Party Deck in Freezing Temperatures

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is in only two days!  We are going to be with my family for a few days this week, which I'm so excited about.  During all of those years in Europe we came home a lot to visit, but this is the first major holiday we have celebrated together with my whole family in years.

 It just hit me, though, that if Thanksgiving is here already, that also means that December is right around the corner!  In just a couple of weeks we'll be hosting a Christmas party at our house, so the minute the Turkey is eaten and we all say goodbye, it's time for me to get in gear and prepare for this Christmas crowd.

I'm expecting this year's party to be pretty big, and while our house can handle a decent number of people, I kept thinking how much better it would be if we could spill out onto the deck like we could in the warmer months.  Which, of course, led to some serious online research into how to make that possible.  It occurred to me: why not use a tent on the deck and incorporate the space into the house for the party?  

After digging around and comparing prices to rent a tent for the night, I quickly realized that buying one is much more economical, especially since we'll be able to use it in the future, either on the deck or in the yard.  (Yes, my husband thinks I'm a little crazy at this point.)  There are some crazy cheap options out there if you are flexible on size, but I wanted the dimensions of the tent to fill the area of the deck as closely as possible to maximize the space, so I ended up paying a little more.  Still, this beast, which covers 13' x 26' only cost me $349, new with free shipping from eBay.

Since the weather here will most definitely be freezing the night of the party, I immediately thought of using space heaters like at wedding receptions under tents (again, I know I sound insane:)).  Unless you keep the sides open for the air to circulate, you can't use propane heaters, but electric ones will do the job in an enclosed tent like ours will be.  A local place here will rent them for $60 a night per heater, but I found these on eBay new for $77 each including shipping, and an extra $17 per heater to own them and use them again seemed totally worth it.

Everything arrived last week, so now all we have to do is assemble it all (yikes)!  I'm so excited about adding a whole "room" to the house for this party, and I'll be sure to post an update on how everything turned out.

xo 

Liza