Whether you’re wearing the hosting hat or embarking on a joint venture with your mates, planning the ultimate Christmas and New Year’s celebration is best achieved with some upfront thought. The festive season is all about making memories that last a lifetime, letting your hair down, and having fun. It’s also a time that comes with added financial pressure, mental overload and often, excessive consumerism. That’s why we’ve pulled together our favourite tips for organising memorable celebrations for the silly season ahead – all while keeping stress off the guest list and sustainability front and centre.

1. Begin with your budget

Planning out a rough budget from the outset will keep stress at bay and help guide every element of your celebrations. Includes all expenses – from gifts to decorations, food, drinks, and other entertainment – and rank them by what’s most important to you. At this point, you might decide a potluck or BYO celebration will work best for you or that you’re willing to forego decorations in favour of covering the cost of food and beverages. Sharing the load (in whichever way works best for you) helps from a financial perspective, is less stressful, and creates a sense of community among your friends and family, bringing you all together to make the celebration a success.

2. Set the scene with decorations

Nothing quite brings the festive season vibes like themed decorations. Most of us have a stash of Christmas-themed ornaments, twinkling lights, and candles, and reusing these year after year is a great way to maximise your sustainability. If you fancy injecting something fresh, look to nature and bring in elements like pinecones, cinnamon quills and forage in your garden to create a beautiful eco-friendly Christmas wreath.

New Year’s celebrations, on the other hand, are all about the glitz and sparkle, and while it can be tempting to pick up cheap themed décor, single-use tableware, balloons, confetti, and glow sticks aren’t Mother Earth’s besties. Instead, channel your decorating prowess towards LED lighting, paper lanterns, reusable high-quality decorations like fabric bunting and real plates and glassware. It’ll keep things classy and sustainable.

3. Pick a theme

Whether you opt for the traditional white, green, red, or gold Christmas, inject some fun by having your guests dress in Christmas colours too. You can take this a step further by adding a silly Christmas hat or sweltering sweater theme, which is guaranteed to generate a few laughs. As for New Year’s celebrations, it’s a perfect opportunity to go all out with a fancy-dress theme. Some fun ideas include TV and movie characters, icons through the ages, masquerades, alter egos, 90s rave, and, for something different, rhyme without reason. For this, you pair up and choose something that rhymes but is otherwise unrelated, like Mr Bean and Queen, Lobster and Mobster, Formula 1 and Top Gun or Rapper and Flapper. The opportunities are endless, ridiculous, and fun.

4. Finger food or feast?

Christmas is often all about indulging, and whether you go traditional Martha Stewart or laidback Aussie BBQ style, try to be a bit more considerate about minimising food waste. Keep it sustainable by choosing seasonal produce and buying from local suppliers where possible. On the other hand, New Year’s will likely be less feast and more finger food, which is super easy to allocate to your guests. Encourage them to bring a favourite canapé or appetiser and feel the stress of catering melt away!

5. Keep some tricks up your sleeve
While Christmas and New Year are generally exciting occasions, sometimes the day (or evening) can drag on, and talking and eating simply isn’t enough. Keeping some entertainment ideas up your sleeve that you can easily wheel out if boredom strikes is a great idea. For kids on Christmas day, this could be a candy cane hunt, pin the nose on Rudolph, and for all guests, no matter the occasion, classics like charades, Minute to Win It, quizzes and pétanque always go down a treat.

6. Pump up the volume
From carols to dance anthems, one of the best ways to set the tone for your celebrations is with music. For Christmas, curate a mix of classic carols, modern holiday favourites, and background music that won’t overpower your conversations. As for New Year’s, choose tunes you know will get you and your friends up and dancing and build up to the clock striking midnight. An easy way to get the tunes pumping (without feeling pressured to be a world-class DJ) is by using Spotify algorithmic playlists or specially curated Spotify and Apple Music playlists.

7. It’s not a celebration without cocktails (or mocktails)

Put the chardonnay and Carona aside for a minute, and spruce up your celebration with a themed cocktail or two. Cocktails (or mocktails) make the occasion a little more special, and it’s an easy way to get everyone to pitch in and bring ingredients for a cocktail of their choice. You can encourage Christmas-themed cocktails, tropical island-inspired tipples, or fruity favourites and even host a cocktail competition judged by a panel of discerning guests. There are plenty of amazing mocktail recipes, too, so every guest can get among the action.

8. Thoughtful gifting

Rein in the excessive consuming and, instead, give things a bit more thought this year when it comes to gifting. You can give experiences over physical gifts like concert tickets, weekend getaways or cooking classes, donate to a charity that aligns with your giftee, or get creative with things like homemade candles or baked treats. Sometimes, buying gifts is inevitable, so choose brands that prioritise sustainability, are made using recycled materials, are locally made or are fair trade certified. When wrapping your gifts, skip the single-use paper and opt for an eco-friendly alternative, or even better, purchase some beautiful reusable fabric gift bags.

9. Capture the moments

Although we all have smartphones, which we’ll no doubt use throughout the day or night, there is something special about having a physical picture that captures the memories of that moment tight in its frame. And there are some great ways you can do this. Firstly, in your decoration step, you could set up a photo wall with themed props and a Polaroid camera with boxes of film to capture the fun. Another great idea is to leave single-use cameras around the party for people to use throughout the celebrations and then develop these once the party is over. Finally, if you’re happy to invest a little more, you could hire a photo booth – which will give you both printed and digital copies of all the memories.

10. Light up the vibe

Lighting plays a massive part in creating ambience or a party atmosphere, so to round off your festive setting, make sure you’ve put some thought into this crucial aspect. For Christmas, you’ll want to create a warm, cosy, welcoming glow – which can be done with a mix of candles, dimmer switches and floor and table lamps. Contrastingly, step up the energy and create a party atmosphere for your New Year’s celebrations with coloured LEDs, a disco ball if you can get your hands on one and the ultimate in party vibes – disco lights!

Keep it fun, festive, sustainable, and safe
The key ingredient to any great party or celebration is having fun – that’s when the best memories are made, and it doesn’t mean compromising on sustainability. Remember to drink responsibly and make good choices so you can jump headfirst into 2025 more ready than ever.

First National Real Estate wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our team is always here to help you find your key to happiness – no matter the tree, sea, or other change, we have your back every step of the way!

DISCLAIMER
The following advice is of a general nature only and intended as a broad guide. The advice should not be regarded as legal, financial, or real estate advice. You should make your own inquiries and obtain independent professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances before making any legal, financial, or real estate decisions. Click here for full Terms of Use.