About five years ago I was sitting with my friend Becky B somewhere around New Year and she was tapping out something on her phone.
“Who are you texting?” I said, rudely.
“I’m not texting,” she said. “I’m making notes to myself about New Year.”
“What notes? Why?”
“You know, a debrief. To myself,” she said. “For next New Year.”
“Oh my god,” I said. “That is brilliant.”
I have done this ever since. Every holiday or significant, possibly repeatable event, gets a Note in my Notes app. It is reporting from the field about what has just happened, for Future You.
This is my 2023 Note To Self from the house we stay in St David’s every summer:
“It’s the left-hand turn off before the golf club
Beach car park is £6
Bring: own pillow, apron, gloves, salad dressing, salt, food bag clips, nice wine glasses, 3-way plug, EYELINER SHARPENER, sieve, tongs, corkscrew, talcum powder, cotton buds, brown hair ties, kirby grips.
Dolphin trips booked through Falcon Boats”
And so what would I say about this Christmas? Having done Christmas in my current state (married, children, own house) for many years now, I have streamlined the process, but what I want to say to Me 2024 is:
Don’t go anywhere at Christmas if you can possibly help it. This year we went nowhere and it has been, and continues to be, bliss. In previous years I have insisted on haring off here and there before, during, after and I now realise it plays havoc with my nerves. This year the children have been able to play with their gifts, we have efficiently polished off all the leftovers and - most important - we have been here for significant bin collections.
Have spare tea towels to hand as you will soak through the first set due to all the washing up. Christmas Day ought to be re-named Washing Up Day.
Buy new apron FOR BEST as you are in apron all day and the old one covered in bleach stains not very nice for guests to look at.
This year we par-boiled the potatoes on Christmas Eve and then froze them in a layer in the freezer. We roasted them from frozen but hesitated over how long they would take. We reckoned an hour, but it is more like 1hr 20 or 30.
At Christmas lunch we pushed everyone capable out for a walk between lunch and pudding. This allowed for a first-stage tidying up, a quiet nap for geriatrics, and a working up of a pudding appetite. A huge success: the first time I have ever seen a Christmas pudding finished and the pudding plate scraped clean. Also: if you really want to set your pudding alight properly, so that everyone goes “Oooooo!”, you need to use very fresh brandy. Our pudding was alight for so long we got bored and had to blow it out.
At our lunch table we had a person who wasn’t a family member and it was terrific as everyone was on best behaviour and it made it all feel like a party.
I set up a playlist with a few Christmas albums on it, so that we had hours of music just rolling on in the background. This is important for lulls in conversation.
Just a small pat on the back to myself for buying that ginormous, ugly steel plate warmer in 2021: it performed heroically this year.
If you host Christmas, the clean-up job is absolutely immense - see point 2. You effectively clean every single pot, plate, pan and utensil that you own. The only way to deal with this is to say to yourself, “I love this. I LOVE THIS.” Have plenty of assorted bin bags to hand, (compost, paper recycling, garbage), and yay for being there for bin collection day.
How about you? What are your Notes to Self from Christmas this year? Or are there Notes from previous years that strike you as particularly effective and smart? Please leave a comment below in the handy box to amuse and inform the group.
The lesson for me is that joy can be accessed at any moment, it's not dependent on the achievement of an outcome.
Ok... so apart from being super annoying and saying... it’s only a roast. Get your bread sauce, roasties par-boiled, Jamie’s gravy done on the 9th Dec with everyone else etc. And freeze. Buy disposable roasting trays but recycle! Brandy sauce can be made and frozen in advance. Pud made, cake made (both end of Nov). Then the battle is won. 2 x dish washer loads later your laughing along to Elf and half cut on the champers on the big day. Job done! 🥂