This is the season when we welcome frequent guests into our homes. Many of us entertain more during December and January than we do in the remaining ten months of the year combined. With that in mind it is best we prepare our rooms to entertain - besides, who doesn’t enjoy a good party.

Prepping your home for entertaining will reduce elevated seasonal stress levels as folks wishing to share their festive cheer drop by unexpectedly or as we throw a party or invite others to join us for even the simplest of family meals on the spur of the moment.

Where to begin? Start by refreshing your furniture arrangements. Furniture should be arranged to increase floor space, making it easy for folks to mingle and move from kitchen to living room or to the great room and beyond. The goal is uninterrupted flow from room to room.

Take a walk, through your home and remove obstacles that impede passage. Create intimate conversation areas (a pair of chairs arranged here and there for private conversations) in your larger rooms, if you have the floor space a pair of chairs in the corner of the kitchen will be well used by guests and family members.

Ensure that there are lots of tiny tables beside each seat so that folks have a place to put their drinks and food dishes. Nesting tables are a great addition to a space and provide easy access to extra tables when guests arrive. You’ll love the nesting tables year round, they are a solid investment.

If you want to bring something au natural home try a few oversized log ends to use as tables. They look great and the local lumber yard may even give them to you for free.

Plan for dinner, if you want everyone to sit together at the dining room table be sure that there is room to sit everyone comfortably - elbow spaced, as they say. If things are cramped, plan a head by preparing a plywood top that has been covered in a thin layer of batting and a cotton sheet on both sides (to protect the table finish). When you place the prepared plywood on your table top and then drape it with a table clothes no one will know what’s underneath.

If you don’t have room for a large sit down dinner then plan bistro or buffet style get togethers. Ensure you have lots of side boards for food and don’t be afraid to separate the food, one buffet for finger foods, one for hot, an area for beverages and one for desserts.

If you are short of horizontal surfaces, bring in some of your outdoor furniture or visit a local consignment store looking for discarded furniture - bistro height table are always handy and I love the easy to mingle with height of these tables. I also can’t live without my bar carts, they are fabulous horizontal pieces of furniture that can be moved throughout the house.

The sun goes down early this time of year, providing us with an opportunity to cast romantic light into our rooms, creating the perfect party mood. New lamps are one of the easiest ways to update a tired room, consider buying a new pair and also be sure to fill the party space with an abundance of candles.

Not only do candles create a perfect party ambience with their soft angelic light but you can also buy the scented candles to fill the room with scents of Christmas, such as pine, cranberry, vanilla or cinnamon.

Speaking of yummy scents stock the pantry and freezer with instant party munchies keep it simple but always have the ingredients on hand for your signature cocktail, perhaps a cranberry martini or a special coffee. A simple spread of cheese and crackers is easy to prepare and to keep in the pantry, as are some freezable hors d’oeuvre.

Preparing our home and pantry in advance ensures that we enjoy the party too! So this weekend, prepare your space for the holidays.

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