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Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s can bring more overnight guests than a home normally needs to accommodate. Spare bedrooms fill up, children may travel with parents, and offices, dens, or other flexible spaces may suddenly need to become comfortable places to sleep.
The best time to prepare is before the holiday rush begins. Start by deciding where everyone will sleep, then make sure any furniture, bedding, and other essentials you need are ready well before guests arrive.
This guide covers how to plan holiday sleeping arrangements, prepare dedicated and flexible guest spaces, get beds and bedding ready, make room for luggage, and handle the small details that make holiday visits easier for both guests and hosts.
If you need a new bed, daybed, trundle, Murphy bed chest, or other furniture before Thanksgiving or Christmas, order earlier than you think you need to.
Delivery is only part of the timeline. Furniture may need to be unpacked and assembled, and you will want enough time to make the bed, arrange the room, and make sure everything is ready before anyone arrives.
Unexpected issues can add time too. A carton may be delayed, packaging can be damaged in transit, or a part may need to be replaced. Those situations are much easier to handle when the holiday is still weeks away instead of a day or two away.
Try not to leave furniture assembly until the last minute. The days before Thanksgiving and Christmas are already busy with cooking, shopping, cleaning, travel, and family plans. Having the guest space assembled and checked ahead of time means one less thing to manage when the house starts filling up.
If you need additional furniture for holiday guests, browse AFI Furnishings early enough to allow time for delivery, assembly, and any unexpected issues before your guests arrive.
Before pulling out extra sheets or buying new towels, make a simple sleeping plan. Think about how many adults, couples, and children are staying overnight, how many nights they will be there, and which rooms can realistically be used for sleeping.
A dedicated guest bedroom makes planning easier, but holiday hosting often requires more flexibility. A home office, den, or multipurpose room may need to become a temporary bedroom, especially when several relatives are staying at once.
Visiting families may also be more comfortable when parents and children can sleep in the same room without sharing the same bed.
Make these decisions early. The week of Thanksgiving or Christmas is not the time to discover that you are one sleeping space short.
You do not need a dedicated guest bedroom to host overnight visitors. A home office, den, living space, or multipurpose room can become temporary sleeping space with the right setup.
A Murphy bed chest can be especially useful in a room that needs to serve another purpose for most of the year. The bed stays stored inside the chest until it is needed for guests, allowing the room to return to everyday use after the holidays. Most AFI Murphy bed chest models are available in sizes ranging from Twin through Queen, and some also include drawer storage.
A daybed offers another flexible option. It can function as a finished furniture piece during everyday use and become a dedicated sleeping space when Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s guests arrive.
Whichever arrangement you use, set it up before guests arrive. Open the Murphy bed chest, pull out the daybed bedding, check the mattress, and make sure you have the correct sheets. A quick test run can prevent a lot of late-night frustration after a long day of holiday travel.
Holiday guests often arrive as families, which can make sleeping arrangements more complicated.
A trundle bed can give a child a separate sleeping surface in the same room as their parents. Daybeds with trundles can work especially well in flex spaces where you want additional sleeping capacity without keeping multiple beds in the room all year.
If a trundle will be used during the visit, pull it out ahead of time and make sure there is enough room around it. Have the sheets and bedding ready too. Moving furniture and searching for the right fitted sheet after Thanksgiving dinner is something worth avoiding.
Guest bedding often spends months folded in a closet, linen cabinet, or storage drawer. Give yourself time to wash and check everything before the house fills up.
Make each bed with fresh sheets and season-appropriate bedding. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s visits often call for a warmer comforter, quilt, or blanket than you would use for summer guests.
Keep an extra blanket somewhere visible and easy to reach. People sleep at different temperatures, and a guest who gets cold during the night should not have to search through closets.
Check the pillows as well. If you have both softer and firmer options, leaving a choice can make the room more comfortable without adding much work.
Holiday hosting brings a challenge that summer guests usually do not have: colder rooms.
Guest bedrooms at the edge of the house, finished basements, bonus rooms, or spaces that are normally closed may run cooler than the rooms you use every day.
Make sure guests know how to adjust the thermostat or any room-specific heating controls. If there is a fan in the room, show them where the controls are too. Some people still prefer a cooler sleeping space even in December.
Extra blankets should be easy to find rather than tucked into a storage area your guests would not know to check.
Thanksgiving and Christmas visitors often arrive with more than an overnight bag. Winter coats, boots, gifts, children’s belongings, and larger suitcases can fill a room quickly.
You do not need to empty an entire closet or dresser, but give guests a few obvious places to put their things. Clear a few hangers, part of a shelf, or an empty drawer. Leave a bench, luggage rack, or open section of floor where a suitcase can sit without becoming a tripping hazard.
If your guest room has a storage bed, the under-bed drawers can give guests a convenient place to unpack clothing, extra shoes, or other personal items without taking over your closet or dresser. That can be especially useful during longer Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s visits when guests may be staying for several days.
Holiday guests tend to arrive with phones, watches, tablets, laptops, and children’s devices, often all needing to charge at the same time.
Check where the outlets are before everyone arrives. If the closest outlet is hidden behind furniture, provide an accessible power strip or charging station near the sleeping area.
Bedside lighting matters too. A lamp gives guests a comfortable way to settle in at night without relying on a bright overhead light or crossing an unfamiliar room in the dark.
A few useful essentials can make the room easier to use without turning it into a hotel.
A simple guest basket might include bottled water, a couple of snacks, tissues, towels, washcloths, and a few travel-size toiletries. An extra charging cable can also be helpful if you have one available.
This is particularly useful during Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings, when the host may already be cooking, entertaining, cleaning up, or spending time with family. Guests can find what they need without having to ask where everything is.
The bathroom can become one of the busiest parts of the house when overnight guests arrive.
Set out clean towels and washcloths and leave extras somewhere easy to find. Restock toilet paper, hand soap, and tissues, and clear a little counter or shelf space for guests’ toiletries.
If visitors will be walking through an unfamiliar hallway at night, a small night-light can make the route from the guest room to the bathroom easier.
Preparing for overnight guests should not stop at bedtime.
Holiday mornings can start early, especially when children are visiting. Let guests know where to find coffee, mugs, water, and simple breakfast items if they wake before everyone else.
On Thanksgiving weekend, that may simply mean leaving coffee supplies and breakfast basics easy to find. On Christmas morning, think about where everyone will gather and whether luggage or temporary sleeping arrangements will be in the way once the house wakes up.
Around New Year’s, guests may appreciate being able to make coffee or grab water the next morning without having to wake the host.
Giving people a little independence makes the morning easier for everyone.
Holiday hosting often means asking your home to do a little more than it normally does. A spare bedroom may need to accommodate an entire family, an office may become a temporary bedroom, and extra sleeping spaces may need to appear for only a few days each year.
The easiest holiday visits usually start with preparation. Decide where everyone will sleep, order anything you need early, assemble and test furniture before the last-minute rush, and take care of the practical details before Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s arrives.
Furniture such as Murphy bed chests, daybeds, trundles, and storage beds can help create more flexible sleeping arrangements, but comfort often comes down to much simpler things: fresh bedding, an extra blanket, somewhere to put a suitcase, an easy place to charge a phone, clean towels, and coffee in the morning.
If you are planning a guest space that will be used beyond the holiday season, read Guest Room Ideas: How to Create a Space That Feels Ready, Not Forgotten for more ideas on furnishing and preparing a dedicated or flexible guest room throughout the year.
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© 2026 AFI Furnishings. All rights reserved.
© 2026 AFI Furnishings. All rights reserved.
