The death of a loved one is a sad time. These times are filled with mourning and often come with a recognition of challenging times ahead. While a funeral service gives opportunities to mourn over the death of a loved one, a celebration of life service celebrates the lives of loved ones who have left us.

Celebrating the life of a loved one who has passed away can help during these tragic times. It helps to take the focus off of who was lost and instead think about the privileged opportunity of the time spent together. Therefore, it could be good to know how to prepare your home for a celebration service and celebrate the life of your lost loved one.

What you can do at home for a celebration of life

When incorporating the celebration of life in a memorial service, it is possible to include this aspect within a portion of the service or have it as the whole the service. For instance, some services have done away with the mourning and turned to celebrating.

These services often center around the character, fond memories, and impact the person made on people and society. While the death of a loved one can be hard, celebrating someone’s life can help to heal the pain.

But how could such a memorial service be conducted?

When choosing to celebrate someone’s life, the options abound concerning how to conduct the memorial service. What will be presented are merely options for you to choose from.

• Choosing certain foods could be a good idea. It may make more sense to choose foods that bring back fond memories of a loved one. Perhaps the deceased loved grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. Pulling out the grill and cooking some hot dogs and hamburgers may be a way to celebrate.

• If the service is smaller and without many people present, perhaps there is a special memory that consisted of a meal with the deceased that could be recreated. It may have occurred in the house with certain people sitting in specific seats. You could possibly try to recreate this scene or build off what was previously said to form your own version.

• If the deceased enjoyed playing games, you may want to consider pulling out a favorite game of the recently departed. Perhaps the deceased was a Monopoly or Uno lover. Maybe the departed enjoyed the great outdoors and spent time playing cornhole or horseshoes. Either way, celebrating the life of a loved one could involve any of these ideas or others.

• Another great way to spend time celebrating the death of a loved one is through sharing memories. Such a time could consist of different types of memories. For instance, you may want to consider having people take turns sharing their funny memories. Then people could take turns sharing their favorite memories. Finally, people could share their earliest memories. While these are only suggestions, it may help to get you thinking about all the possible ways to incorporate sharing memories into your celebration of life service.

How to prepare your home for a funeral service

• To prepare your home for a funeral service, there are some basic things to consider. First you may want to make sure the home is nice and clean. A clean atmosphere will help both you and the guests during such a challenging time.

• Next, you may want to think of the décor. In doing so, it could be a good idea to think of certain things the deceased enjoyed. Favorite colors, activities, and the like could all be aspects of the décor. Not only that, perhaps you might want to consider hanging some pictures of exciting and memorable events spent with the deceased.

• Preparing your home for a funeral service could consist of purchasing new furniture. With the many guests that will be present, updating the worn and tattered assortment of couches may not be a bad idea. Such a setting could possibly lead to greater comfort and enjoyment during these times.

• One area that often gets overlooked in preparing for guests is the windows. Ensure the windows are nice and clean. If you are out of window cleaner, simply use some dish soap, water, and a rag. This will often get windows the cleanest you have seen them in a while.

• Perhaps adding some color to your home could be a good idea for such an event. Buying some flowers to place around the inside of your home can help to lift spirits. Or maybe you would want to consider planting some flowers around the house. Either way, the choice is yours.

Written by Taylor McKnight, Author for Sumner Voiles Funeral Chapel