Organizing a Christmas Open House
This stunning, 25-foot tall, world famous Upside Down Chappell,
is located in Calgary’s popular East Village neighbourhood!
We started to host a Christmas open house in 2017. We did some renovations in our condo. After that we were constantly asked by our friends when we would have an open house. Putting the questioning to rest, we organized a party the first Friday in December of that year. It was so much fun, that we kept having a pre-Christmas open house every year after that with the exception of the Covid year.
My husband Klaus is in charge of F&B. As a trained chef, he loves to cook up a storm with a variety of delicious dishes. Below is my to-do-list from 2024. My part, as a former executive housekeeper in several high-end Swiss hotels, is the housekeeping and decorations. I did not do everything, as at one point I decided it’s all good. And more important, my bestie from Vancouver came over to our place early. That had more priority.
HOUSEKEEING TASKS 2024
Bedroom
- Wash bedding and towels
- Put nutcrackers on bedside tables
- Move Bruno’s toy collection to bedroom
- Prep bedroom for wardrobe
Living Room
- Cover all living room surfaces with plastic and cloth
- Prep glasses on sideboard
- Load Bad Santa TV screen saver
Kitchen
- Arrange napkins, cutlery on sideboard
- Remove Bruno’s bowls
Guest Bathroom
- Last minutes clean up, hand towels and deco
- Prep towels and bin
Our Bathroom
- Prep hand towels and bin
- Clear counter except for tree, towels and soap
MISC.
- Empty hallway wardrobe and fill with hangers
- Raffle something off? Christmas related?
- Clean up office
- Make paper snowflakes
- Check Dollarama for decorations
- Put direction sign up across the elevator
- Create sign for door: Please come in
- Doggy bath in office for additional cooling of bottles
- Photograph setup
- Label the food
- Last bathroom check
- Typewriter for messages
One thing Klaus and I do after a party is cleaning up the place before we go to bed. There’s nothing worse than waking up to a mess of dirty dishes some with cold food on them, half empty glasses, garbage everywhere. There’s nothing better than walking up after a fabulous party with loved ones, and the kitchen and living room is clean.
2025
