You’ve invited everyone to celebrate Thanksgiving with you in your new home … a joy-filled day with family and friends, good company, great food, celebrating old traditions and creating new ones!  The first-holiday gathering in your new home celebrates more than the season, it celebrates the start of special memories in a new place.

To mark your first Thanksgiving in your new home, consider these ideas:

Decorating
Most likely, you’ve spent your decorating budget on long-term furnishings for your new place. To add a little holiday panache, create a centerpiece of beeswax candles, gourds, mini pumpkins, and dried leaves; Or place some bare branches in a vase. Have everyone write what they are grateful for on a leaf to be read aloud before dinner.  A floral basket with late blooms from your new backyard blend nicely with branches of dried berries and white pumpkins or fresh cinnamon sticks. Realize, too, that your new home may be décor enough since many friends and family will be seeing it for the first time.

The feast
Whether your plans include an elaborate spread or simpler fare, everyone loves to get involved. So, let Great Aunt Lydia bring her famous fruit salad, and let the kids make the green bean casserole. Part of the fun is in the doing and the best memories include both the old traditions and the new.

Enjoy the company of family & friends
Enjoy the time with family and friends. Don’t make your menu so complex that all your attention is on the meal preparations instead of your guests. If there are ways to minimize the mess — foil pans, reusable plates, etc. — and simplify the cleanup so much the better. You don’t want to miss out on family tag football in your new backyard because you had dishes to do and pots to scrub.

Need a new home for the next holiday?
If you’re not yet in your new home, I can help you find one for the next holiday. Give me a call at 626-500-5504 or email me here and I will do whatever I can to get you well on your way to celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah in your new place.