The festive season approaches, and that means frosted sugar cookies, caroling, turkey, and for many of us a home full of relatives and house guests. Something that can be a huge source of excitement and fun, but can also get a little overwhelming at times, especially for empty nesters that are used to having their homes and their time to themselves. In fact, while it can be joyous to have the kids home and the grandkids running around during the festive season if you don’t approach it in the right way it can go bad, quickly. Luckily, I have put together a comprehensive guide on how to survive and thrive over the family filled festive period. Keep reading to find out more.
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Finish DIY/ cleaning/ festive decoration before they arrive
Is the mad rush to the finish line as guests arrive a common occurrence in your household? Well, it might be this that is putting your enjoyment in jeopardy. Of course, you’ll want your home to look its best, be clean, and be beautifully decorated if you have people staying over, but there is a difference in making things pleasant and comfortable for your guests, and being a perfectionist.
In fact, by setting the standards so high that things need to be immaculate for when your guest arrive you are heaping stress upon your own head. Something that will drain your energy and your capacity to relax and enjoy yourself during their stay. With that in mind, it’s an excellent idea to be more flexible with the expectations you set for yourself. Also, remember to start any DIY, deep cleaning, and even festive decorating nice and early, so you have at least some time before you guest descends to relax and center yourself.
Open a clear line of communication
Next, if you are going to survive a holiday season full of Family, it’s crucial to open a clear line of communication with everyone involved. Then no one can claim they have been left out, or not consulted, and you can make your expectations clear in a fair manner.
In fact, doing so will also save you a lot of time and stress as you won’t need to go back and forth on a single issue to multiple people, and you can make it very clear what is happening and what time everyone is expected.
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Group messages can make organizing family visits much easier.
One way of doing this is to set up a group chat over a messenger app, as this will allow instant connection to all the people that are involved. In fact, this also has other advantages in that it can help connect people that haven’t spoken in a while, break the ice before the event, and encourage to get everyone excited and positive about the festive season.
Provide a private space
House guests can be tricky, especially if they are staying for more than just a few days. That is why it’s essential to provide them with some private space. Then your guest will be able to retreat when they are tired, or things are becoming too much from them, and this can often help avoid arguments or offending people unintentionally. It can also improve the time that you do all spend together as a family or group because your guests don’t feel forced to spend every minute of the day in your company.
The best way to provide a house guest with the private space is to assign them their own room for the duration, rather than setting a bed for them on the floor or the couch. This is because the latter means they will always be in the thoroughfare of family life and so won’t be able to get any alone time, even if they want it.
Meals
Food is always a big deal when you have houses guests, and the festive season only serves to amplify this as everyone expectations are even higher. Of course, your kids and the grandkids will have been looking forward to your legendary apple pie, and homemade stuffing for the turkey, but you need to watch out for a few issues that food can create.
The first is dietary requirements, something that can change pretty quickly, and can really screw up the whole stay if you don’t know about them beforehand. With that in mind, it’s crucial to check well before their arrival date whether anyone is gluten intolerant, low carb, dairy free or has any other food allergy that means they can eat what you usually serve.
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If you ask the question and find this is the case, then it’s always worth following up with a request for what that person would like instead and the recipe to go with it. This will then save you lots of time and effort when you are already busy enough prepping for their visit.
The second issue is one of exhaustion, which can happen pretty quickly if you are cooking for a large group of people every day for an extended period. There are two solutions for this that you can use either separately or together. The first is asking people to bring dishes for the bigger meal like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and then you only need to make and pay for the items that you are providing.
Alternatively, running a rota on the cooking when you have house guests can work really well. After all, it gives you a break for at least some of the time and also allows your guest to feel as if they are doing their bit and contributing to the holiday season as well.
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Assign responsibilities and roles
In fact, following on from the advice from above, to make your festive houseguests’ stay more manageable for you, it can be useful to assign even more roles and responsibilities to those that are staying.
These can include looking after the kids, light cleaning duties, and making up the beds each day. Thus freeing up your time and energy to enjoy their visit all the more.
Head off problems before they become an issue
Also, don’t forget that many problems can be eliminated just by being smart ahead of time. What that means is that you need to predict anything that could become an issue and decide how you are going to either avoid it or cope with it before it happens.
This can apply to situations such as family members bring their pets along with them for their stay, something that it’s best to ask them not to do. It’s also smart to only extend your invitation for a few days, especially if you know that some families member start getting on each other nerves after a while.
Lastly, don’t forget about the everyday practicalities that will need adjusting too, such as setting a schedule for using the bathroom and shower in the morning so everyone can get ready without causing arguments.
Organize entertainment
Next, when it comes to festive house guests remember that the key to surviving is to provide entertainment that everyone will enjoy regularly. This is because people are much more likely to argue or become bored if they don’t have activities to engage in.
Happily, there are plenty of activities that you can use during a family stay. The first, and perhaps the most crucial is to ensure that you had a cable TV package with premium channels, as this will allow all family members that are visiting to watch their favorite shows without having to miss out. That means the guys get to watch the football and the basketball on Christmas day, and the kids can still get their snowy cartoon fox on Christmas morning, and everyone will be happy!
Of course, managing specific family-wide activities can break up the time nicely as well, so why not run a cookie decorating competition for everyone? You can even pair up the adults and the kids if the little ones need a bit of extra help.
Scheduling in a few dinners out and trips to the movies is a great idea a well, and if you are lucky enough to be in a place that gets snow over the festive period, sledging and snowman building competitions are essential.
Oh and don’t forget that if everyone is looking bored in a lull after one of those deliciously large Christmas meals, running a game of family minute to win it will get all generations involved, active, and most importantly having fun.
Downtime
Lastly, if you are to survive a house full of family and guest over the Christmas break it crucial to schedule in some downtime after they have gone. This applies whether you need to go back to work or not because you will need to rest and recuperate after looking after everyone so much.
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In fact, it’s also an excellent psychological tool to help you go through the holidays as well, because at least you know that you will have some relaxing time for yourself eventually. Something that can really help you not just survive but thrive during a family filled festive break.