How To Tuesday: Surviving Christmas

After a whole 20 years of celebrating Christmas, here are some tips that I have picked up along the way. Hopefully they will keep you from snapping at the Christmas table and throwing mashed potatoes all over your cousin who decides to bring up politics and religion while everyone is sitting down at dinner.

Before Christmas Day:

♥ Clean the house. Obviously not the most cheer-inducing thing that you can do, but you don't want to get home from a week of celebrating with the family and have to do the laundry, wash the dishes and such when you just want to lie on the couch digesting all the food from the past couple of days.

♥ Buy enough wrapping paper so that you don't have to give presents wrapped in a JB HiFi bag. You're probably rolling your eyes and thinking "Well, clearly I always buy paper", but when you've done the Christmas Eve shopping dash, it's pretty devastating when you are missing that extra couple of centimetres of wrapping.

♥ Pick an outfit for Christmas Day. It might sound horribly girly and over-the-top but it kind of sucks when all your favourite outfits are in the wash and you have to wear a singlet, shorts and thongs to your family dinner. Plus, families are extra camera happy at this time - just something to be wary of...

♥ OK, this IS horribly girly and over-the-top, and not a tip so much as a confession, but I always sleep in nice PJ's on Christmas Eve so when I leap up at six a.m to dig into my Christmas stocking I look OK and not like a drooling, rat's-nest-headed bag of crap.

♥ Remember that not everyone can have an awesome Christmas. St Vinnies has their annual Christmas drive and it is a very worthy cause to donate to.

On Christmas Day...

♥ Bring along a range of batteries to go in the toys you buy the younger children in your family. Even if you didn't supply the gifts yourself, you will be the coolest aunty/cousin/godmother in the world AND you won't have to play hide and seek out in the sun for five hours.

♥ Keep the peace at the dinner table. If your grandparents are strict Catholics then don't start spouting off about how much you hate organised religion. If your cousin has dropped out of uni recently then don't loudly ask why. If your aunty is still single then don't point it out repeatedly in front of everyone. All of that can wait until another time.

♥ Don't get too drunk. On Christmas there's a lot of champagne flowing, people refilling your glass, a need to wash down that Christmas ham with something yummy... but it is a bit awkward for the rest of the fam when you're dancing on the table or vomiting into your pudding. Save it for New Year's (or, you know, never).

♥ I think Christmas is kind of like the races in the sense that everyone's dolled up but forgets to wear sunscreen. Here in Perth it is meant to be in at least the high 30's for Christmas so please remember to sunscreen up!

♥ If you're a poor student like me, TAKE HOME SOME LEFTOVERS. I didn't do this last year and cried when I was craving a turkey sandwich the next day. Don't worry about looking greedy, everyone will be jealz that you bagsed the best bits of the feast.

♥ Enjoy the time with your family. Even if you have to go the Christmas Day mass, even if you have to face interrogation from the grandparents*, even if you have to fake enthusiasm at ANOTHER pair of socks and undies, it's still pretty great.

x

*Not MY grandparents, obvs, who are pretty freakin' awesome.