Simple Tips to Help Make Christmas Day Special

Christmas Day always feels like an extra-special family gathering – and thanks to the public holidays, there is an even greater opportunity to get together for a truly relaxing experience with excellent food and company on this day.

Explore our favourite, easy tips for a memorable and hassle-free day below:

1. Personalised Touches

Personalised touches are a simple, thoughtful way to make every guest feel appreciated and extra special during the day.

One way to do this is to create name cards/place settings for each guest – you can find beautiful Christmas festive themed templates on the internet which can be printed with names already on them. 

Or, if you prefer to craft by hand, buy place card sized card stock from your local variety or art store and use a metallic gold, green or red pen to set the tone!

You can also leave a small gift, such as a tiny Christmas pudding, mini cellophane bag of festive biscuits/chocolates, ornament or another token under each guest’s chair or near their place setting.

2. Make Your Own Mark

You may already follow your own customs or Christmas traditions, but there is always room to create your own new family traditions. Some lovely ideas include:

•    Sharing is Caring – asking each guest to bring their favourite festive food item, will not only help the kitchen chef, but you’ll also have a beautiful, flavourful table of dishes that create a lot of conversation (and recipe sharing too)! You can ask ahead what each person is bringing to avoid duplicates.

•    Fill Each Other’s Cups – place an empty paper cup with a pen some bits of blank paper next to each guest. 

Take a pause between meals and ask each guest to write something positive about each other on the paper, fold it and place in each person’s cup. You can share with each other, or everyone can keep this as a secret little pick-me-up whenever they need it.

A more simplified version of this is to simply go around and share your favourite thing about the person next to you/opposite you with them or the group.

3. Cater to All of the Senses

•    Smell:  Light some delicious, fragrant candles (we love festive scents like gingerbread and spiced apple) and pop a bunch of fresh flowers on the table for a gorgeous smell and beautiful view.

•    Sight: You may wish to have a festive dress code; for example, asking guests to wear a touch or red or green. You can also use Christmas colours in your table setting to put everyone in the mood to celebrate! 

If you’d prefer to have a traditional winter wonderland, cosy Christmas, opt for crisp white and cool silver décor. You can also find a static gif video of a cackling fireplace on Youtube which can be played on the TV to set the mood. It’ll be *almost* as good as the real thing, but without the heat on a summer’s day!

•    Taste: It’s easier than ever to cater to a range of different tastes with more and more options for vegetarian/vegan, celiac/gluten-free and dairy-free readily available. 
You can even find our classic Pudding Lady Traditional Christmas Pudding in vegan and gluten-free varieties (yes, they are as delicious as our original) – but hurry, as they sell out quickly in the months before Christmas!

•    Touch: This is the time to use your favourite silverware, crockery and provide some fuss-free finger food options to make life easy and sociable!

•    Sound: Set the tone with Christmas seasonal favourite songs, or if you have a big music lover or tech savvy guest in attendance, ask them ahead of time if they can curate a playlist everyone can enjoy. 

4. Our final (and easiest) tip? Prep Ahead Wherever Possible!

It’s never fun to rush around on Christmas day – especially when it’s easy to plan ahead and spend more time with your guests instead! 

Some suggestions from us:

•    If you do need to be in the kitchen delivering final touches to food, a nice idea is to set up a side table (or if your main table is large enough use that) to leave your guests with some batch made drinks, such as fruity mocktails or cocktails. They can pour themselves and add cut lemon/lime/orange slices too! 

•    If you plan on having treats like fruit mince pies on Christmas day, you can prepare the fruit mince weeks ahead and freeze it

•    When it comes to sauces, The Pudding Lady Simply Stirred range can be used as dressings and marinades on your salads, veggies and meats. 

There is also a delicious selection of sweet sauces like Spiced Dark Rum Custard Sauce,  Brandy Custard Sauce and Brandy and Vanilla Liqueur Sauce  for your cakes, scones and puddings.

•    For the fastest (and most mouth-watering) centre-piece, make your dessert the star on the festive table! For this exact reason we love to keep a Christmas Pudding on hand every Dec 25th, but it works fabulously with Christmas Cake, Sticky Date Pudding or Chocolate Fruit Cake too!

Bon Appetit, and Merry Christmas from our family to yours!