1. early nights – bed by 10pm.
2. tiny lights.
3. herbal tea.
4. easy food – where you can get good ingredients and cook them simply. If you don’t like turkey have what you like instead. When we lived in England it was one week where it was really nice to pay the extra for an organic veg box delivered to the door (apart from the year when we ordered a Christmas box and it contained no Christmas veg ingredients! Check first).
5. say no when you don’t want to go.
6. targeted television rather than TV binges. Downton, yes. Celebrity game show you have never heard of – no.
7. little treats.
8. find the magic – track Father Christmas here: http://www.noradsanta.org
9. meditate.
10. do yoga.
11. leave early if you want to.
12. limit alcohol – to none if that’s what feels best to you, or less if that feels best.
13. quality chocolate in small amounts.
14. channel your inner ballerina with Sleek Technique or your favourite barre workout.
15. Deliciously Ella Christmas special
16. less is more with decorations.
17. candlelight
18. time to journal and dream.
19. visualise your ideal Christmas day.
20. if the stress of making Christmas special is too much, have a second Christmas day just for you, free of pressures.
21. don’t make the way Christmas turns out mean something about you.
22. where necessary play dysfunctional family bingo.
23. buy yourself a present you really want that is within your budget.
24. get up early on Christmas morning and look at the sky with a warm drink cradled in your hands.
25. do at least one thing that you love to do on Christmas day – play the piano, paint, cook, create.