Here's how I'm planning Christmas in just five days
I have always been absolutely crackers about Christmas. As a small child I would sit next to the family tree, (decked out in its spangly 80s decorations), breathe in the heady pine scent and know that this, right here, was my bliss.
Adulthood has, in fact, made me more extreme. I start early. In the first week of September I text my friend Melissa, (the only other person I know who is crazier about Christmas than I am), and ask her what her theme is this year... Woodland Wonderland? North Pole?
Next, I start booking up Christmas shows. I do a stock-take of wrapping paper, cards and tags and measure last year’s Christmas jumpers against the kids to see if they’ve grown out of them (spoiler: they have). After this, I sit about drumming my fingers until my online grocery supplier releases their very Christmas slots and I pounce. In any quiet moment in between, I pore over Pinterest images of bedecked fireplaces, table settings and decorated trees.
For three years straight I organised a huge kids’ party with an entertainer. I got a friend to dress up as Father Christmas and hand out wrapped presents to the children. My house is decked out in fir branches, eucalyptus, red ribbons, wreaths and fairy lights with several scented candles stinking the place out for good measure.
But this year, disaster struck. A slow leak was discovered under our kitchen. The entire floor was going to have to come up. Plus, we had to admit, fourteen years of boisterous family life have taken their toll on the rest of the house. The skirting boards were held together by tea stains and ketchup splatters. Though the kids are now 11 and 13, some walls were still inscribed with indelible toddler scribbles.
The builders arrived in mid-October. “This will take two months,” said the foreman, Pawel. We had to move out. I would have my house back on 19 December.
“Fine,” I said. But it’s not fine. I can’t buy and hoard gifts, because there’s nowhere to put them. I can’t do a full stock-take of our Christmas decorations, because the hallway is blocked by builder detritus and I can’t get upstairs. I could decorate the house we are renting, but I will have to take it all down any minute, so it seems pointless.
I am bereft! I am wondering about like a sheepdog with no sheep, a hamster with no wheel, a reindeer with no sleigh. The clock is ticking. How am I going to cram months’ worth of Christmas prep into five days?
Christmas planning tips - from the experts
I decide to speak to experts about how to pare Christmas down to the essentials. After all, this time of year is really supposed to be about togetherness. Do we really need all this excess to have a happy one? Could this last-minute Christmas teach me a thing or two about letting go?
Clear the decks
Professional organiser Hannah Dickinson tells me that I’m focusing on the wrong things. “Any professional will tell you - before you Deck the Halls you need to clear the decks!” she says. While I can’t decorate for the builders, Hannah points out that I can direct my Christmas energy elsewhere: “this is a great time of year to declutter because people are visiting charity shops looking for items to give as gifts. Don’t wait until January.”
She is right. There are an awful lot of things sitting in packing boxes that need to be sorted and donated. I’ve been putting it off, but now I can tell myself that this is Christmas prep. It is, after all, a time for giving.
Free up the freezer
Clearing space in your fridge and freezer is also vital if last minute food shopping and prep is to go smoothly, says Hannah. Mine is stuffed with boxes of mystery items that definitely need to be chucked. At least that’s one thing in my house that doesn’t have MDF boards and tins of paint stacked up against it.
Make a list, and check it twice
If you only have days to tick off all the details then write yourself a detailed timetable advises Amy Shirlaw from Decluttering company Life/Edit. "Include when you need to have the Christmas jumpers, send out cards or put in the parsnips. Brain dump it all, sort it chronologically then you’ll have a reference point to stop your head from having to remember every little thing.”
Focus your festive gift-giving
If your Christmas present shopping is done in a whirlwind, she adds, then stick to the principle of “want, need, wear, read. These parameters help focus shopping so we don’t forget what we have bought, stop the ‘just one more thing’ thoughts and control spending.”
This is all great advice. As long as there’s a tree, a wreath, a Christmas candle and some carols playing, that really is enough, I tell myself. No-one will notice that I haven’t gone the full flashing-reindeer this year. Or will they?
For better or for worse, it seems I have trained my children to love Christmas paraphernalia as much as I do. So in truth, the whole family is down in the dumps about the lack of twinkling lights, festive scents and just that fizzing end-of-term feeling that you get with Christmas. It’s not the absence of any one detail. We miss the whole month-long parade of nonsense. The very merry spirit of maximalism that only comes at this time of year.
It is, after all, the season in which we most need to lean in to cheer. The afternoons get very dark and very cold. Often, everyone is ill. Christmas is that bright spot in the calendar that carries us through the coughs and colds and shortest days of the year. We need to make it shine as brightly, and burn as long, as possible.
So sure, I might only have time for the Christmas essentials this year. There won’t be a party or over the top decorations. I doubt I will send a single card. But what have I learnt? The fuss we make on typical years is absolutely worth it. Christmas 2025 is going to be massive.
You Might Also Like
