How To Handle the Delirious Christmas Houseguest and It's Not Santa

How To Handle the Delirious Christmas Houseguest and It’s Not Santa

My question is about having a Christmas houseguest and I don’t mean Santa.

I just got a text from a friend, whom we socialize with over the summer, asking if she and her husband could stay in our guesthouse for the week of Christmas.

Her text began: BIG ASK. I’ll say. that’s a big ask!

They stayed in our guesthouse for a week last May for their daughter’s wedding and we went all out, without feeling much appreciation in return. Inexplicably, I immediately texted SURE.

But now we’re having a change of heart.

We really don’t enjoy their company very much and, as I said, we don’t feel appreciated.

How do we get out of this?

–RK, Newport, RI

As soon as you read this, text your would-be-Christmas-houseguest to say, “I answered your BIG ASK text too quickly. We cannot possibly have you staying with us for a week over Christmas. We have other plans.”

Leave it at that.
No lies (the Plans could be that you hadn’t really planned on having them to visit).
If she asks why not? Say, “It is not a good time for us to have houseguests.”
Should she persist. say, “Xmas week is not a good time to visit.”

~Didi

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