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'm so sorry for your loss and hope you find some peace in the season xx

Have to say though that I really fancy Christmas away doing No Christmassy things without extended family next year.

Might try and go away for Christmas, very sick of cooking etc.

Nothing, we had a lovely day 😀

Antelope, I’m so sorry for your loss.

You know, I don’t mind the cooking - did as much as I could beforehand so even though there was loads of food it wasn’t a huge effort until the last hour of juggling oven stuff - but the clearing up took ages. Just stashing all the leftovers, stripping the turkey and all the washing up - argh! I am not keen on single use stuff like foil trays and anyway, that wouldn’t have saved much effort in the grand scheme of things. DH, DM and I shared the clearing up but it was a lot of time we weren’t building marble runs etc with the kids.

I quite like Christmas dinner but I’m not so wedded to it that I wouldn’t do something more simple. DH is very traditional though. Need to negotiate…

Also, it will be better next year if DD doesn’t come down with chicken pox on Christmas Eve. I’ve just broken the news to her that she will have to
miss the panto tomorrow and there’s lot of tears 😢

Go back to the roast.

we decided to have party food this year. I regretted it before I’d even started putting it all in the oven.

we hardly ever have a roast, but do have party food tea more often so it just didn’t feel special, and except for the tempura prawns, none of it was that nice.

I’m going to get a chicken tomorrow & doing a roast.

I won't do much different; I'm finally getting the formula right!

Will START my shopping in the little independent shops and also plaster social media with reports of how great they are and updates on their Christmas opening hours and what they have in this year. I always mean to patronise them more, but only go there as an afterthought.

This year I went to a local homewares shop the day before Christmas and bought a string of lights for the tree. No trouble parking, unlike the big shopping centres nearby. I was in and out in five minutes and the staff were lovely as always. I posted on social media, where I got a ton of "likes" and people saying, "oh is that shop still there! I must go. I used to love going in there. They are fantastic. I forgot it existed." Wish I had posted a week or two earlier and got them some more business.

Always knew this Christmas was going to be different as we are in the middle of building work. We were aiming for the new kitchen to be fitted the week before Christmas but testing positive for covid put pay to that. So we had slow cooker spag bol for our Christmas dinner. All the Christmas meats are in the freezer and we’ve pencilled in to have Christmas dinner during Feb half term and we’ll make a Yule log and snowman biscuits.

Looking forward to getting back to normal for next year (and having a new room to decorate). Aim to have all presents wrapped before kids break up from school. But most of all I’m aiming to sit down on Christmas Eve watch Die Hard with a glass of wine knowing everything is done.

I’ll have an 18 mo old next year. I’d like to go away, maybe not Xmas day but have lunch out with parents, see family in the evening then maybe go to Disneyland Paris or Dublin or something Boxing Day until New Year’s Day. More expensive but we won’t need to buy any food or have anything except some fizz and pastries for the morning

Won't wrap the Turkey in bacon as I wasn't able to use the meat juice for the gravy - it was poisonous

I am on my third year being ill into Christmas, first was the horrid covid the worst variant, then had the second vaccine bad effect, like a mini covid session all week and in Christmas day, this year flu - so fed up, I will be catching a flight to the Canaries before I catch any virus again next year!

Really surprised about that

I'm sure my dm was recommending I do that and it was a Delia smith thing from years ago.

I used maple syrup and mustard and it was lovely

What does this even mean? It's normal to wrap turkey in bacon 🤷

It really was! I realise I didn't answer the question though which is that Id love to bring this relaxed feeling next year. It was a first for me, I am always so tense and stressed over stupid things. And because I was literally unable to this year it and it ended up being the best thing ever. The food was wonderful eith hardly no effort, we spent the whole day playing with the kids and just resting. It sounds so daft but I have never ever done that before.

sometimes changing things makes a world of difference. I did a different dinner that usual and was so happy with it! Instead of stressing over a turkey I did roast chicken thighs, dressing, gravy, lamb chops and 2 roasted veg. I don't know why it felt so much easier!

Next year I will:

Buy Christmas gifts from local independent shops.

Revert to the buffet tea we usually do instead of Afternoon Tea.

Start buying DDs stocking fillers ASAP

Be my future friend when I put the decorations up in the loft. I don't want to have more than 4 boxes of decorations to bring down, so I'll pack them away neatly and logically.

Not twitch! (easier said than done 😁)

I’m not going to my in-laws for Christmas morning, they show favouritism between grandchildren and it’s so upsetting! I’m going cooking a Christmas dinner either, I chucked most of it in the bin after hours of food prep and cooking.

I’m not going to cook*

Every year I say I will ignore the whole thing (no kids or big family)
Would really well like to actually do it next year. I would love to just go to a remote cottage with a pile of books and a radio.

I was ill again for Christmas, 2nd year in a row. Year prior to that was covid lockdown and one before that, my friend died on Christmas Eve. Really want a Christmas where I’m not ill or upset. Not sure what I can do about the risk of an upset, but I shall be more careful about picking up bugs next year (I am immunocompromised).

We will go out to eat Lunch again. First year this year and it was great. Bog standard Miller and Carter. Good food, quick service etc. Took my mum and she enjoyed it too. All local so easy drive (15 mins max)

I may book a Christmas dinner somewhere on Christmas Eve or ideally I'd like to fuck off to somewhere hot. Christmas is not the same anymore, the town centre is nothing like it used to be so not Christmas atmosphere, the chocolates are shit, the TV is shit not Christmas specials to look forward to.

Do folks not do that where you are?
I put my neighbours bin out and bring it back in again, I thought that's just what neighbours do (mine doesn't send me a Christmas card either )

Eh? How does wrapping it in bacon make the juices poisonous?

So whose bins do the neighbours put out? Where does it stop?

It’s a nice thing to do, but totally negated by the pp who was whingeing about it. If you do a nice voluntary thing then you don’t do it to get recognition. That’s the whole point.