A ‘what will you do differently next year’ thread

[OMGitsnotgood]

I’ve been hosting Christmas for almost 40 years so generally have it pretty well sorted, but there is always something to imporove on.
This year I had a pretty hectic December for a combination of reasons, some of it unexpected. I did still manage most things but ended up doing a lot of cleaning on Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve, when I’d much rather have just had food prep to focus on them put my feet up enjoying a Baileys.

Next year I am going so make sure I do a deep clean early in December and keep on top of it.

Buy less 'party' type food, never tastes as good as it looks. Will batch cook a chilli or something instead or buy extra nice bread rolls to make sandwiches.

I’m going to start buying small bits like stocking fillers for the kids from summer onwards, and I’m going to try to reduce the number of days we stay with family or have them stay with us. We have primary age kids (young enough to still believe) and their enthusiasm was more hectic than infectious this year. I think it nearly killed off my poor DM. To be mindful of that I think we’ll have more quiet home time next year.

Prioritise my roast potatoes!
I had to make lots of room in the oven for our ham (no turkey this year) and the only place for the parboiled roasties was the oven floor.
Everything else was ready and the crust was only beginning to form. 😢

Ah well, better luck next year.
Kudos to anybody feeding a crowd. There were only 3 of us so prep and portion sizes were all pretty low.

Another one thinking Dial It Back. I had a note on my Christmas Notes document not to buy as many presents as previously. And I forgot that and tried to get plenty. Plus, I also got far more sweet treats than I should have done. The stockings had loads in, as well as the coffee table bowl. We'll be eating it in January still...

I need to get my Christmas Notes list out and read it in early November at the latest in 2026, and I bet I will forget. I am officially Mrs Ditsy now. I'm going to put it on the calendar for next year, hopefully that'll do the trick. It's a very handy list as it mentioned the Asda three roast pack (turkey, gammon and beef) which went down well last year and I'd definitely forgotten about that. With the list reminder I managed to snag the last one in my local Asda.

I feel like this year I’m done with Christmas in its usual form . Nothing awful this year there have been some that have awful.I have a very challenging family of origin who I generally manage well and adult kids who I have a good relationship with I also think they’ve had enough of the old style Christmas too . I’ve done my time I just find it all a bit fake . This Christmas actually went as well as it could have but Im so tired of feeling like I’ve run an emotional marathon every year .My kids are adults I’m single and I realised this year I don’t actually like all the Christmas expectations and the experience in general I did it for my kids but nearly 30 years is enough. Next year I might go away , work or volunteer but I’m quietly hanging up my Santa hat x

Found the thread I should have read before starting my own ! Thanks @OMGitsnotgood

Oh yes, as a PP I bought a hot plate thing which is great for keeping things warm in serving dishes while everything is finishing off cooking.

And I've put a reminder in my phone calendar to start earlier next year! I was impressed that in my mid-chemo brain fog last year I managed to note down how many Christmas cards I had left over, and that I needed to buy wrapping paper this year!

Friends very kindly invited me for Christmas dinner as it was my first year alone, and I went, and had a nice time but found it a little overwhelming.
I think next year I would rather.spend it alone with the dog, maybe go for a picnic if the weather's nice.

Haven't RTFT so this may have been said, but instead of a starter I do 2-3 cold canapés that can either be bought or prepped in advance, and put those out in the living room so people can congregate there. I also did a self-serve drinks cupboard/station so people can help themselves, that worked well.

If I make the canapés I use it as an opportunity to use up any random bits in the fridge 😁 so this year's involved fig, blue cheese and some bits of chorizo!

Go on holiday to avoid hosting Monster In Law

I wouldn’t do very much differently next year except buy less cheese.
This January I wrote a list that included 15 small tweaks I could do to improve Christmas. The list was so helpful and I did most of them and it really improved my experience.

