There’s a common pattern that happens for a lot of people when the Christmas period is coming up. You’re filled with excitement at what a wonderful time of year Christmas really is and then all of a sudden you’re filled with equal amounts of dread at the sheer amount of stuff that needs to be done for the actual day itself. Well, the truth is that it’s not really possible to take all of the stress out of the festive season if you are the one doing the cooking or buying the gifts, but there are things that you can do to make it a little bit easier. Here are just a few things to check off your last minute Christmas list. Whatever you do, don’t buy all of your Christmas chocolates and treats in November like I did as i’ve already eaten and replaced most of them!Get the last bits of food ready

One of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people make come Christmas time is that they leave all of the cooking until the big day. However, if you want to make life a whole lot easier on yourself, there’s plenty of meal prep you can do well in advance. For things like roast potatoes, you could peel, chop, par-boil, and freeze them days, or even weeks in advance. Then you can roast them from frozen, making this vegetable a lot more convenient. There are all sorts of bits of meal prep that you can deal with in advance so you don’t have to worry about it on the day. You can make Christmas pudding a month or more in advance. You could bake mince pies and freeze them weeks in advance and you could even do the same with things like cauliflower cheese – make, freeze and then pop in the oven to bake on the day.

Make sure that you’ve found the right gifts

Last-minute gift shopping is never fun. It’s stressful and difficult and miserable and yet so many of us still do it. Well, to make life easier this year, make sure that you’ve got the right gifts without having to rush around on Christmas eve. If you’ve realised that you’ve missed someone then there are plenty of ways to get a gift to them in time. This is of course more difficult if they live on the other side of the world, but you could always send flowers or a gift directly to them from a local supplier in their country. That way you can also save time on things like wrapping and postage. If they are in the UK, you could consider a gift that you can just print out and put in an envelope or even just email to them – things like experiences and subscriptions. Check out my ideas for last-minute paperless gifts.Give yourself some kind of schedule

This might sound overly rigid but the truth is that if you really want to make sure that your Christmas goes smoothly, the best thing that you can do is to give yourself some kind of schedule to follow. That way, you’re going to be able to keep things on track, and the chances of things falling apart are a whole lot smaller. Unexpected things do always happen to shake things up, so it’s good to be flexible; but having a plan for your Christmas day can even make being flexible around things that go wrong a lot easier.

Of course, one thing that you should always remember is that Christmas is about family and having fun together. Sure, having everything perfect is nice, but the reality is that if a few things go wrong that really doesn’t make a difference at all. As long as you’re there with the people you love, it doesn’t matter if the turkey’s cooked unevenly or that the presents aren’t wrapped perfectly. Especially after the year we’ve had, remember what is important and what is not. It’s Christmas! So just enjoy yourself!

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