While Christmas is a magical time, and for many their favourite day of the year, it can also be quite stressful, especially if you are hosting! If you are not only going to be cooking the Christmas dinner this year, but also playing host to guests, now is the time to start planning so that you can be well prepared for everyone arriving. Here, we are going to be taking you through our top tips for how you can prepare your home for Christmas if you are going to be having house guests.

Decorate the Spare Room

If you know in advance that you are going to be having family or friends coming over to stay this Christmas, the first thing that you will need to do is make sure that the spare room, if you have one, is fit for purpose. Clear away any clutter that you may have lying around, particularly if your spare room also acts as storage, an office or so on so forth. This is also the perfect time to make sure that the guest bedroom is ready for the winter season and you can find some great tips in the following article by Fishpools: https://www.fishpools.co.uk/blog/2018/09/transform-bedroom-winter/.

Their tips include updating your lighting to create an ambient feel, adding some cosy throws to the end of the bed, or updating the bed sheets to fit in with a more wintery and cosy theme. This will ensure that your guests have the best possible time while staying at yours over the Christmas period.

Create Some Storage

While your guests probably won’t be unpacking a lot of clothes in their winter wonderland room, but it is still nice for them to have a little bit of storage space and we are sure that this is something that they will appreciate. Investing in a folding suitcase rack is a great idea as it will allow your guests to have their case open to get out what they need without having it cluttering up the floor. What’s more, we would also suggest that you try and clear some hanging space for your guests. People will feel much more at home if there is some space for them to hang up a few key pieces, especially if they have brought a lovely Christmas outfit or glam new year attire.

You can find some useful tips on storage ideas for your guest room here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/houzz/2015/04/14/clever-storage-ideas-for-your-spare-room/.

Purchase A Clock

This is one that most people tend to forget about when they have guests staying over, but a good idea is to make sure that you have some sort of traditional clock in the room. As we are all glued to our technology, it’s easy to forget something like this but it is still a nice added touch. Your guests will feel much more comfortable with this in the room as they will know when they are sleeping in too late or if they are making a lot of noise early in the morning!

Provide the Essentials

A great way to make your guests feel right at home is to gift them with the essentials. We all have toiletries at the bottom of our cases from our last holiday that are from the hotel. You will most likely never actually use these, and so why not pop them into a little basket at the end of your guests’ bed for them to use during their stay.

Leave Out Towels

Alongside the toiletries, it is also a good idea to leave out some nice towels for your guests. People can feel uncomfortable having to try and find towels or having to ask, so why not simply leave out some towels on top of their bed and this is one less thing for everyone to worry about.

Look Out the Sofa Bed

Not everyone has a sofa bed, but they are quite handy for occasions such as this. If you do have one, you will want to give it a check over before your guests arrive to make sure that it is still in good working order and that the springs have not broken. During this time, we would also recommend that you make sure it is fitted with a clean sheet and that there will be enough space here for your guests. If you don’t have a sofa bed, another option that many people like is to get an air bed which you can inflate for your guests.

Switch Up Your Lighting

If you tend to rely on having just a main ceiling light, then we would suggest that you look into getting some smaller lamps for your home. No one wants to have to switch on a big main light to read a book in bed, plus having some lamps will make a huge difference to guests who need to make a bathroom trip late at night and maybe are not as familiar with the home layout.