Five days to go and everyone seems to be going into overdrive.  Now if you followed my planner then hopefully you are all serene and, can I say, slightly smug?  But if you are now running round like that headless chicken STOP!  Christmas Day and the festive season is about family and friends and that is the important thing not that you have the latest must have food on the table or the best decorated house/tree/table.  Do what you can and if someone moans on the day that there isn’t a particular thing to eat tell them tough and the shops will be open the next day and they can go and buy it!!!!

Talking about the table how do you set yours for Christmas Day?  We always eat in the evening and this came about from when the Boys were little.  They always had breakfast at home, took sandwiches and things for lunch to school and we had dinner as a family every evening, so if you tried to feed them their main meal at lunchtime they really didn’t like it and never ate much.  On Christmas day we have hot chocolate/tea in the morning and mince pies whilst opening the presents, at lunch they have what they call nibbly bits (sausage rolls, quiches, satay sticks etc) and we then have Christmas dinner at about 5.00pm. 

Here is our Christmas Table set for six of us and a one year old in a high chair at one end.  Unlike a normal dinner party when you have  more glasses on the table and often more flatware I try to minimise the amount of things on the table as there are more people and dishes.  So one glass each, depending on what people are drinking, knives and forks for the main meal and flatware for dessert (we don’t have a starter). 

If you have small children but would like candles on the table it is best to use tea lights in holders, if you have older children or only adults then proper dinner candles look lovely.  We always have Christmas crackers on the table, although I think they are the only thing I hate about Christmas.  I find them superfluous and hate the things in them but the children (even now they are older) love them.  I have, in the past, had the crackers where you put your own gift in, but having bought gifts for everyone finding something the right size to go in a cracker is just annoying so have not done that since!

Here is our table set for just four and as you can see you can have more on the table.   It is a family tradition from when I was little and one which I have carried on with the Boys and DH, is a table present.  It always adds a little surprise, especially for guests, and is never very expensive but I try and get something specifically for everyone at dinner. 

Our table set just for three which was Christmas Eve a few years ago and again more things on the table and a different candle holder.  As you can tell I love a white cloth on the table for Christmas with white napkins but obviously red is popular but again there are no hard and fast rules.  I think I use white because my Grandmother always did in her home.

Some people always have fresh flowers on their table for Christmas Day which is fine if you can find good fresh flowers at this time of year.  A lot, certainly in the UK, are imported and do not last very long so if you would like fresh flowers do not buy them until Christmas Eve.

However you dress your table for the big day it will look lovely and magical and that really is the point.

Eldest called round this morning to see me and collect some gifts he had had delivered here instead of their place (Girlfriend is terrible with parcles arriving!) and had tea and mince pies with me (DH is still trolling around the countryside this morning and at one of his Christmas Lunches this afternoon).  Of course Eldest couldn’t resist going to wake his brother up, who had been at the swimming club last night coaching.  I did warn him not to poke the bear but he did anyway so there was a lot of shouting and laughing, they still behave the same way as when they were six and ten!!!!  When he left I got the rest of my work finished so that should hopefully be it now for the rest of the week with everyone winding down to the Christmas holidays, saying that I did have forty emails to deal with this morning!!! 

Tonight I am only cooking dinner for Youngest and I, so will be also icing the Christmas cake and doing the Yule Log and show you pictures tomorrow. 

Happy Tuesday Everyone.

Christmas Hugs, Susie xx