If you need a sitter over Christmas or New Year, post your sit this week. Holiday dates are the most contested of the year, and the owners who find good sitters tend to be the ones who posted early, offered some flexibility on dates, and were clear about what New Year's Eve will involve. The other half of the job is the fireworks: book a vet appointment now if your pet struggles with them, and agree a plan for the night with your sitter before you leave.
Why holiday sits fill early
Most experienced sitters plan their winter months well in advance. Christmas and New Year are when many owners travel to family or chase some sun, so demand for sitters peaks at the same moment many sitters want to be with their own families. A good sitter with strong reviews may have several holiday sits to choose from, and they often commit by autumn.
That doesn't mean November is too late. It means you need a listing that gives a sitter a reason to pick yours. Many sitters find that holiday sits posted in November and early December still fill, especially when the dates are flexible and the owner answers messages quickly.
Writing a holiday listing that sitters want to apply for
Start with our guide to writing a listing for the basics. For a Christmas or New Year sit, a few things matter more than usual.
Sell the season where you live. A sitter spending the holidays away from home wants to know what it will feel like. Mention the Christmas market a short walk away, the village carol service, the coastal path that's quiet on Boxing Day, or the wood burner and the stack of logs in the shed. A photo of the house with the lights on, or a short video of the dog in the snow, does more than a paragraph.
Be flexible on dates if you can. Many sitters are juggling their own family plans. If you can say "we leave on 22 or 23 December, back 2 January", you widen the pool. Even one day of give either side can be the difference between three applicants and ten.
Offer an overlap day. Arriving the evening before you leave, or spending a morning together, lets the sitter learn the routine while you're still there and lets your pets meet them with you in the room. A common approach is to offer the sitter the spare room for that first night. For an anxious dog, this matters even more. Our post on managing pet separation anxiety when you travel explains why an early introduction helps.
Be honest about New Year's Eve. If your dog shakes under the table from the first rocket, say so in the listing. Sitters who apply knowing that will plan to stay in. Sitters who find out on arrival may have already bought tickets for something.
On Global Pet Sitter you can add photos and a short video to your listing, and every sitter has to verify their ID before they can apply. There are no booking or service fees, and membership is free for the first year for our first 3,000 founding members.
What to agree before you go
Holiday sits come with questions that don't arise in March. Settle them in chat before you confirm.
Guests. Can the sitter have a partner or a friend over on Christmas Day? Some owners are happy with that, others aren't. Neither answer is wrong, but it needs saying.
Decorations. If you're leaving a tree up, tell the sitter where the fragile things are and what the pets have tried to eat before. The RSPCA lists the usual Christmas hazards: chocolate (dark is the most toxic), raisins, sultanas and grapes found in mince pies and Christmas pudding, all parts of lilies, and tinsel, which can cause internal blockages. Ask your sitter not to add lilies or chocolate decorations, and say whether they're welcome to put up their own decorations at all.
The sitter's own plans. A sitter may want to call family at length, go to a midnight service on Christmas Eve, or see friends on New Year's Day. That's reasonable. What matters is that you agree how long the pets can be left on each day, and that midnight on New Year's Eve is not one of those times if your pets are scared of fireworks.
The house. Mention anything seasonal: bin collections that move over the holidays, parcels arriving, the heating schedule, and whether a neighbour will drop round with a card.
A fireworks plan for New Year's Eve
Animal welfare charities give consistent advice. Here's what to set up and what to hand over to your sitter.
Talk to your vet now. If your dog or cat was frightened on Bonfire Night, treat that as your warning for New Year's Eve. The PDSA advises speaking to your vet well before fireworks season so there's time to find the right medication. Dogs Trust notes that many anti-anxiety medicines need to be given before the fireworks start, so timing matters. If your vet prescribes something, write the dose and the exact time into your instructions for the sitter, and ideally do a trial run while you're still at home.
Set up a safe den. Choose a spot your pet already hides in when worried, and make it cosy with their bed and a blanket over the top. The RSPCA suggests a den for dogs that they can always get to, and high spots, boxes or space under a bed for cats. The PDSA adds that cats often feel safest up high and shouldn't be shut in one room. Set the den up before you leave so it's familiar, and ask your sitter never to pull a pet out of it.
Close the curtains and add background noise. Curtains closed before dark, lights on, and music or the TV playing at a normal volume. Dogs Trust also offers a free Sound Blanket audio track designed to mask fireworks.
Walk earlier in the day. Dogs should get their main walk in daylight and be home before it gets dark. Late toilet breaks should be in the garden on a lead. Feeding a little earlier helps too.
Keep cats in. The PDSA recommends getting cats indoors well before dark and locking the cat flap. They'll need a litter tray if they don't normally use one.
Check ID tags and microchip details. Frightened pets bolt. In Great Britain, a dog in a public place must wear a collar showing the owner's name and address under the Control of Dogs Order 1992, and dogs, and cats in England, must be microchipped, with owners responsible for keeping the details up to date. The AVMA gives the same advice for US owners: current ID tags and up-to-date registry details. Log in to your microchip database and check the phone number before you travel, and consider adding the sitter's number for the dates you're away.
Don't leave pets alone at midnight. The RSPCA and Dogs Trust both advise against leaving a frightened pet alone during fireworks. UK government rules allow fireworks until 1am on New Year's Eve, so "home by half eleven" isn't enough. Agree that the sitter is in for the evening.
Check the garden the next morning. The AVMA recommends checking for fireworks debris before letting pets out, since it can land in gardens even if nobody in your house set any off.
| When | What the sitter does |
|---|---|
| Afternoon | Main dog walk in daylight. Cats brought in, cat flap locked. |
| Before dark | Early dinner. Curtains closed, lights on, music or TV on. Any prescribed medication given at the agreed time. |
| Evening to 1am | Stays home. Lets pets choose the den. Toilet breaks on a lead. |
| Next morning | Checks the garden for debris before letting pets out. |
Put it all in one place
Your sitter shouldn't have to piece this together from a chat thread. In your Global Pet Sitter dashboard you can build a welcome guide for your sitter: add the fireworks plan, the vet's number, the medication timing and the den location, and they'll have it on their phone on the night.
If your sit is still unlisted, there's time to fix that. Sign up and list your home today, add a photo of the house at its most festive, and give a sitter a reason to spend the holidays with your pets.
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