Talk to Homebase about your Christmas hosting top tips and/or nightmares and you could win a £300 Homebase voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

As Christmas approaches and planning for Christmas events begins, Homebase is keen to hear about Mumsnetters' best and worst experiences of Christmas hosting - whether it's Christmas parties, having relatives to stay or even hosting the big day itself.

Homebase says: "Christmas is all about getting together with the most important people in our lives. It's a great feeling when loved ones come round to enjoy the fun and festivities- but it can be hard work sometimes too. Preparing food, getting your home looking fabulous, making sure everyone's having a good time ... the festive season comes with its own challenges and things don't always go to plan. We'd love to hear your stories of 'hosting heaven' and 'hosting hell'. Tell us about your Christmas disasters and triumphs, share your tips, fill us in on the fun times and let us know what you're planning this year."

Do you have any top tips to make Christmas hosting go as smoothly as possible? Maybe you create a time plan to make sure everything's done on schedule? Or have you had a nightmare that's put you off Christmas hosting for life?

Share your stories - good and bad - on this thread and we'll enter you into a prize draw where one MNer will win a Homebase voucher worth 300 pounds.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

I bought an app called "The Christmas List" (think it was £2.79) which is great for jotting present ideas down, tracking what you've got for whom, whether you've bought it, your budget - and also for checking back to see what you got in previous years.

Make a list of tasks to be done before Christmas and on Christmas day, including different aspects of the Christmas dinner or main meal. Then make every household member and guest sign up to a couple of tasks. It spreads the load.
Then if there is no gravy etc you all know who didn't do their task!

I am lucky enough to have only hosted Christmas once. Usually we go to my mum's. Top Christmas disasters from my youth were: the oven breaking down (the turkey got hacked into pieces and rushed to my grandparents' house, where it got whacked under the grill to finish off; and boiling the pudding saucepan dry, which filled the house with smoke. My poor hamster staggered out of his bed, coughing. Not forgetting the time when I brought a new, very shy boyfriend round for Boxing Day lunch, and my mum updated us on my grandmother's garden birds with, 'Your Nan's got her thrush back'!!

I always have a spare turkey. Mainly because after Christmas dinner with the entire family (20+ of us) there's not much by way of leftovers but also for any mishaps.

My DM likes to cook the meat the day before. One year she cooked the turkey on Christmas Eve, put into the microwave to cool and had far too much cava forgot about it. Dsis came down in the middle of the night to heat a bottle for her ds, put the turkey on the side and in her asleep state, forgot about it. We came down in the morning to find three very happy cats and not much turkey left. Cue a guilty dsis driving to my house on Christmas morning for the spare turkey. It's remembered fondly as the time my gluttony saved Christmas

Our worst Christmas meal was when the power went off half way through cooking the lunch! Was then off for 3 and a half hours so was a nightmare

We had to drive over to my DM house an hour away to finish the cooking!!

Do an online food shop, and book the slot well in advance! Have takeaway Christmas Eve, and do the veg prep Christmas Eve as well. Give all the children little jobs to do on Christmas Day.

I love hosting though do find it quite stressful!
I tend to do all the shopping the day before and make a list of everything that needs prepping / cooking with timings.
I get everyone OUT of my kitchen and ask to be left in peace to sort things out.
A glass of wine on the go often helps too!

Hosting hell: Last year we planned to host our first big family Christmas in our new home. We cleaned out the office, gave it a lick of paint and then spent ages decorating with lights, tinsel, etc.

We bought folding chairs so everyone had somewhere to sit and new plates and tableware so that everything would be perfect.

I spent weeks cooking and freezing canapés, trimmings and desserts etc, planned 2 types of meat for the main meal and generally threw the boat out.

Christmas morning my Mum cancelled. Gave no reason other than she didn't feel up to it. My brothers then arrived late as they'd spent the morning trying to persuade her to come. The food was overcooked and I was distraught. My brothers then decided to get massively drunk, one threw empty beer cans over the garden (giving a wonderful impression to our new neighbours) and the other threw up over the sink.

This year they can all FOTFATFOSM

My tip is keep it simple and remember it's just a meal, its not the last meal ever. No need to have 6 courses and enough food for double the people there. We just have a nice roast. Always have crackers which the kids love but no need to go overboard. I love Christmas, I just don't get why people need to make so ridiculously big.

In November I give up alcohol, chocolate, cake and creamy things and instead buy Christmas goodies and put them in a cupboard for December.

I start present shopping in September, working to a list of recipients and present ideas.

Buy christmas chocs/nuts/alcohol each week and put them away in a cupboard.

Wrap presents as I buy them, so there isn't ahuge mountain to deal with mid December.

