If you love having house guests at Christmas, what's the acceptable length of stay?

[Lochroy]

I'm currently feeling pressured for having set a two night limit. Previously guests (all close family) chose to stay for four nights from Christmas Eve. I didn't mind initially but it is a squeeze and makes things hard. DH and I end up with a rack of washing at the end of our bed and another in the shower when the spare room is occupied, for example. The living room has someone on a sofa bed which is open plan to the stairs and on the way to the kitchen so we feel restricted in mornings and evenings. It's just become too much but my attempts to find a new balance haven't gone down well.

If you love hosting and everyone has a happy, merry Christmas, how many nights are your guests staying?

Two is loads - don’t feel bad

Two is loads especially in the set up you describe !

Two is plenty. It is completely up to you how long you host for.

2 nights, 3 days is my limit but I don't enjoy hosting. I hate having certain relatives in my house. I don't mind pushing back on pressure/people inviting themselves to stay.

Two nights is plenty. If I visit my dm or inlaws it's usually for one night, two at the most, same when they visit us. By then everyone needs their own space again. Do the people putting pressure on you ever host or are they totally clueless of all the work involved?

Two is plenty!

We have said no staying over this year. It's too much and I feel like I'm endlessly hosting and never get a break. My DH is the one who has put his foot down.

No-one lives further than 30 mins away anyway.

One year my mum, brother, sil and sister stayed for 6 days. I did not feel like I'd had any kind of break and we spent an absolute fortune.

The kids love it but I want my house back 😂

2 nights.

I absolutely hate hosting and find it so stressful. Unless it's random siblings turning up to crash on the sofa for a night,I don't do it.

I can only cope with having people two nights. Any longer they should stay in a hotel.

Two nights is plenty in the set up you describe & I'm surprised someone wants to stay longer. Do they help with food & tidying up?

Also you need a rest from work - if you're entertaining 4 days when do you get a break?

My mum lives abroad and rocks up for 7-10 days “to make the journey worthwhile” 😂. Tbf she does help with everything, doesn’t expect to be waited on and we just get on with life around her. However, normally around half way through the stay, I’m counting down the days. Luckily my dh is used to the visits now and doesn’t look at it as we have guests staying as such. 2 days is nothing Op, but it all depends on the guests and whether they expect to be treated as such.

It's not up to the guest to decide how many nights they're staying! It's not a hotel.

I have my MIL for 7 nights this Christmas and it is going to kill me. I will be having to do plenty of food shopping that week just to get out of the house.

3 days is the maximum to me.

2 is ample. Personally we have limited ourselves to 1 night max staying at inlaws as we noticed 2 was too stressful for MIL and we’d rather get home instead.

YANBU - 2 nights max. It's the old adage - after three days all guests stink like fish. It's true! Even people I love I'm glad to see the back of on the third day.

Edited to say: why anyone would CHOOSE to spend four nights on a sofa bed in the living room is beyond me. I'd be dying to go home if that was where I had to sleep!

Some of the over nighters come from two hours away which is regarded as too much for making it a day trip. They probably would host just us, but we also have others who come to us just for the day from an hour in the other direction, so it wouldn't work.

Interesting to see that two nights isn't stingy!

Two nights max unless it’s someone who doesn’t require entertainment and can take themselves off sightseeing or who offers to cook. The Christmas holidays are your holiday too - I have family who’d happily stay for a week but I’ve had to be strict because I need some downtime before going back to work.

I hate having guests so am the wrong person to ask, but I guess 2-3 nights. Depends on journey lenghth.

I can see having 2 clear non driving days is nice (christmas and boxing day) which means 3 nights.

It's is a shorter trip and just about drink driving safety, 1 or 2 nights is fine.

Two nights and leave after lunch on Boxing Day, unless relying on trains, in which case leaving on 27th is acceptable.

4 nights but they have their own rooms which makes a difference. If someone was on the couch I couldn’t do that long.

More than two nights only works if you have a separate guest room with bathroom and you don’t rely on the guest area for your normal life (you mention hanging washing).

It's interesting, I hadn't expected this to prove so thought provoking...

• who would choose a sofa bed for four nights - they genuinely seem unbothered, and get the benefit of a change to scenery, meals prepped and enjoying time with our DC
• would they cook? Yes, but it takes hours, uses every plate and dish and leaves an almighty mess so we don't do that anymore. I just find it easier to do it myself
• it's my holiday too. Yes, I hadn't thought of this, nor articulated it, but actually I've been taking extra leave from work before and after to then get time off which is a waste of my leave

I think two nights is generous. I don’t host any more because I find that’s is too much work and I don’t feel like I had a Christmas break. I think that your guests should arrive just before lunch on Christmas Day leave after breakfast on Boxing Day.

We don't have a utility room, so the spare room is also where we WFH and we put drying racks up on the bed. On any other weekend if we're having guests, we just don't do washing because we can catch up during the week, and it's easy enough to shift our work stuff.

At Christmas, we can't not do washing for five days, and with the chaos of presents to wrap and stash, access to the spare room on Christmas Eve would be game changing.

We have seven family members who stay from 23rd to 27th. It's a lot of work but I love it because we rarely see them. We have so much fun together!!