For many of our hosts, travel and family obligations means they’re unable to host over the festive break. However for Alice, having lodgers means it’s the only time of the year she’s able to welcome a guest. Here she speaks about her unique hosting situation, and celebrating Christmas while volunteering.

There was a lot of publicity around British residents taking in Ukrainian refugees when the war started there. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to host someone long term, but I still thought I might be able to help out in some way.

I have 2 mid-week lodgers year-round so I can’t have long-term guests. However, those lodgers tend to be away for a few weeks over Christmas so it means for the past four years I have only been able to host in December. My lodgers usually cross over with the guest by a few days and are pleased to be able to contribute in some way themselves by sharing their space with them.

I volunteer with Crisis at Christmas so from 24-28th December I am out until 7pm so my guest gets some alone time. This means we’re not able to celebrate Christmas together, but at least two of the guests have come to the Crisis centre have celebrated with everyone there and made use of the services such as new clothing, hot meals, and a haircut.

For me the experience has been really positive. I grew up in a big family and we had bed and breakfast guests so I’m used to having strangers in my home. As a secondary school teacher I’ve welcomed students who are new arrivals to this country and talked about hosting with my students as I want them to know that this kind of thing takes place.

My first guest was Ethiopian ended up staying 3 months. I took him to an Ethiopian restaurant for his birthday and it was lovely to see the waiting staff look after him so warmly.  Perhaps the most emotional moment was when I was watching TV with a guest and there was an advert on TV for the RNLI. My guest said “they save people” and I agreed that they did. He then said “they saved me” and he told me about being rescued from a small boat crossing. We hear messages such as ‘stop the boats’ with no mention of the people involved. It was very humbling to hear about his first-hand experience of a horrific life-or-death situation, and his gratitude for how it turned out.

For anyone considering hosting, I’d say do it! In the unlikely event that something does go wrong you have the back-up of the organisation to support you. And if you don’t enjoy it, you don’t need to do it again. But at least that one experience will have helped a very vulnerable person feel loved and supported in our country, and that is something to be proud of.

More stories