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The chill-out Christmas challenge!

I adore everything about Christmas – the food, the twinkly lights and that anticipation of unwrapping something or giving someone you love a gift you know they will love.

I do, however, think we (ok especially me!) put too much pressure on ourselves trying to make everything perfect. And there is just SO much to do! This year, I have 27 people to buy for, a family gathering to organise, a huge amount of wrapping to do, a multitude of Christmas cards to write – and of course that’s at the same time as juggling all those other elements of daily life: work, cooking, cleaning, children etc. Despite being able to acknowledge all that – I still want everything to be perfect!

I make my own cards and so do the children, I try to choose special, personal gifts for everyone – all beautifully wrapped of course, I want to cook everything from scratch and for everyone to sit at the table peacefully and enjoy every morsel. I even like each of us to take it in turns to open our gifts on Christmas morning (while I am making note of who sent what for the thank you cards!!) Yes, yes I AM expecting too much, especially for three under-fives.

Last year, while trying to be Mrs Perfect, I ended up in tears after worrying that the turkey hadn’t fully defrosted and I was going to poison us all. It’s just not worth getting stressed about.

Also, this weekend whilst out on a rare, and very cold,
night out I saw so many homeless people sat on the
pavement begging us festive revellers for loose change.
It really did put things into perspective for me.

So, although I can’t compromise on that beautiful gift wrapping and hand-made cards – that’s going just too far, I am going to go with the flow on Christmas Day, we will eat an M&S lunch at my parents’ house, the children can run amok and I WILL relax and have fun and treasure the fact that I am incredibly lucky to have a loving family, plenty of food to eat and a warm and cosy home.

In the true spirit of Christmas I am not going to encourage you to buy a diary or cookbook this week, or to enter our competition, but if you have just a small amount spare perhaps you could consider giving a donation to this homeless charity. http://england.shelter.org.uk/home

According to Shelter, 75,000 children will wake up on Christmas morning, homeless.

It’s just heartbreaking.