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With any luck, God and Boris willing, this  will be joyous and erase the sad memories of last year.<br>Children will be taken to the panto, churches (and pubs and restaurants) will be open and welcoming, and we can revive the traditional family [https://www.reddit.com/r/howto/search?q=Christmas Christmas].<br>Certainly, I'm hoping to do that. Last year we'd just moved into a new house but hadn't yet sold the old one down the lane, so between them we could accommodate everyone.<br><br>We'd planned a last hurrah to say goodbye to our home of 45 years, and to celebrate our new house. Then, with just days to go, we were in  again.<br>I'd ordered a 20lb turkey and forgotten to cancel it.<br>But all was well: my husband John and I had a wee roast duck, and the staff at the local care home (for whom I was cooking Friday night suppers) got an awful lot of turkey pie.<br>I've always loved Christmas, mostly I suspect because I am naturally bossy and it allows me to be  Bee, making sure Christmas runs like clockwork.<br><br>Well, that's always the plan. But when I think of Christmases past, the disasters loom large.<br>         Prue Leith shared advice for decorating your home this festive season as she attempts to revive traditional family Christmases.<br><br>Pictured: Prue with her dogs Teazle (left) and Tattie<br> The time a nephew inadvertently turned off the oven after making his breakfast fry-up and, when I opened it at lunchtime, what should have been our slow-roast Christmas dinner was stone cold and raw. <br>Or when the dog ate the ham, or the time I thought deep-frying chestnuts would make peeling them easy, and I didn't slit their skins so they exploded like fireworks, spraying hot fat all over the kitchen.<br>Once I served prunes soaked in port for pud.<br><br>I'd decided, since they were already so soft, not to cook them, which meant the alcohol was undiminished and, since we'd already had Champagne and wine, we all got drunk as lords. <br>Then there was the year we had a Nativity play and I had the bright idea of bringing our donkeys into the Nativity scene.<br>One ate the straw in the crib and the other peed on the floor.<br>   RELATED ARTICLES              <br><br><br><br>Share this article<br>Share<br><br><br>Yet we all have glorious memories of Christmas too. Of going carol-singing with the children dressed as kings on the donkeys and me leading my horse-turned-camel (thanks to a cushion-filled hump). Of making snowmen in the days when we got serious snow in the Cotswolds. <br>Of everyone stirring the Christmas cake mix and making a wish.<br><br>Of the children shouting up the chimney to Father Christmas with impossible demands. Of ‘games night' for grown-ups - mostly charades and a lot of booze.<br>Every family has its Christmas traditions and mine may well not resonate with yours, especially as mine are particularly old-fashioned and traditional because they started in the mid-70s and continued uninterrupted for 20 years, with my brother and sister-in-law coming to us one year and we going to them the next.<br>         Prue said you don't need much in the way of decoration other than masses of holly with lots of berries.<br><br>Pictured: Prue with her splendid festive table<br>Since then, with our children grown and with families of their own and with their own in-laws to consider, the alternate-year tradition has broken down. And since between us we now boast 16 grandchildren and counting, getting all of us together would be impossible, even if we had the beds.<br>Moving house had me briefly deciding to junk our old Christmas decorations.<br><br>Not least because our new modern house has no mantelpieces to drape swags (garlands of greenery that taper at each end) under. I had thoughts of starting afresh with cool new objets from some expensive design shop. <br>slot deposit pulsa</a> please visit our own internet site.