What's your favourite Christmas 'job'?

[ChocolateCinderToffee]

Mine has to be wrapping gifts. I know a lot of people don't enjoy this but I've always loved it and I go to town on four different types of ribbon, little dangly stars and toadstools and tree decorations on the packaging, random chocolate coins inside, gift tags etc, the works.

Unpacking the food delivery, hands down 😄

I work in a reception class. I love setting out their nativity costumes on their tables ready for them coming in. Their wee faces.

And I love washing them and packing them away for another year too. (The costumes, not the faces.)

Testing different mince pies. So far this year's favourites are Tesco ordinary, Tesco Finest frangipane and homemade ones we were given.

Least favourite Cartright & Butler mini orange and something mince pies. Pastry was awful!

Making the Christmas cake. I do it October half term so it’s an early sign of the start of Christmas.

Wrapping presents and doing the tree.

Decorating the yule log. I do a realistic one that looks just like an actual tree branch with bark

Hanging the stockings on their doorknobs

I love wrapping the presents too. DH and I always sit down one evening and have a mammoth wrapping session and get it all done.

Another one for wrapping presents! I always make a bit of an event out of it… put a festive film on and get to it. I love choosing my paper and accessories each year, and reallt spending time making them look nice with different ribbons etc. I’ve done it this morning and it made me feel so good!
Also love Christmas baking- choosing a different recipe each year and making a bit of a showstopper!

Putting out the presents when they are all asleep. Climbing up to the loft 20 times to retrieve them all with the ridiculously creaking loft ladder. Nearly falling out the loft. Arranging them around the tree so I can barely move. Then leaving no room to turn off the tree lights so have to climb through it all to get to the tree again.

Building the fire the night before so I can light it before they come running down.

Definitely going to get the tree, I carry it back on my mobility scooter and it’s always the first hint that Christmas is near

Gift wrapping here too. ✋🏾 Like @ChocolateCinderToffee I love the ribbon and stacking element of it.

On another note, I like helping Father Christmas 🎅 with his snack plate 🍽 on Christmas Eve!🎄 I'm an 80s baby and the drink used to be a brandy or the like; now mine is oat milk or juice!

Putting up the tree and decorations! We hold off until about a fortnight before Christmas, so it really marks the excitement beginning.

Yep, fkn love getting a bit squiffy on home-made baileys on Christmas Eve and wrapping presents. I am a massive control freak about matching paper, ribbons and everything so it all looks beautiful. It’s the only bit of Christmas that I am a perfectionist about.

I love wrapping but I can only do basic wrapping. Any tips for ribbons welcome!!

I think I’m going to do this next year. We put it up the last weekend in Nov this year and I’m worried it’s not going to make it!!

Planning and making lists!

Putting up the decs.

Eating.

Putting up the tree! Signals the start of xmas for me. 🎄

Not a job, unless the cook is particularly bad!

I don't know - I plough on through past my waistband comfort level to compliment the cook!

I did something weird and started a new job the month before Christmas! Weird for me, after being with my last employer for 5 years. So this year, every Christmas job has felt tedious due to trying to balance it with settling in to the new job!

I did manage to get the decorations up followed by booking the Christmas delivery but wrapping? Sorry but everyone’s gift this year will probably be in a gift bag, if not the courier parcel packaging!

Well now I want dangling stars and toadstools and 4 different types of ribbon for my wrapping. Where do you get such dangly items? How do you incorporate them? Would you be willing to share pictures / techniques / a series of YouTube tutorials of your methods? Give us a masterclass, please!

Opening the Christmas box. It is a huge one that came with the box for storing DD’s wedding dress. It holds everything except the baubles so is filled with cushions, tinsel, wreaths and all the extra accessories that I have around the house.

When I moved out permanently as a teenager after a turbulent few years, my first Christmas was in a bedsit and very frugal. I bought a tiny fake tree and made decorations from wrapping things I had already (think OXO cube and small jewellery boxes) to look like presents. I found a cute little gold angel made of cardboard for the top.
40 years later a couple of those mini boxes are carefully placed at the back of my tree as a reminder of how far I have come.
The cardboard angel is always nestled in the middle of adult DD’s beautiful real tree and it warms my heart to see it there.

Checking off items from the shopping/gift lists, sometimes I specifically wait fot more items to be bought to remove more of them at once😂
Making smartshow 3d slideshows for the Christmas quiz we usually have, it's a tradition
Trying out new recipes to have a "rehearsal", then deciding to go with the takeaway instead because while it was tasty it was also too much hustle