If you’re anything like my wife, who absolutely loves entertaining friends and family, this time of year is a joy for you and nothing dampens that feeling of togetherness or making your home ready for entertaining. 

While many of you may be thinking about Thanksgiving or the winter holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, Halloween is the first up in the trifecta of holidays celebrations. And it happens to be one of the holidays where laughter, playfulness, and spookiness are an odd, yet wonderful mix of things that lead up to Halloween, the day of trick-or-treating.

Although my wife takes care of preparing most things for the holidays in advance, I do get involved and fully appreciate the project management aspects that go into getting ready for the festivities to come. Here’s what we do to ready ourselves for the holiday season.

1. Preparing for Halloween

Despite our only son being well into his third decade of life, my wife still enjoys the planning and fun that go into Halloween. She enjoys choosing and creating a costume for greeting the trick-or-treaters at the door, decorating our home, stocking up on Halloween treats, and planning fun things for us to do leading up to the spookiest day of the year. 

Early planning, prioritizing safety (and practicality) and considering things like makeup and setting the Halloween-holiday mood with interior and exterior decorations, is all part of the fun for her. She typically goes through our Halloween storage bins in late summer to ensure decorations remain in good condition, testing anything that may need batteries to ensure that it all still works as it should. If you do as she does, and remember to only put away the things that are still in good shape and take note of anything that may need repair or replacement prior to putting anything away, then it makes the process go easily. 

She looks out for those tremendous bargains after every holiday, to grab up a few things that were originally costly when in season, and enjoys adding to her collection and switching things up to allow for some variety, adding a few fun things to be a fresh part of the next season’s holiday surprises.

The first things to go up are the yard decorations that create a spooky yet welcoming atmosphere for trick-or-treaters. We typically have fun lights around our front door, a grouping of tombstones, hanging ghouls and ghosts, and a playful talking skeleton that activates with movement to sing a silly Halloween tune. 

My wife never forgets to add some Halloween fun indoors: For instance, we have a string mood lights that can cast a spooky glow. She has a collection of sound effects like ghostly wails and creaking doors to complete the haunted ambiance, along with fun Halloween music that gets played whenever company pops by..

Now that we are older, we still include fresh pumpkins leading up to our doorstep, but reserve the carving of a classic jack-o’-lantern for just a few days before Halloween to avoid premature mold or rot. For safety, we use battery-powered flickering pumpkin lights in fresh pumpkins, along with pre-carved artificial pumpkins with internal LED lights.

As a general contractor, I like to encourage the use of flameless candles instead of real ones to avoid fire hazards. I also strongly suggest safely securing any electrical cords to prevent tripping and to avoid overloading outlets.

We tend to purchase our candy and any other needed supplies early, in late August or September. And for those kids with food allergies, we tend to have some non-food treats on hand, such as stickers, pencils, plastic rings, and other playful stuff we pick up at the Dollar store or find throughout the year. 

And we signal when we’re open for trick-or-treaters by having all our decorations up and turning on our porch lights and special effects lighting on Halloween night.

Solid Planning Makes a Big Difference

As with construction projects, having a solid game plan makes all the difference. Taking parts of October, the calm before the storm of holiday activities, to get organized can help make the holidays ahead go far more smoothly. Making the effort to do some research and planning time will always pay off over the next few months.

There are plenty of tasks you can check off your to-do list well in advance to reduce your stress and help keep you within a sound budget.

2. Get An Early Start on Handmade Gifts and Gift Planning

Because project management is essential in my construction business, putting together a game plan and budget is something we do and encourage others to do as well. As with any home construction project, it’s important to set an overall gifting budget. Within my immediate family, we like to know what we have to work for our gifting budget so we don’t go overboard or duplicate any efforts or gifts. I suggest you make a list or spreadsheet that includes each person you’d like to give a gift, then decide how much you would like to spend. 

We ask our friends and loved ones what they’d like, and we also brainstorm and research gift ideas for each person so we’re not starting with nothing when it’s time to shop. (Super organized gifters, like my wife, keep their ears and eyes open all year long for gifting ideas and then make sure to write them down). My wife and son use their smart phones for gift tracking, and often include images and hyperlinks to make for easy online shopping. 

Knowing how busy I often am with construction projects and materials purchasing, my wife and son will share links with me on things they might like as a gift. If you are a picky person, as I can sometimes be, it helps your loved ones if you send them “hints” of what you might like and where they can find such an item.

There are all kinds of apps out there from various companies that can send you notifications when things are available or go on sale. These apps can be life and timesavers! If you’re like me, and all thumbs when it comes time to wrap, you might ensure that you get everything you purchase pre-wrapped or note on the boxed item what it is in case you forget by the time gift wrapping time comes around. Using Google Drive spreadsheets or other tracking solutions can help you remember who you need to buy for while also ensuring your remain within your allotted budget.

4. Do a Pre-Hosting and Entertaining Assessment

To ensure you are ready and not caught without an essential food prep item or entertaining tool, it helps tremendously to do a pre-hosting and entertaining assessment and checklist. Is your home ready to host your friends and family? Do you have enough extra seating or serving dishes, and if not, from whom might you borrow them? My wife loves seasonal tablecloths – do you have what you’ll need and will it fit your table with the largest extension? What about plates, glasses, and utensils – can you borrow what you need or might you decide to use paper disposables for a large group to make clean-up easier? 

By doing a bit of pre-hosting planning and an entertaining assessment, you can also ensure that your home is neat and tidy, and any issues with the problematic toilet in the half-bath or the kitchen appliances that need repair or replacement can be dealt with, well enough in advance, to make for smoother sailing through the holidays.

5. Inventory Your Tolerance and Respect Your Own Limits

This may be listed last, but it is actually one of the most important things to consider. So many of us tend to overdo or overwhelm ourselves trying to make everything perfect for others, yet neglecting ourselves and forgetting our own tolerances and limits. If inviting Uncle Charlie, who tends to drink far too much, or inviting Aunt Clair, who tends to be hypercritical and intrusive, isn’t what you want to do because it will disrupt your household or disturb your peace of mind, then don’t do it! Remember that mutual respect is key.

We need to remember our own needs and to respect that even the kindest and most tolerant among us, has their limits. Setting healthy boundaries and inviting only people who help make for a joyful holiday season is the right thing to do! If you must invite someone who can be difficult or trying, then make a plan for what to do should that be the case. Just because you enjoy opening your home and entertaining, does NOT mean you need to put up with intolerable people or situations. By planning and being prepared, we can be kind and still take care of ourselves.

Often, because I get to spend time getting to know my clients over the course of planning and during any home repairs, renovations, remodeling, room additions/expansion, or ADU build, I get to know many of you. These are truly caring and wonderful people who undertake construction on their homes to be able to welcome extended family, or to do more entertaining. Be kind to yourselves by not over-extending yourself or by allowing more than is tolerable. 

Holidays are for family and friends gathering together and enjoying one another. Be good to yourself! Plan accordingly, and avoid going beyond your own boundaries and personal limits. This will ensure a wonderful holiday season that everyone can enjoy, but especially you and your loved ones!

For Your Construction Needs Call Ed Neir, Actively Licensed & Reliable General Contractor

If you have any repair, remodel, or other residential or commercial construction needs, please remember to give Ed Neir Construction a call for a free consultation and estimate. Call our office at 707-999-5878 or, for more rapid response, please text 408-368-7162 .

Ed Neir, General Contractor

License #: 928715