Tips for lovely but simple Christmas when moving a few days after

[stottiecake]

Hello! We are moving (a few doors down) shortly after Christmas - all very positive - our landlord wants to sell this house but we have found a place on the same street and we love it. It is available on the 27th December so will be moving in really soon after. I absolutely love Christmas but the thought of decorating the house and filling it with food and drink seems like too much hard work when we have to pack and clean!!

Any tips for a simple but special Christmas?

Don't stress about decorations or putting up the tree, put up some Christmas cards, wreath on the door, at a push, festive music and films.

For food, buy some foil roasting dishes for the turkey, veg, puddings whatever, then less washing up needed and you can pack your oven tins away ahead of time.

I might be back later with more ideas. Good luck with your move!

When you get to the time, pack up absolutely everything except what you'll need over the Christmas period, keep the living room totally clear of stuff and just have your tree in there, TV, dining table and everything you need for Christmas. So that you can shut the door on all the other chaos and just have a cosy Christmas together in one room. You can have a literal Boxing Day!

Thank you - love the idea of having everything packed before Christmas. Feels like we are a long way off from achieving this. Next week is going to be a week of tips runs I think!!

Also I was thinking about not having a tree (usually we have two - one artificial and one real) but seems too drastic not to have any as the tree is what makes Christmas for me. Maybe we will stick the artificial one up and just put lights on and nothing else.

If you are not moving far you might be able to move the tree still intact with decorations. Obvs need to be careful and remove ant precious baubles first.

I think I would delay Xmas and buy everything on the 27th.

I think the advice about packing everything and leaving one room is great advice, depending on the number and ages of people in the family you could (or your children could) camp out in there overnight.

Do you have a storage place nearby? I think I would pack most things and put it into storage for a couple of weeks so the house isn't full of boxes, then move them straight to the new house once I had moved in