Ben and Erin Napier Share Favorite Holiday Hosting Tips
By Movieguide® Contributor
Christmas is a favorite holiday around the Napier house, so HGTV asked Erin and Ben for a few quick holiday hosting tips.
HGTV said, “The first words out of Ben’s mouth after we asked the Napiers to name their best holiday tips: ‘Potluck.’ The Napiers don’t do fancy sit-down dinners for the holidays.”
“It’s always buffet style…everybody gets a plate,” Erin said.
The HOME TOWN stars do have suggestions for those who want to make it a little fancier: make place settings.
Hosts can “‘Marker guests’ names onto dried fall leaves. Or print off photos and have a picture of each of your guests where they’re supposed to sit,’ says Ben, touting ‘Ben-trist’ (i.e., Pinterest) as the source of his creativity,” HGTV reported.
To make a house smell incredible for the holidays, Erin’s go-to isn’t a candle. Instead, she suggests going with a pomander for a “signature scent.”
“You take a navel orange, prick it with a fork and put whole cloves into [the fork holes] and you make a display with them,” Erin said. “They look like very fancy ornaments, but they smell amazing.”
Holiday traditions are also important for the Napiers. They always have an advent calendar countdown to make it fun for their family and guests.
“During the holiday season, it’s a ritual for our family to [gather around the advent calendar] and count down to Christmas Day,” Erin said.
Last December, Erin showed her Instagram followers their calendar—a cloth tree with an ornament to hang on it for each day that passes until Christmas.
Another tip: “Keep a Christmas movie playing (at all times). Just have one on in the background,” Ben said. “It’s ambient noise.”
Everything else aside, Erin says, “The most important thing is to get together. Make it your own.”
Movieguide® reported some of the Napiers’ Christmas decorating tips last year. One of them is:
“Keep a garland of dried bay leaves on the mantle year round,” Erin explained, adding that you can do this with other types of greenery as well. Ben added that his mother cuts greenery from her own garden for holiday decoration.
The couple previously shared with Guideposts why Christmas is a special time for them.
Erin said, “Some people consider my husband, Ben, and me a Christmas couple. I like that. Not just because it’s my favorite holiday and Ben is into Christmas year-round. But because our love story is so connected to Christmas—it’s a part of who we are as a couple. The presents, the ornaments, the food, the songs, the scents, the lights and all that our family does to celebrate Jesus’ birth. The magic and joy of the season are a feast for all the senses God has given us.”
When Erin and Ben were in college, Erin worked as a design director for the yearbook. The yearbook did a feature on Ben, and they met when he came in to do an interview for the article. Three days later, they were on their first date to look at Christmas lights. After three more days, they knew they had each found their soulmate.
“I know it sounds crazy, but that’s why we call that week in December ‘love week,’” Erin said.
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