years on Solid wood kitchens / 7 years on MDF kitchens

7. A typical lead time of 3-4 weeks

8. We can supply only or supply and arrange to fit your new kitchen where we will take care of the whole project from start to finish

Want to know more?

Why not take a look at some of our recently completed kitchen installations?

Click here to see our range of fitted kitchens.