Top 10 Christmas Hacks & Tips

At Christmas you may need all the help you can get, especially as a new parent, having to organise a family gathering for the first time. 

Here are the top 10 tips and hacks to get you through the festive period.

1. Life Support for Your Tree

Keep real Christmas trees away from radiators. It's the quickest way to get them to drop their needles. 

Place them in an unheated conservatory instead, it will soon warm up with interior doors open & lots of guests. 

If the needles do start to drop have some dark green tinsel ready to fill the gaps.

2. Extra Fridge Space

With the house all toasty & warm, loads of guests & a kitchen running at full steam fridge space is at a premium.

Reserve the fridge itself for all the high-risk food items such as meat, fish, dairy and seafood, as these could cause food poisoning if not stored at exactly the right temperature.

Vegetables and drinks can all go outside. A secure garage is ideal, or a garden shed as long as it is pest free. 

If the temperature is around the seasonal norm it should keep things nice and cool.

If you don't have a garage the boot of your car is the next best thing.

3. Cook In Advance

Many Christmas dinner essentials can be prepared in advance and frozen. 

This will give you more time on the day to relax and enjoy the company. 

Check recipes but roast potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings & mince pies all freeze well. 

Red cabbage actually tastes better after a spell in the freezer.

4. Travel Plans

With millions of us planning to hit the roads on Christmas Day it's the one time you really don't want to have car trouble. 

A quick check of all the car basics a day or two beforehand, when the shops are still open, could save hours of heartache waiting for an overstretched recovery service to sort you out. 

Make sure you have enough fuel for planned journeys as many garages will be closed, especially in rural areas which might be unfamiliar territory.

Similarly, check tyre pressures, including the spare, top up windscreen wash & coolant, check the oil level and make sure you have a torch & know where the jack is.

To be on the safe side you could pack an AA emergency kit.

5. Chill Bottles Quickly

It's lovely when a guest brings a surprise bottle of fizz, but a waste if it ends up being drunk warm.

The quickest way to chill a bottle at home is to wrap the bottle in a damp tea towel and place it in the freezer.

The water conducts the heat away from the bottle far quicker than air so that you can enjoy the wine at its best.

6. Warm Plates

Putting a turkey dinner with all the trimmings on to cold plates is sacrilege. The only problem is that there is never enough room in the oven on Christmas Day to warm the plates as well.

This is where your microwave comes in handy. Wipe the top of each plate with a clean damp cloth & then place in the microwave 4 at a time for approximately 3 minutes depending on the wattage. 

This does not work with gilt plates, unfortunately. 

7. Great Hiding Place

Keeping presents hidden from the children before Christmas morning can pose a problem. 

Some kids have an unnatural knack for discovering hiding places and modern homes often do not have many options.

One solution is to keep them in a locked suitcase. 

They may well guess they are inside but they won't get their hands on them until you produce the key.

8. Peace and Quiet

Next time you are out shopping grab some ice cream cones, some tubes of coloured icing, edible decorating balls & sugar strands.

Then when you need half an hour of peace from the kids dish them out. 

They can turn the upside down cones into Christmas trees and decorate them. 

The sugar strands are the fairy lights.

9. Rubbish Box

Once you've finished all the packing and wrapping take the biggest empty box you have and the leftover paper. 

Cover the box as creatively as possible and make a festive rubbish box.

The kids will actually enjoy clearing up the mess once they have opened their presents.

10. Toppling Trees

If your Christmas tree is placed on a corner the temptation is to ignore the back & place the decorations where they can be seen.

Unfortunately, this can lead to your tree being very unbalanced, requiring little effort to send it flying, especially by pets & small children.

To make the most of your expensive decorations make some balls of salt dough (flour, water, plenty of salt) and press ribbons or pieces of string into them. 

Paint them or leave them plain but use these to balance out the side that is out of sight.