8 tips for an idle and restful festive break

It's the most wonderful time of the year... but it can be the most stressful period too. With demands on your time, money and patience, it's easy to get lost in the stress of the festive season and miss out on those things that really matter. To help you make it through Christmas we’ve compiled our top 8 tips for an idle and restful festive break. Merry Christmas

Work at making Christmas as long and as languorous as possible - There are Twelve Days of it, after all. The aim should be to do very little from Christmas Day until –New Years Eve. The fact that New Year falls on a Monday means many of us will not have to be back at our desks until midweek.
Let go of the perfect Christmas - Know that ‘perfection’ is not about the quality of your Christmas dinner, or the size of the presents under the tree, it’s about the ‘quality’ of the time you spend with those close to you. Focus on having a happy Christmas, not a perfect one.
Play games - The old games such as cards, chess, Monopoly and dominoes are best. Not least because they can be played together by all age groups in all ages.
Avoid leaving Christmas buying until Christmas Eve - instead…do it online, get it delivered to your doorstep or buy digital presents for like gift cards or online courses.
Read books - Thankfully, Kindles and ebooks in general are dead and gone and the real book is back. What finer luxury in life is there than to lie on the sofa deep in a hardback book?
Watch old movies - What would Christmas be like without Kevin Alone Home?
Sleep - Obviously this is a time when you can sleep whenever you like and not feel remotely guilty about it (even if everyone else is off for a brisk walk). So make the most of it.
Share the work - I hear your complaint: it’s all very well to talk about lying around doing nothing except for sleeping and reading, but someone has to make Christmas happen. If you are host/hostess, imagine you are managing a small cleaning and catering business. Family and guests are your staff. Have a meeting and apportion tasks. If Christmas is about anything, it is family harmony, and that means plenty of loafing about for everyone.