Christmas is my favourite time of year. I love decorating, making gingerbread houses (I now make three houses a year - if only I could live in them my housing crisis would quickly be averted) and wrapping presents. I love the food, the time spent with family and the excuse to buy large quantities of red and green m&m’s. I start my Christmas shopping in October, my Christmas craft in November and try to have my tree up by the first of December. I buy all the Christmas editions of my favourite home loving magazines and I ALWAYS try to fit too much in before Christmas often ending in a mad rush on Christmas eve to finish making puddings, presents and potato salad.

Then in just a few brief days it’s all over for another year and I get really down. A whole year until Christmas comes again? No more excuses for eating chocolate and drinking champagne before 11am? No more advent calendar drawers to open? No more days off work? As I take the Christmas decorations down I feel a real grief and sadness. I know I’m not alone in this either. This year however, I’m putting into place some strategies to reduce the post Christmas let down.

Firstly I’m booking my next bout of annual leave in now. This means that when I return to work after Christmas I have something to look forward to. Something to plan. I find that if I keep looking forward it stops me looking back and being depressed about Christmas being over.

Secondly. I’m making sure I don’t do all my catching up with friends before Christmas. The effects of this are two-fold. Number one it stops me from over-committing myself before Christmas. Number two, it helps me to have pleasant experiences in January and February and not just limit myself to pre-Christmas.

Thirdly, Richard and I have committed to going to the beach once a week for the next couple of months. This means I get out of the house, I get to enjoy God’s great creation, I get a bit of sun, and I continue to do nice things even after Christmas.

Lastly, I’m going to take lots of photos over Christmas and use them as my screen saver. This way I can still remember how fun Christmas was and can start to think what I’d like to do the same and what I’d like to do differently next year.

Hopefully, by putting these strategies into place I won’t have the lows that i often get after Christmas.