Mary Berry's guide to get people leave your dinner party

"So, how are you getting home?"

(Getty Images)

Christmas parties can be great…until you’re hosting one yourself.

It’s all fun and games till your buzz expires and everybody is still jiving in your kitchen showing no signs of heading home.

Suddenly you find yourself faced with quite the festive pickle: "How do I get these people out of my house without coming across like a grumpy bauble-deprived Scrooge?"

Thankfully, Britain's culinary national treasure, Mary Berry, has the solution.

Speaking to i News, the former Great British Bake Off host explained that subtlety is key and revealed her top three tips to chivvying people towards the front door.

The first thing she advises is to gently start clearing up, people should get the hint pretty quickly that the party is coming to a close once they see you pummelling the floor with a dustpan and brush.

She added that one of her husband’s sneaky “get out of my house” tricks is also closing the curtains.

If that fails, you could try whipping out some not-so-implicit lines that reference your "super early" meeting the following day, or you could ask people how they plan on getting home.

If you're still struggling to regain some peace and quiet in your home, Berry suggests directly asking your guests if they intend to stay, in which case, you will open another bottle of wine - hopefully they will cotton on and you won't have to resort to popping open another bottle of Pinot.

However, the TV cook added that most of the time she is simply honest with her party guests and says: "Ok, time’s up!”

If you’ve tried and tested Berry’s tips already and you still find yourself banging your head against the wall as your free-spirited friends continue to generously top up their glasses of prosecco, the simplest solution would be to just pop off to bed and hope that people will eventually notice you’ve left and follow suit.

However, this is a risky move and could result in you waking up to commune full of sweaty party crashers getting their shut eye on your living room floor.

So, tottle off to bed at your own peril, dear hosts.