Now that we’ve talked a lot about planning and decorating and lots of other ways to make entertaining a streamlined process, it could add some fun and productivity to the mix if you share parts of the process with your favorite people, don’t you think?

Take Halloween, for those procrastinators out there! Grab one or more of your kids, or a friend, and put your heads together. Rather than too many cooks, it’s often two heads are better than one. Especially when in-store, and your time is so precious, it’s great to collaborate on that last minute inspirational idea! Fortunately, there are so many GREAT ideas for Halloween on this blog, it’s all here for you to choose what will work best for you or how you’ll adapt an idea.

A child or friend (or husband!) can also come in handy to help with your necessary tasks for any entertaining event. Accept help!  Ask for help! Help is good! By accepting offers of help, you can still run the show, but without having to keep it all in your head! People love to help, they love to be “included” and that makes for good things like feeling less pressure, sharing ideas, sharing tasks and another great reason to enjoy the comraderie of loved ones and friends. I often plan holidays with my daughter. We go back and forth planning a menu, run through other entertaining ideas, and it’s a lot of fun. Then may come a shopping trip, and this short term entertaining project has evolved into a great, positive, bonding time between us. It’s like a whole mini-journey with a beginning, middle and satisfying end.

Any entertaining event is a great reason to accept help. For example, Thanksgiving. We cook way too much food. After all, there are so many wonderful foods that just seem “made for” this holiday. When I think of it…the hors d’oevres, side dishes, and of course desserts, I could never “do” Thanksgiving alone. The pre-shopping trips to make sure all the serving pieces, candles, linens, are “filled in” is also part of the journey toward. It’s nearly as festive as the big turkey day itself. It’s one of the very best opportunities to engage your friends and family early on.

Halloween is such a fun holiday, and a natural to get your kids involved from beginning to end, from the shopping trip, all the way through. Take advantage of the fun factor of Halloween - your kids will love being part of the entertaining process. It’s a good introduction to the rest of the entertaining season for kids.

And, we KNOW that when the party is over, whether it’s a kids’ Halloween party or other event, it’s REALLY nice to have the help to do the clean up. Another bonding experience with kids helping clean up? Well, that one may have to be finessed just a bit!