Not one for me, but my usually beloved in laws. Hopefully next year, if they get colds that render them completely flattened and coughing up a lung, they’ll either tell us before we arrive, so we can make other plans, or they will let us help / take paracetamol and rest as required

After a very busy and stressful year I decided to be less Type A about Christmas and also took a break from hosting. I regret it 😂 Next year I want to take some time in November to make sure I’ve done all my shopping/wrapping, so that come December I can enjoy all the school and work events and plan to host again. This year we felt exhausted but frustrated at not doing what we wanted and being in someone else’s space - which it turns out is worse than the productive exhausted feeling of hosting! It’s that or go on holiday…

A picnic?! Where do you live?

Both DH and I are very low contact with family due to various issues so we just do Christmas with us and our 2 children. I realised this year,I was just making various meals for kids that didn’t really care about roast potatoes etc.

Next year we are booking to go abroad, Cape Verde is warm and within budget. Bring me all inclusive!

A picnic?! It was 2 degrees here today.

I’d like my mum to let me cook at her house or come to mine. My db is fine about booking a hotel (my house is smaller)

-Post Christmas cards earlier. I have several, elderly relatives abroad who appreciate Christmas cards and I often under estimate the time Christmas postage takes to arrive.
-Prep and freeze days/weeks in advance. Not that it was a stress doing it Christmas Eve, but would be one less thing to do.

Im going to a private clinic to be put into an induced coma for two weeks so I can sleep through the whole thing. I hate christmas.

Link please 🙏

I've been cutting back on food buying for several years now. This year I got it spot on with some food, but still bought too much of some other stuff.

Note to self - carry on cutting the food thing back. Nobody cares if the sausage rolls are poncy artisan / M&S / lovingly homemade or a bag of supermarket frozen jobs. They get gobbled up regardless. Life is too short to agonise over sausage rolls (or anything else really).

Cheap and easy, that's my motto.😎😂

Another dialling it down, my DCs are young adults now and we gradually built up traditions when they were younger but have let some
of them slide now and no one has minded.

So - going to the farm to cut our own tree, did this for years and it was a treasured memory, with DS cutting it the last few years. But the farm has got bigger and bigger and more commercial and lost it's charm, it's hard to find a time we can all go so this year we bought one at a local garden centre and it was still nice to do but a lot easier.

Making cinnamon buns from scratch on Christmas eve to bake in the morning - ditched in favour of frozen ones. No one minded. We have birthdays coming up and will do the buns then instead.

Deep clean - didn't bother and it was fine.

Worked up to and including Christmas Eve - gave me the excuse not to have an immaculate house and it was lovely the last few days at work, quieter and more chilled.

Sent (and received) far fewer cards, I still like to do some but I messaged a lot of people instead and it was nice to have little chats.

Used a few more shortcuts in the dinner, cranberry sauce, bread sauce and stuffing mixes from a farmshop instead of made from scratch.

Also one of the best things I have done is invest in a load of re-usable drawstring gift bags and striped paper sweety bags for gifts, got the whole
lot done in half an hour.

I’ve learned many of the lessons that previous posters have mentioned (the hard way) over several decades - but there’s always something I’d do differently.

1. Next year, ALL meals while the family are staying, need to be made in advance and frozen so it’s just an overnight defrost/ assembly/ heating up job on the day.
2. I am going to put some fresh foliage in bud vases along my table.
3. I’m going to decline party invitations just before and after the family are staying - I need that space for downtime

We always have a houseful. It was too much for me this year. I think the actual meal is ok but 12 people all night after was too much. I need a curfew when they all fuck off

I was much more relaxed with my hosting and gifts this year and it was much better than when I have previously been much more invested in them. In fact my son commented on how lovely it was this year.

Will be thinking about how to keep on top of the carnage from children and grandchildren. No one lifted a finger to help, and while I was happy everyone was chilled out, feeding and clearing up after 12 guests who were all staying was tiring. The dishwasher was running constantly.

told all the under 10s they could have breakfast in bed which worked really well- they stayed upstairs so I got a bit of peace in the morning!