Looking for a Stress Free Christmas!? Here are some Tips…

How do you feel in the lead-up to Christmas? Excited? Festive? Or just plain anxious? For those of you who worry you’ll never quite reach Kirstie’s levels of home-made festive perfection, fear not – you are not alone!

Well, I love Christmas Time. After all it is a Festive season and meant to keep us happy and laughing than stressing ourselves into doing things great and perfect. But I need to prepare myself well ahead to protect myself from getting stressed.

What do we do mostly for Christmas – Shopping and cooking and have fun with family and friends and ofcourse I am not that bad not to mention the Holy Christmas Mass.

The main stress is from Shopping and Cooking  – Some of them can be planned well in advance and you can make yourself ready and comfortable well before Christmas.

• Well, Santa’s are usually on duty atleast from the first day of december, so if you could have an earliest Santa visit and shortlist the toys that has been told to Santa from your littleone. In that way, you can buy gifts at the earliest and dont have to leave anything to the last minute – BUT How you hide the gifts until the Christmas day is entirely your challenge and I will leave it with you 🙂 Do give me some tips if you have anything better. One of the tricks I follow is leave it with friend’s or at the loft.
• Ofcourse You can not cook and keep eveything you planned weeks before.. Don’t look at me like that! 🙂 But some of the desserts can be prepared and freezed. List down the items that (you think) would taste the same or even much better when freezed. Prepare them in your spare time and leave the last minute for the fresh meals.
• Most important of all, Whatever the works that can be deligated to the machines, leave it with them. Let your Dishwasher takes the load than you spending hours clearing the dishes.
• Feel free and never feel shy to take help – Man or Machine, all we need is a little help and additional hands to prepare the stuffing and check on the turkey in the oven.
• Do you think all of this is hard and you can’t take any more stress on Christmas day! – IMPORTANT – This time I have planned to have Christmas at Mum’s place. She is the best person who will never let us do anything but will do everything by herself and still be happy seeing her children happy. All you have to do then is Just eat, chat, drink, open the gifts and enjoy Christmas to the fullest ( I know, even if you offer help, Mum wouldn’t take it, All she wants would be seeing you relaxing and enjoying the great day.) After all, You will also have your turn soon when your daughters have their family. 🙂

Here is some research done by Beko about How Mum’s feel about Christmas generally

Beko’s Household Helpers survey found that over two-thirds of UK mums worry about creating the perfect Christmas, with a sixth of them (15%) admitting to losing sleep. An additional sixteen per cent worry about comments from the in-laws, not to mention the letters to Father Christmas that manage to span two pages of A4…

The Beko Household Helpers Census also found:

•                    Making sure the house is tidy is the number one concern when hosting Christmas lunch (28%)

•                    27% of mums are anxious about fitting the roast and all the trimmings in the oven

•                    23% are worried that their dining table isn’t big enough

•                    A fifth (21%) worry about having a messy kitchen

•                    16% of mums say they are nervous about entertaining their in-laws

I love the last point 🙂 Honestly. After reading this, whether you decide to comment or Not,  I know there is always a Comment!!!!!!!!???? awaiting me on the Christmas day 🙂

So why to wait, we have hardly two weeks before Christmas, Let’s go shopping and make those puddings.