What will you do differently next year?

[NotEnoughTime]

As thread title.

For me personally I will NOT be wrapping presents on Christmas Eve/early hours of Christmas morning I say this every year

Tree will be put up BEFORE Christmas Eve day 🌲

I'd buy a bit less stuff for the kids. Didnt go too overboard bit it was still too much

Be more organised
get things sorted earlier

get A similar amount of pressies for the kids
think we got it just right this year

Ditto. They weren’t very nice, I shall go back to Maris Pipers next year. Also will choose different cheeses.

Otherwise I think we got Christmas pretty much bang on. It wasn’t some magical utopia from a movie type event but everyone had a nice day, enjoyed their presents and had a good dinner, so I’m calling it a win.

So much. I've done so much prep with presents, decorations, food, shopping and honestly I've had the shittest, dullest day. Not helped by having a toddler who are the most ungrateful creatures that were ever put on this planet, and teens who couldn't give a stuff. Next year I might book into a spa hotel on my own and leave them all to it.

Next year will be the opposite of this year in many ways. It will be my Christmas with dc (they were at their dad’s today), so will have a full on day instead of a quiet one, etc.

I will have to be organised earlier (haven’t even started wrapping yet, as my ‘Christmas’ is happening on Wednesday!).

I've been thinking about this a lot! I think I'll take it a lot easier on the Christmas run up next year. We had to cancel so many things due to illness and I realised that I don't actually WANT to be doing several activities every weekend of December! That's the main one for me - a slower, more relaxed December with just a couple of activities!

I will not be going into the office or anywhere for the two weeks in the run up to Christmas. This is the second year in a row I’ve had Covid at Christmas 😩

Mine is the same as yours OP. Don't know why I do it to myself. Every single time. Causes me so much stress!!!!

-won’t put up with the “l can’t find the wreath” nonsense from my husband. I think he thinks it will have a flashing light over it and he won’t have to move anything. I would go up in the loft myself but being 22 weeks pregnant twins l can’t!

-drink alcohol as l can’t this year being pregnant

-l don’t mind cooking but don’t give me a running commentary about what to do next or what l would do differently (looking at you MIL)
-NO ONE is staying. l hate house guests at Christmas. Husband and l work in an industry that’s busy at Christmas so l go from busy at work. To
moans about the brand of butter we buy, can you drive me to x (none of my family like driving 🙄)

Oh and lm disturbed by the draconian drinking rules in some relations houses e.g. no alcohol from Christmas lunch onwards. I mentioned this to my husband and he was horrified. We aren’t a pair of lushes but why shouldn’t people have a few drinks at Christmas and let their hair down?!

We had a Christmas pass the parcel instead of crackers. Next year I will make my own instead of buying one and put more teen friendly presents in the layers. I think we are done with fortune telling fish.

I will not be serving up mash potatoes or veg on the dinner. Turns out my family just want to eat meat, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and Yorkshire puddings. Job done.

So sorry to read this, awful for you 😔 xx

Not forget the veg for Christmas dinner 🤣

Not the roast beef bad move, back to the usual

Take the youngest’s card for Santa - felt so bad it was there

Rest good I think, good pressies and food

I’ll do fewer presents for the dc. Definitely overdid it this year. I didn’t realise how much there was till I laid it all out last night.

I’ll do a budget and a list and stick to it.

I want to get rid of advent calendars. DD and I opened ours 5 times at most and then all windows in one go yesterday.
Will opt for shop bought dessert again - less hassle and equally enjoyable.

I will spend next Christmas with immediate family, DH and DS, away from rest of the family

That's terrible. I lost my DM in a car crash aged 69 six years ago.
Had already lost my DF in his 50's. Christmas is hard but it does get easier.

Not make Christmas dinner again (say this every year) but hopefully to go away or eat at someone else’s…! In an ideal world, have Christmas in Lapland

Buy a tub of celebrations or similar.
Until a few days, we had a box of celebrations and another of heroes just in case but ended up giving them both away. I didn't bother replacing them or getting anything else as one of us always gets given a tub. This year, nothing. So we have no chocolates out to just eat in passing and it feels wrong.

Just embrace the chaos as part of Christmas. It’s your Christmas tradition now. Once I accepted that last minute chaos is part of my Christmas ritual it became much more pleasurable!

Make sure I ask my friend from Church to come to us (never realised she was spending it by herself until this morning, and she volunteered to work this pm instead - as otherwise I’d have just brought her back home with us anyway).

Next year I’m going to put a number on the gift tag as well as a name so that I can easily work out what I’ve bought from a list. I keep going through all of them forgetting what’s what. Doesn’t matter when I wrap, I’m shit at remembering things.

Failing the above, I’m going to remember that no matter how many presents I buy I never ever feel I’ve done enough so only get a few.

Nowhere near the in-laws. They started eating before we had even put everything on the table.

they then raced to eat it and tried to clear the table whilst four of us had just started eating. I glared the glare of glares and even DH stood up to them and said to stop.

just one of many things in just 24 hours including getting up at 4am and crashing around the kitchen waking DD4.