What will you definitely or definitely not be repeating next Christmas?

[Trudee]

I made a note in my phone last year in an attempt to stop me repeating the same mistakes. It worked well although I now need to add 'buy less biscuits'
Interested to see what everyone else would put on their lists?

right number of gifts for children I would say 6-10 in total plus stocking
for us that is 2 from her grandparents , 1 from each of her 3 aunts 1 from a family friend and 4 from us her stocking had about 8 small things in it chocolate, comic, tree decoration, popping candy, lip balm new pants, metallic pens and a dvd. I think what we bought her came to about £65 including stocking the rest about £70 and less would have been ok too
it does depend on value though if you get a new iphone you can't expect 9 other gifts

Same: fry brussel sprouts in orange butter. Set up lego Christmas Village in the dining room - it's so sweet! Buy presents for friends early so they can be wrapped and under the tree. Trees look better with presents and it means we can emphasise giving presents to DD, not just receiving them.

Different: buy less alcohol. We've loads that is untouched. Dont believe DH when he says that we will only spend £30 on each other. He got me way more than I got him.

Same:

Homemade snacks, cake and mince pies instead of shop bought ones/chocolates etc - feel much better despite stuffing myself for days
Homemade cranberry sauce and brandy cream
Do a ham at new year, not xmas eve
Quiet christmas at home, no relatives, acceptance of low tolerance to stress
Boxing day walk in the country

Different:

Shop bought xmas pudding instead of homemade, I prefer it
More fairy lights around the house, and prevent cat from chewing through them
Either focus on home baking or a nice cheeseboard, not both - I haven't touched a single piece of cheese
Don't get ill a few days before

I will repeat:
Having some time off before Christmas, or at least Christmas Eve, so that I can get things ready and attend the village carols on the green event without being in a mad rush.
Fewer decorations up - this year, it was just the two fireplaces, some lights at the windows and the tree. We went to town on the fireplaces and it looked just as festive.
Fewer shop bought decorations and more greenery from the garden
Doing the Christmas cards together, in good time.
Buying decaffeinated ground coffee just so I can have my Irish coffee (health thing)

I won't repeat:
Doing less vegetables - I wanted more left overs for more bubble and squeak!
Having a real Christmas tree.. needles everywhere, including down the cracks in the parquet and embedded in the hearth rug. But I won't be using the posh, very real looking but fiendishly complicated artificial one that takes, I’m not kidding, about an hour to put up, either. I'm offering that to one of the kids. I've seen ready lit LED trees, in only three pieces. I'm having that next year and I don't care if they're not smart.....

Normally have a tub of sweets open from early December, didn't bother this year and we haven’t missed them. In fact my DM gave us a tub of celebrations as a gift on Christmas Day and it’s sat on the kitchen side.

Definitely roast beef again for Christmas dinner, we all enjoyed it and dh enjoys cooking beef so win win.

Perhaps unbelievably, we didnt provision enough food for the 25th
Based on previous years, we focussed on the main lunch meal and didnt prep sandwiches etc for the evening, which meant we ended up peckish and overdoing the choccies, when really we could have done with a mini meal.

I would definitely repeat hand delivering as many local cards as possible, I found it very enjoying and it forced me to take a walk and slow down!

@edthebear
My kids get - a board game, a book, a lego set, a PlayStation game (or something suitable for ages eg toddler got playdough, teen got a body shop gift set) and then 1 toy or gift related to their interests. Then stockings which were chocolate, a couple of blind bags and some fluffy socks. I find that just the right amount.

Going to have a quiet day at ours next year, just me, partner and our 16 month old daughter. Have always gone to my mum and dad's but it's just always too hectic and stressful there with them usually catering for a total of 7 for Christmas Dinner. My daughter won't take her naps there so she's then very grumpy and upset. Not to mention my Grandma grabbing her and making her scream her head off as she doesn't like to be held by anyone other than me, daddy, nanna and Grandad (my parents).

I compiled a folder last year with dates and reminders of when to do things (book Santa/Ice skating/panto etc), a list of what presents given and received, meal plans and all the recipes/techniques learned over the years. This was so useful this year. My Dad was ill this year which took a lot of my time away from the organising so I cheated and got shop bought pigs in blankets and stuffing rather than making them myself and everyone said how nice they were, so that's in next year! Turkey was the best ever (a whole pack of butter rubbed all over it and the 'oven within an oven' technique and everyone said how moist and tasty it was. Forgot the binman/postie/window cleaner tips so hopefully will catch them next week. Won't forget that next year hopefully!
I got rid of some of the decorations and kept it simpler - got rid of all the fake foliage and used real stuff with fairy lights, smaller tree, and just a few other decorations. It looked much nicer.

