I just hate the enforced jollity thing, I hate the TV adverts of the perfect festive happy family. I hate the ‘you deserve it; it’s Christmas’ thing (like you needed an excuse or reason, just do it already). And I really hate the expectation that everything will be perfect and clean and tidy.
So! Now you know how I feel about Christmas I wanted to share with you my festive survival guide. These are the tricks and strategies that I use to get me through the festive season. I’m not going total Scrouge so please don’t think I will be dragging myself kicking and screaming through the holiday. I will be enjoying spending time with my perfectly imperfect, messy, irritating family; it's the other crap around it that I can’t bear.
1) Do not have ANY expectations of how the day will go.
We’ve all been there; you imagine the day itself: You will looking abso f*cking amazing in a gorgeous outfit, the food will all be cooked perfectly and your children will offer to come and help prepare/empty the dishwasher. I also imagined the day would be like that and so when I threw hot roast potato fat all over
my new cream wool skirt I had a meltdown of such epic proportions which was utterly disproportionate to the roasties mauling my skirt, family members stood, open mouthed, whilst I ranted and raved about how useless they all were.
So my point is this: do not imagine what will happen, or how it will be, because you are setting yourself up for a fall. Accept that it is what it is and it will probably be a fab day (as long as you wear an apron - incidentally Christmas Day is the only day I do wear an apron because of the aforementioned incident).
2) Do not overthink it
Christmas Day lunch is basically a pimped up Sunday roast right? Maybe with a few more sides. There is always loads left over (see my later point about Twixtmas please). Bread Sauce? Buy it. Cranberry sauce? Buy it. Gravy? For God’s sake buy it! Once I removed the expectation that the meal on the Big Day was not really that big things got so much easier. Go big on snacks, dips and things you can eat with one hand and no cutlery.
3) Guests do want to help so for God’s sake let them!
I always love it when I offer to bring something for a party and the host takes me up on the idea. I feel like I am genuinely doing something to help and it makes their life so much easier. If someone offers for you please let them. All too often the temptation is to try and do it all yourself and it’s silly. (You might not see
that tray/plate/platter for a while though!).
4) Buy your own gift. Relying on others for a good present is a bad idea.
I am a huge fan of buying treats for yourself so you have something to look forward to. Buy yourself one nice present and then you will deffo have something to get excited about. Some lovely face cream so you can treat yourself in the evening or a nice bath oil so you can look forward to a comforting soak once the
madness is over. The same goes for snacks. I have a secret stash of Belazu’s Truffle nut mix squirreled away.
5) Buy the men in your life washing up liquid and Marigolds for their stockings.
I appreciate that this might sound a bit passive aggressive but really dropping hints never seems to work in my house and if there was ever a day for a proper division of labour today is the day.
6) Have something planned for Twixmas
So the big day is over and now what? You have that funny bit between Christmas and New Year where everyone basically wallows in Quality Street wrappers and half drunk bottles of Baileys doing the square root of diddly squat for 5 days. For me this is the best bit but only if I have something planned. It’s the
time to really relax (after all the hard yards have been completed) and do something great for yourself. Any suggestions gratefully received!
I will be Live on IG at 4pm on Christmas Eve if anyone fancies joining me for chinwag and a drink. I will be reviewing the best cocktails in a can and would love to hear your suggestions!
Love Jackie x
