ATH: Holiday Guests

  • Kyle Valentini
  • November 18, 2010
  • 300
                        
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas and with Christmas comes overnight guests. It’s ok if you don’t have a lavish guest room to accommodate friends and family. Even a child’s bedroom can serve as a cozy place for your guests to relax after celebrations have died down and everyone is ready to settle in for the night. Whether you use a cot in the corner, a couch or a borrowed room from a reluctant child, you can make your guests feel welcome with a few simple ideas. Use an alarm clock/sound machine to drown out household noises like noisy dishwashers and creaky floors. Some come with sounds of babbling brooks or far off crickets. Your guests will sleep so soundly they’ll be up before the dawn to make you breakfast. Not everyone is ready for bed as early as you so offer short books on a bed side table to keep guests from getting bored while you catch your Z’s. War and Peace is great but unless your guests are moving in you might consider short collections of stories, poetry, travel essays or magazines. Your guests will have something to read and you won’t have to stay up to continue to entertain after the last glass is polished and put away. Make up guest beds with your best cotton sheets and new pillows. Set up a luggage stand or make room in a closet so guests feel like they belong and are not getting in the way. Leave extra blankets out in the open where they are easy to find if needed. There is much to be said about fluffy towels and wash cloths. Guests will feel pampered. You can use the old beach towels and the ones that double as car washing towels while your guests use the finer ones. Roll several and leave them in a basket or bin. Remember to leave out face and hand towels too. Set up a nightstand with a pitcher of water or juice with glasses. Guests don’t want to stumble around in the dark in unfamiliar territory looking for a midnight drink. We all know Uncle Bert doesn’t look so good in his boxer shorts with the glow of the open refrigerator door so keep in his room with everything he might need. Organize toiletries in decorative glass containers or baskets. Cotton balls and swabs, extra soap and small bottles of shampoo will look great and your guests won’t have to hunt under the sink amongst the cleaning supplies to find what they need. Placing flowers on a nightstand will show your guests your desire to make them feel warm and comfortable while they visit. Scented candles are always a nice touch. Not everyone likes them, however so rather than light them in a guest area, leave a lighter or matches so guests can light them if they choose. Having guests can be stressful, especially if it disrupts the natural flow of your household routine. Making plans ahead of time can make guests’ stay more enjoyable and less tense for you. No guest wants to be any trouble so keep that in mind and know that it is only temporary. Making your guests feel at home will allow everyone to get along better. Uncle Bert is not visiting to keep you up all night with his snoring. He wants to see the kids in the Christmas play, hand out presents he wrapped himself and visit the family he only gets to see but once a year. Aunt Mabel? Well she’s another story.


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