To think Christmas has got quite of hand

[Himalaya]

People seem under so much pressure to make a picture perfect day - beautiful coordinated decorations and wrapping, elaborate Christmas dinners, mounds of presents, homemade everything etc...

Do you think Nigella, Delia, supermarkets, magazine have conned us (.....modern, overeducated women...) into an arms race of competitive christmassing?

I think so long as you do the bits you like & drop the bits you don't then it's fine.

I LOVE having everything homemade. The fun starts with making the Christmas cake & pudding with the kids in the October half term (just as I did with my Mum :)) We always have "all the trimmings" too, it's not stressful as you can do most of the prep in the day(s) before. Tomorrow I just need to peel spuds/parsnips for roasties, make bread sauce (breadcrumbs & clove studded onion already done) and cook everything. All the rest is prepped, on trays/in steamer & ready to go :)

The best bit about Christmas dinner is you can live off the left overs + a few other bits for days

However I can fully appreciate that some people can't/don't want/don't have time to cook everything from scratch, if you don't want to them don't! That is the advantage of the times we live in, you have the choice to buy ready made, so use it!

I don't expect a "perfect" day, we don't have a perfectly decorated house, but we will have lots of fun as a family & that's what counts IMHO