Family Merry Christmas

Welcome to Family Merry Christmas!

We are here to bring you a selection of ideas and resources

to make your Christmas easier, stress-free and more fun.

Let's start by watching a fun video by Santa . . .

Everybody wants to have a good time at Christmas but there is often so much stress from time pressure and a tight budget that the 12 Days of Christmas can seem like 12 Days of Hell. Sad to say, this season is when tempers fray and the divorce rate rockets. We need to take precautionary measures to make sure we enjoy the festive season and don't become one of its victims.

So what can we do to make Xmas time really special and trouble-free for you and your family in 2007?

First of all, you have to be organized. Last minute shopping is a killer. It raises the blood pressure and you often end up buying the wrong thing and paying over the odds.

Make three lists.

List 1 is the people you have to buy presents for (usually the most expensive one!). Put the people in order of importance so if you run out of money before you get to the bottom of the list at least you know you have your nearest and dearest covered.

List 2 is the decorations you need to buy. If you have kept stuff from last year then this could (hopefully) be a very short list.

List 3 is the food and drink you have to buy. It should be in two sections: dry/tinned/bottled/frozen goods and fresh food.

Now what you do is allocate money every week to each of the lists and then go out and buy whatever is at the top of each one. Do the same the next week, buying the second thing on each list. And so on until Christmas.

Even if your list is only 50% completed with a week to go you will still be way ahead of the game.

The second important thing to do is to decide what you really need to do at Christmas time.

Do you really need a 20 pound turkey that takes 3 days to defrost?

Do you have to cook a six course meal when everybody just wants to have a pizza while watching blockbuster movies?

Does every present have to have different wrapping paper?

We are not saying you should throw tradition out into the cold winter night. Tradition is a wonderful thing that helps make Christmas so magical. Just think about what you really need to do and what is non-essential.

We hope you find this website useful.

Merry Christmas!!!

P.S. If you want to know what Santa's favourites are for Christmas 2010 check out