When I was young, free and childless the Christmas period used to be about spending time with friends and family, gift giving, mums Christmas roast and consuming as much alcohol over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as humanly possible however, now I am a mum it’s got a whole new meaning. I don’t just mean how amazing it is to see your little ones believe in the magic of an elderly mince pie eating gift giver who will come and deliver everything mummy and daddy told them no to throughout the year … no no no, it’s our all time favourite emotion as parents, stress!

As if we don’t deal with enough stress throughout the year we now have added stress for Christmas and what’s worse is the majority of it is so unavoidable! The pressure to have the ‘perfect Christmas’ with the overflowing presents under the Christmas tree, the biggest Christmas dinner and the insta worthy photos in your matching jumpers. How often does this actually happen, will someone please tell me!? I spend the most of the morning in my pjs building toys, losing instructions and fighting off two toddlers as they fight over each other’s toys because clearly there’s are not good enough, while there are some mums out there swanning about in the Christmas apron, hair and makeup done, kids writing out thank you cards and everyone awaiting their turkey dinner that they started yesterday. How!? Just how? If like me you are totally unprepared this year then don’t panic! Mums always deliver and we don’t need to work ourselves in to the ground trying to provide the TV film worthy Christmas.

Your babies first Christmas will be special even without you going over the top! If you want something special to remember the day by maybe a little babygrow? A nice family photo? Even a bauble for the tree!? Just do not, I repeat! Do not go all OTT under the pressure of having the best ever first Christmas. Your child will not remember and tbh neither will you! You’ll be so busy trying to keep your baby happy during all the commotion, attention and change in routine, as well as cooking or traveling to a family members, so chances are it’ll all be one big blur in your memory.

Just because Mary from down the road has brought her 2 year old 40 presents or Sue on social media has spent £400 each on her children, does not mean that is what has to be done! We set a limit for our children and last year my son wanted a bike, this meant he got 3 presents to open and that was that. One thing I hate is when people post a photo of their tree and at the bottom there is overflowing stack of presents and the caption “is this enough?’… You know damn well it’s enough sally! You’re just trying to show off! Whilst it’s exciting to wake up as a child and see that let’s be honest, how much of that actually gets played with? Where’s it all going to go? The majority of people admit to getting themselves in some kind of debt to buy all of the presents but, all this does to children is set them up to think it’s what will happen each year and the older your children get the more expensive the gifts will get, it’s really not worth the finical stress.

If you’re cooking your first Christmas dinner this year just remember it’s just a slightly dressed up Sunday roast. I cooked my first one last year for my family including my mum Dad and nan. I panicked. I got my mum to cook the beef and gammon and I also got her to make the stuffing because I didn’t realise it was simply just stuffing with sausage meat in it! So basically all I made was the chicken, veg, roasties and Yorkshire puddings lol. Everyone was more than pleased with their dinners and I really did make it seem more hard work than it would of been. So, don’t stress! Cook your normal Sunday roast, chuck some sausage meat in your stuffing and some sprouts in your saucepan and job done.

We spend so much time worrying (although seriously, don’t touch my tree once iv decorated it!) that we sometimes miss out on the actual fun of the build up, the shopping trips with a pit stop for a drink at the German market in town, shopping for new decorations and bribing the children with seeing Father Christmas if they are good in the centre… Harry Potter!! Every year without fail, I’m a celeb? No just me? Ok… lol

This year I am making a promise to myself, to enjoy it more for not only me but for my children too. To bring extra magic and excitement to it all for the kids and to try and swear less in the traffic jams because everyone just needed to go shopping the same time as me. And to eat less chocolate, must not get fate.