Christmas: to plan or not to plan?

Christmas has come and gone.

So what was all the fuss about? Some of us were planning and preparing for months; others ran around like scalded cats on Christmas Eve, hoping for inspiration for those last-minute gifts. Now it’s the post-Christmas sales and I’m tempted to buy those half-price Christmas crackers – but I fear I would have forgotten where I’d put them by the time next Christmas comes around. I’m simply not that well organised.

I put the Christmas tree up at the beginning of December, I enjoy buying gifts in the weeks that follow and I love sending and receiving news from friends far and near for the whole month – but I can’t start planning a year ahead.

What I do like to be prepared for, though, is the Christmas Day dinner. I have realised that if I prepare well enough ahead of time, it takes all the stress out of it – and then I can just enjoy cooking the turkey and putting together all the side dishes on the day itself.

Call it part of my obsessive compulsive disorder (aren’t we all somewhere on the OCD spectrum?) – but I find having a schedule something like this takes the heat out of the dinner (forgive the pun) and allows me to arrive at the table ready to enjoy the meal as much as anyone else.