It's the 'all the trimmings' bit that can make Christmas dinner so stressful – and turn your usually welcoming kitchen into a no-go area. There are extra courses and dishes to contend with, the expectations of family and friends, and the pressure we put ourselves under to make everything perfect including the Christmas table ideas.
'Christmas can be a little like a wedding. We load all of our emotional hopes and dreams onto it, we have often quite fixed ideas about what it should be like, but in reality, it's only one day. We can make it whatever we want it to be, no one is marking you, it's not a test,' says Debora Robertson, author of Notes from a Small Kitchen Island: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of the Home.
