Hosting for the Holidays: 9 Ways to Make Your Home Merry and Bright

When you’re hosting for the holidays, you may envision a happy extended family full of cheerful conversation, bonding over board games, and sharing deliciously satisfying meals. Making this vision a reality, however, requires a lot of hard work. Don’t get overwhelmed, though. You don’t have to be an expert at holiday organizing or hosting for the holidays to pull off a great season. Simply consider the following advice, and your guests may end up feeling like they had the best Christmas ever.

Hosting for the Holidays — Key Takeaways

• Start With a Plan
• Make Welcome Baskets for Your Guests
• Create Comfy, Well-Equipped Guest Bedrooms and Bathrooms
• Get Organized for Holiday Guests and Festivities
• Play Tour Guide In Your City
• Host Game Night at Home
• Invite Guests into the Kitchen (to Help!)
• Rent a PODS Container for Temporary Storage To Make Room
• Build in Time for Self-Care!

9 Tips for Hosting for the Holidays

1. Start With a Plan

The first step to learning how to host a guest: Make a list and check it twice. First, figure out how many people you’re expecting and — this is key — their arrival dates, plus how long they’re staying. From here, the rest of your holiday organizing and hosting responsibilities will unfold with minimal chaos.

Begin with these holiday organizing basics, plus a target date for getting each one done:

• Grocery shopping and meal prep
• House cleaning and organizing
• Getting the bedrooms ready
• Planning activities

2. Make Welcome Baskets For Your Guests

Welcome baskets are a thoughtful touch to make your visitors feel at home. And the baskets don’t have to be super fancy or elaborate. The goal is to be practical but with a personal flair to let them know you’re thinking of them amid all the hubbub.

Some ideas for a welcome basket:

• Water bottles and light snacks
• Magazine or brochure about your area (if they’re from out of town)
• List of house info like wifi passwords, alarm code, whereabouts of extra phone chargers, clean towels, etc.
• Travel-size shampoo and other toiletries
• Kids’ activity book

3. Create Comfy Guest Bedrooms and Baths for Your Guests

Comfort is the key to happy visitors. Again, elaborate isn’t necessary — just clean, cozy, and easy to live in for a short while. If you’re feeling extra merry and bright, a bouquet of Christmas-style blooms is an excellent touch.

Essentials for bed and bath:

• Fresh sheets
• Extra pillows, blankets, and towels
• Fresh soap
• Extra TP
• Air mattress (if needed)
• Nightlights for after-dark navigation

4. Get Organized for Holiday Guests and Festivities

The idea of home organization starts at eye level and goes as far as you want it to go in terms of buying lots of label makers and endless “how-to” books. But for hosting for the holidays, even the simplest reorg and decluttering can make it seem like you’ve hired a professional organizer.

Besides making way for your guests, it’s a great feeling to purge your home of stuff you aren’t actively using. An organized, uncluttered space makes everybody feel calmer, which is important in this season of nonstop flurry and festivity. As for what to do with all the extra stuff, donate to your favorite charity, schedule a driveway delivery of a PODS portable storage container, or find a place that specializes in junk removal to take it away.

5. Play Tour Guide in Your City

As much as you love your guests, getting everybody out of the house for a little bit can be a welcome change of pace. After all, you can only watch “Christmas Vacation” six or seven times without getting antsy.

Some ideas for touristing:

• Holiday light displays in nearby neighborhoods.
• Museums or galleries you love.
• Parks or trails (weather permitting!).
• Cafes or bakeries for holiday treats.

6. Host Game Night at Home

What better way to get everyone together (sans smartphones, of course) and have some festive fun? Game night takes fairly minimal prep — just some light snacks, beverages, and comfy pillows if seating spills over to the floor. Trivia and charades are great options for groups since you don’t need to squeeze everyone around a table.

Favorite game: Christmas Carol Bingo! All you need are pencils, somebody willing to play emcee DJ, and pre-printed bingo cards with a holiday song title in each square. It’s just like regular bingo, except your DJ plays a song snippet instead of shouting out traditional bingo’s letter-number combos. Have some fun prizes ready for your winners, too — maybe a box of candy canes, a pretty ornament, or a fun gadget (check out our white elephant gift ideas for inspiration).

7. Invite Guests Into the Kitchen (to Help!)

Everyone gathers in the kitchen at parties, right? Put them to work! After all, cookie-baking is way more fun with family and friends. The same goes for meal-prepping, table-setting, and the all-important kitchen-cleaning. The helping hands will give you a little bit of a break and also provide another opportunity for spending time together and building holiday traditions.

How guests can help:

• Chop veggies and fruit.
• Pour water and open wine (if applicable!).
• Set the table.
• Clear the table.
• Load the dishwasher.