I am just going to fuck it off and not be sucked in by the pressure or expectation. I will still buy a present or 2 but otherwise just completely do our own thing, eat what we want to eat, not bother at all with all the stress and hassle. No tree, no sodding turkey, no 'fun' festive days out, Christmas can piss right off

I put myself under much less pressure so bought frozen stuff - red cabbage, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, stuffing- so all I had to do was shove it in the oven at the correct time with no faffing. So much more relaxed!

WE will have rib of beef again, and the same mix of veg, potatoes, parsnips, roast carrots and sprouts.

We will invite MIL and her sister again

We won’t invite the extended family who arrived, ate, slept then went home.

I shopped early this year, I need to write down all the gifts as DD1 got a lot more than dd2 and I had to buy a couple of extras to look balanced

I didn’t get round to sorting the house properly in time this year- I normally do a big de-clutter and deep clean in the run up. This year I’ve just had so much on that I couldn’t do the de-clutter and had to do the deep clean on the 23rd & 24th which wasn’t how I wanted to spend those days. Il need to declutter at some point now too. Will be making sure to get on top of all that earlier next year.

@Asj0405 we had two identical stockings for each child and would hang an empty one in their room and then fill the other one. Just needed to tiptoe in and do a quick changeover then. (Special hint: don’t put anything crinkly or jingly in the stockings unless you can muffle it somehow )

This Christmas was good. Me DH and 3Dc plus PIL.

DO: Give tense and nervous MIL a massive Baileys as soon as she walks in. She's not a drinker but it seemed to stand to her the entire two days.
Ready made everything. So much less stress.
Take more naps. I did this year - an hour or so in bed after dinner. None of the sdults noticed and the kids were allowed in beside me as long as they didnt try to talk to me just played quietly. It worked!

DON'T: Get demob happy at work a week previous and leave a mountain of shit to sort out tomorrow.

We had a great Christmas, not much fuss or stress. So I will keep it as low key as possible next year as well. I don't think I'll get dh a present next year, even though I would love for everyone to have something to open in the morning. He's just not that into it. Instead I'll treat myself to something really special.

Ours was pretty good! Happy to have a repeat!

Repeat, keeping presents hidden in plain site in our bedroom not in the attic! That used to be a killer!
Use stickers pre printed for each child, what a joy to quickly slap on in ye old days stressing about pens and handwriting at god forsaken hour!!
Brought less food but still too much cheese.

Not repeat.

Going away in the days before, it was fun but we were shattered, house not as clear and tidy as I would like, holiday washing to do etc.

I think I'd rather go away on the few days after Xmas instead... Somewhere in Europe with snow? Somewhere in Austria? Not sure.

Buy candles well in advance... I ended up trawling shops on Xmas eve.
Get ocado order in for Xmas well in advance I really missed our post holiday delivery!
Do charity shoe boxes earlier in the year so they are all ready to go, we missed all the collections this year.

We didn’t go to the in-laws this year.
We stayed home with my family.

I’d love to do the same again next year, not be able to make our 3rd tier allotted time with DH’s family was a revelation. We were with people that don’t view my children as the scapegoats for all the noise(it really isn’t them).
I didn’t have to bite my tongue once from Saturday to Wednesday and it was bliss.

Next Christmas I’ll remember to remove the bag of giblets from inside the turkey before cooking it

Just the four of us again. No crazy miserable MIL behaviour to deal with

@lalaland44 I have never done that no siree 🤣😬🤫

I'm going to be less generous next year.

I bought some because I thought it was the right thing to do but didn't even receive a card off most of them.

All the small token presents add up and I could of used the money to buy myself a new cashmere jumper in the sale instead 😂 (perspective).

Probably would buy less for DS and just more of a main present but I suppose it depends what he wants.

Didn't go too mad on the food so not a lot of waste really.

Going to start earlier buying presents. However I say that every year. Might just start putting some money away each month.

Love this thread

Repeat

• wrapping presents days before Christmas Eve.
• hiding presents in our room instead of the attic
• hosting again, my kids hate leaving the house on Christmas
• minimal gifts for adults, saves a fortune

Change

• buy fewer presents for the kids
• less veg needed - we had to throw away some bubble and squeak
• have more stuff to do in between Xmas and new Year. Was too busy last year and I’ve cut back too much this year.
• clear out more old toys to make room.

Never ever ever ever ever again

• let dh start a decorating project in November. It was the dining room. The whole of the downstairs was a wreck right up until midnight 23rd Dec. Spent the whole of Christmas Eve frantically cleaning and tidying.

Interesting thread

Repeat:
Invite friends for Christmas eve and serve something simple
Buy m&s turkey breast instead of a crown - everything fit in the oven!
M&S roasting, gravy, stuffing are easier and tastier than anything I could make
Less decs on the tree, looks so much nicer

Not repeat
Sitting around for 2 days afterwards with no plans. I thought it would be nice but we've done nothing but eat and watch shit.