A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas

There’s a weird amount of pressure for everything to be perfect on Christmas Day. Weird because modern life really doesn’t leave a lot of time for perfection, certainly if you were preparing everything from scratch.

The supermarket Christmas adverts tend to perpetuate this ideal, but then again, they have a lot of food to sell.

But what if you can’t achieve this perfect Christmas dream? Guess what? The world won’t end. It’s very much a case of those who matter won’t mind and those who mind really don’t matter.

Let’s start with decorations. This year, our tree lights don’t work. They are part of the little tree we have; it doesn’t matter. The decorations are on the tree, the tree is up, and our funny-looking, badly sewn, felt gingerbread biker sits atop it. I’d love to be more over the top with the decorations, but it’s not practical with the cat.

The house is getting tidier, but it won’t be immaculate by Christmas. It’ll be okay, though. Again, we have a cat, once the way is clear, the table is a shortcut for her to get across the room, whether we like it or not.

As much as I’d love to put on a perfect spread, I’ve never cooked a roast dinner, and Christmas isn’t the best time to try it for the first time! I make what I know I can manage – stuffing and cheese sauce, the rest is nibbles, sandwiches and sweets. This year I’m thinking of attempting some baking, but do you know what? If it goes a bit wrong, it really won’t matter. We’ll probably have something in that we can have instead.

Basically, the day is about more than perfect decorations, an ideal-looking homestead or a fine festive spread. Spend the day how you wish, eat what you want and if the food looks wonky, who cares?!