8. Rent a PODS Container for Temporary Storage To Make Room for Holiday Guests

If you’ve got a lot of stuff, adapting your home to overnight guests may be tricky — even for the most skilled organizing pro. A solution: Put your extra things in a PODS portable storage container for a bit. The container can be delivered right to your driveway or kept at a secure PODS Storage Center, giving you the space and flexibility to be the host(ess) with the most(ess).

9. Build in Time for Self-Care

Take time for yourself during this mad race. Grab a cup of hot cocoa, take an hour for a calming mani-pedi, or sing carols at the top of your lungs in the car on a solo run to pick up the inevitable last-minute Christmas gifts you forgot. And just let the dishes sit overnight if that means extra time to enjoy your guests. You may have a few confusing days ahead as you try to find the car keys or the cat (who may never emerge from the basement again). But if anything makes you feel good about hosting for the holidays, it should be that you have 11 months to recover and plan the next one.

Hosting for the Holidays: FAQs

How Do I Host My Family for Christmas?

It starts with a plan — a list of things to do and specific dates to do them. First, figure out how many people are descending on your home, when, and for how long. Then decide where everyone will sleep and whether you need extra seating ideas for mealtime. Prepare for grocery shopping well in advance (which requires its own list, of course). Bottom line: The more you plan and prepare in advance, the more time you’ll have to enjoy hosting for the holidays and spending time with your family.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — but only when your home is uncluttered in time for hosting for the holidays.

How Do I Get Organized for the Holidays?

Lists will change your life. Make a plan of all the things you need to do to prepare for hosting for the holidays. We promise that as you check things off the list, you’ll feel more organized by the minute.

A smart place to start? Decluttering. Go into the main rooms of your house where people tend to gather — likely the kitchen and the TV room — and remove anything that isn’t immediately necessary. That means picking up the kids’ and pets’ toys, putting shoes back in their proper places, and clearing away those old magazines from the coffee table. Do the same for your guest rooms. You’ll be surprised how a quick reorg can make the house feel fresher and ready for the season.

How Do I Make a Comfortable Guest Room?

This can be as simple as a freshly made bed with clean linens and an air mattress or two for the kids. It’s also good to make sure there’s a place where people can put their clothing, like extra space in a closet or even a chair in the corner. Add a nightlight, a couple of extra blankets and towels, and a fresh bouquet of flowers, and you have the makings of a perfect place for your guests.

Cooking together with family you don’t see often is one of the joys of hosting for the holidays.

How Do I Handle Holiday Meal Prep and Cleanup?

You may feel tempted to order everything in while your guests are in town just to avoid the hassle. But home-cooked meals are one of the great pleasures of hosting — and one of the joys of holidays overall. To minimize stress, stick with food that you know and follow recipes to the letter: This is a time to feel confident in your cooking, not to experiment and test out new dishes.

Enlist all of the hands there to help with prep and cleanup. Have someone (an adult, preferably) chop veggies. Ask a teen to set the table. And post-meal, assign someone to clear the table and load the dishwasher before everybody disappears to watch football or “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Most people enjoy when someone else makes the meal or takes care of the desserts, and they’re happy to help with the cleanup.

Is There a Secret To Being a Good Holiday Host?

Wondering how to be a good holiday host? Well, that’s a little complicated. The hosts who make sure everyone is comfortable and has a good time are the ones who bring festive holiday party ideas to life, bringing people together and making sure everyone’s glass is filled at all times. It’s a big job, and you will likely feel exhausted when the holidays are over and your guests head home. But one look around at those smiling faces will make all the hard work worthwhile.

Make Room for Holiday Hosting With PODS

Let’s be honest: As much as you love your family and friends, the influx of holiday visitors might make your home feel a little claustrophobic. No worries, though. With a PODS portable storage container, you can stash all the stuff you normally pile up in the extra bedroom (doesn’t everybody?) until your guests are gone. And your decluttering bounty (see tip No. 4 above) is a good candidate for the PODS container, too: You can keep all the overflow goods safe and secure through the season, and when the hullabaloo is over, use the container as a staging platform for sorting and organizing items.

When you’re all set, PODS will come and get the empty container. And if you decide you like the extra space in your home — after all, Easter and spring yard-sale season will be here before you know it — keep the loaded container for as long as you like at a nearby PODS storage facility.

Visit PODS online for a free storage quote or call 877-350-7637.

Karen Dybis is a freelance journalist and a frequent contributor to the PODS blog. Her work has appeared in Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report, The Detroit News, and more.

_{*This article was written on behalf of PODS Enterprises, LLC (“PODS”). PODS does not warrant the completeness or accuracy of any information contained in this article and disclaims any liability for reliance upon the content herein.}