Cut down card list and write and send all in one go.

Freeze some easy meals to oven heat in the days between christmas and new year.

I have a list of presents that I add to every time someone mentions something they like, I do this year round. Great for birthdays and Christmas

I sound like a grinch but I don't enjoy hosting family over the Xmas period - too noisy, too chaotic and exhausting. So my top tip is to remember that this is all about creating precious memories for young DC so just steel myself, have a glass of wine and it'll be over for another year before I know it.

Buy presents all year round.

Book your online supermarket shopping slots EARLY so you don't have to battle the crowds.

For Christmas, we divide up the list of food and get everyone to bring stuff (e.g. I do turkey, DM does wine, DSis does pudding...) so no-one is spending too much.

Make sure ahead of time that you have enough plates, cutlery and chairs, and that your brand new turkey tin actually fits in the oven (bitter experience...).

No festive disasters for me, but DB has had a couple. Once, while cooking the turkey their newly (badly) installed oven set fire to the wall and units, so they spent Christmas morning outside in the rain while the fire brigade hosed down their kitchen.

You can plan all you like...but when flu and tonsillitis hit on Christmas Day the last thing you want is to cook for 10 people. Know your emergency doctors and local (open) pharmacy locations. Stock up on paracetomol/ibuprofen/calpol etc as someone will inevitably need it. Lastly, don't forget about yourself in the run up to Christmas, spending Christmas Day feeling rotten is not ideal.

Hosting heaven: heavily pregnant with DD, I was too close to my due date to risk travelling anywhere. My in-laws wanted to keep up their tradition of having the family together for Xmas that meant everyone coming around to ours. But since I was too knackered to do anything, DH's parents turned up with all the food, lots of presents, did all the cooking, cleared up and took all the mess away with them when they left. Perfect!

My Christmas nightmare was getting made redundant at the start of December

I spent the run up to Christmas agonising over every penny, I had to take back some if the gifts if bought my children because I didn't know how long it would take to get another job or sort out benefits

It really overshadowed our Christmas, especially as a single parent

Christmas nightmare was the year that both the children (aged 8 and 3 at the time) got a D&V bug that literally started just after midnight (so just into Christmas Day) - a total write-off for all of us. It lasted for about five loooooong days & nights for DC2 so I'm not sure we even celebrated properly that year...

Most successful soiree was pre-children I'm afraid to report - mulled wine and mince pie party for 30 - kept it simple and it was a fantastic evening!

Feel that [santa] feeling coming on...

I have never hosted Christmas as I live in such a small place but if I could host I would cheat and buy all the vegetables ready prepared to save time so I would have more time with family and away from the kitchen.

Spread the cost by buying cards in the January sales. Then start to buy stamps, napkins throughout the year.

Deposit already paid on the turkey, so that's a little less to buy at the crucial time.

Get as much frozen as you're prepared to- know your deal breakers for fresh though.

Start writing cards at the beginning of December to get them sent in time.

For the day itself, no-one gets waited on except for for the first round of nibbles & drinks. After that they can help themselves while I hide in the kitchen cooking & drinking Mimosas

My top tip is to go out to eat on Christmas Eve or have a takeaway. It means the kitchen is clear to prep your food for the morning, and reduces stress a lot!

My OP tip would be keep it simple.

The first time I hosted a family Christmas I planned a massive complicated menu of Nigella recipes including 3 types of stuffing. We were in a flat with a single oven. The meal was 2 hours late. Luckily we had lots of crisps and nuts in. My FIL walked on on me carving the turkey on the kitchen floor. I was out of workshop space.

Last year I bought everything from marks and Spencer's and LIDL on Christmas Eve. Much more relaxed, cheaper and better tasting.

We tend to have just dh, the children and I for lunch, then an open house buffet tea for whoever wants to come in the evening. It works well as most food can be done in advance and I get to actually enjoy the day and spend time with family.

My tip is to keep it simple. You won't need all of the food/drink you think you need. Your children won't need/use half of the things you might be tempted to get them. Don't send cards - bad for the environment and nobody will notice. Keep it simple and leave yourself time to relax and enjoy things - nothing else really matters.

One year I had Christmas dinner with my friends it was ace, one year we hosted my mum and dad and everything went fab though they run up was incredibly stressful - one year we got so sozzled it was a wonder we didn't poisin each other! (Pre dc !)My tips are try to have a idea who to buy for a when. Christmas decs up at the last minute (though will have to rethink now I have dc!) And if you want to be just your family Christmas day there's no shame in it. I see my dm and sdad Christmas eve and my ddad and smum. Boxing day and my dp parents wherever we can fit them in as they're easy works for us!!