Hosting the Holidays

For most dinner parties throughout the year, good food and great friends are often enough to declare a get-together a success. But when the holiday season arrives, many hosts want to make their home extra special for guests—and that means going the extra mile to create an inviting and cohesive entertainment space.  

So, how do you set a scene that encourages joyous moments between loved ones? We asked experts Aurelia Louvet, an award-winning food stylist and cookbook author, and Paul Chambers, owner of Davidson Chambers in Sidney, how to make a holiday party one for the scrapbook, and we discovered that you don't need to splurge on a new set of holiday dinnerware or a colour-coordinated designer tree. Little touches in planning, prep and decor are all you need to create a cozy holiday atmosphere.

The four pillars of holiday ambiance
 

Whether it's just a few friends for cocktails or a full-on family turkey dinner, there are four guiding principles behind creating a welcoming setting for your holiday get-together.  

Declutter

One of Louvet’s most brilliant tips for creating a serene holiday home actually happens before any decorating begins: decluttering. She says, "Clearing your space, especially if it's a small space, taking away the excess, is welcoming when you walk in." This is where tiny steps make a great impression: remove the stack of paperwork, loose change and keys from the front entry table; hide your extra boots and umbrella; and tuck the butter dish into a cupboard until mealtime. 

Making space in your home helps reduce the visual noise for visitors, which allows them to better absorb that festive feeling. Bonus perk: it also gives you more room for intentional holiday decor. Now you can replace those spare jackets with a holly-berry wreath.

Choose a tone

Whether you’re a holiday maximalist or a minimalist, the first step in decorating is selecting your tone. Don't feel pressured to commit to the traditional red and green or gold and silver. If you want to go wild working Pantone's colour of the year, Viva Magenta, into the mix, that’s okay. Or you could try a more natural look by using neutrals with hints of nutmeg and frost. What matters is your commitment to your theme.

Again, great holiday parties aren’t about blowing your budget on all new ornaments and china. Davidson's advice is to work with a set of basic white dinnerware. He adds, "I'm very much an advocate for white dinnerware, because you can use that year-round." With a neutral foundation, adding a pop of colour or a warm tone to pull the space together is easy as holiday pie.

Add warm lighting

When asked about setting the holiday scene, the first thing that came to Louvet’s mind was lighting. In most spaces, bright overhead lights can feel harsh and intrusive, so consider decorative style lights which tend to feel warmer instead. 

Room-to-room candles are a stunning way to tie the holiday ambiance together. Visitors will feel at home from the moment they step into your entryway, all the way to the dining table. With so many shapes, sizes and colours—wicked or flameless—candles will always give your house a cozy energy. 

You can also tuck sparkling fairy lights into glass hurricanes to create a welcoming winter vibe. Strategically placed around the home, especially when combined with other festive decor like pinecones or fir bows, these gently twinkling lights will blend beautifully into your backdrop.

Play background music

Have you considered the acoustic landscape? You could throw on any ol' Christmas playlist, but Louvet assured us that joyful music doesn’t have to be limited to the holiday genre.

With streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, there are unlimited options to guide the tone. When in doubt, just let the party’s mood be your guide—whether it's ambient, smooth jazz or ‘60s classic hits, your guests will be grateful your soundtrack followed their lead. 

Go the extra mile with a few personal touches
 

Once you've decluttered your entertainment space, picked a great palette and added inviting lighting and music, you’ll want to sprinkle in a handful of personal touches. 

Bring a bit of nature inside

Louvet recommends incorporating all-natural elements into your holiday, suggesting fir bows, pinecones and sprigs of holly as great foundational pieces. Bonus: many of these may be found in your backyard or sustainably collected as windfall, further adding to the outdoorsy feel. 

Make use of the versatile glass hurricane

Davidson loves the versatility offered by a set of glass hurricanes. This might be the one must-have holiday item. Candles or fairy lights will add to the general ambiance, but he also suggests filling them with pinecones, cranberries or small Christmas ornaments. For each dinner, it's easy to swap out the decorations to match the holiday or event theme.

Layer textures into the place setting

Build an extravagant tablescape by layering different textural elements into each place setting. Start with stacking napkins and dinnerware, then add a sprig of rosemary as a napkin tie, or a personalized wooden ornament as place settings. It’s easy, affordable decor that gives your holiday party a modest "wow" factor. 

Ambiance, when done right, can transform your next celebration into a memory that your friends and family will cherish for years to come. The best part is that creating a warm, inviting home isn’t about buying new decorations; it’s about appealing to your guests' senses and taking the time to create a space that feels clean, comfortable and intimate.