It shouldn’t just be booze, food and prezzies. Pat and Hereward Kaye offer twelve tips, which cut out the ‘material’ in favour of the ‘magical’ Christmas.

1. Countdown to Christmas. Most important. It reinforces and heightens the anticipation. Children love advent calendars, opening a mystery door each morning and counting down the days.

2. Country walks. Look for holly (with berries on) to decorate the house. Similarly, mistletoe, which is a parasite that you can find on many trees in woods, easy to spot with it’s distinctive leaves and white berries.

3. Edible decorations. Bake gingerbread stars, Xmas trees, angels, to hang upon the tree. Let the children help stir the Xmas cake and make a wish. As well as a cake you are making memories. You are giving them a tradition that they will carry forward into their ‘second family’ when they are the adults.

4. Blank videos. Telly’s good at this time of year but get in a stock of blank videos and put someone in charge (a child – adults can’t operate videos). Regard it as an opportunity to stock up on good films and programmes for the coming year, rather than a chance to keep the kids quiet while you attack the Christmas booze in the kitchen.

5. Inventive creations. Get them making things. Presents, decorations, items for the tree. Tinsel is an anti climax! Crepe paper is what you need; crepe paper, pritt stick and a ton of glitter. When we dress the tree with our kids, we have little pipecleaner santas with red crepe paper jackets and cotton wool beards that we ourselves made as children. On the next branch may be cardboard reindeer each painted brown (one with a red shiny nose, of course), the creations of our own children. Having pride of place at the top of the tree is a battered old fairy made by my sister forty years ago, with a dress cut from net curtains and an inch of old tights for wings.

6. Writing to Santa. As well as a letter, get them to put out a carrot for Rudolph and the moose guys, a mince pie and a glass of sherry for Santa and a brush for Santa’s windswept beard. Then they can wake up to a carrot with a bite out of it, a brush with strands of cotton wool in it’s bristles, crumbs of mince pie and an empty glass of sherry! (I know no one in their right mind drinks it these days, but on this occasion, it’s a must. It’s traditional.)

7. Midnight Mass. On Christmas Eve you really can’t beat midnight mass, even if it’s the only time you’ve stepped foot inside a church all year. However, be warned if you’re going on there after the pub. Some of the later verses in the carols can induce uncontrollable hilarity. One to particularly watch out for is ‘very sod’, about six verses in to ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’. And don’t go massively over the top on the two quiet occasions of ‘O Come Let Us Adore Him’, followed by the loud one. You don’t want to end up the only person singing.

8. Eat late. There’s nothing worse – in my experience – than a blow out meal in the middle of the day, followed by acres of endless telly. On top of the lunchtime booze, you can wind up poleaxed on the sofa at seven o’clock wondering when it’s okay to go to bed! We eat around six. You keep everyone happy till then with a singsong around the piano in the morning, when the kids have tired of the presents in their stockings, and a massive presents opening session around the tree in the afternoon.

9. Take it slowly. If you open the presents one at a time rather than simultaneously, you share in the delight of the person giving and the person receiving each present. Port and mince pies oil the wheels for the adults, nibbles stave off hunger for the kids. In our house, this part of the day lasts up to three hours. It sounds long, but you really can’t beat spinning out this pivotal point of the day, when anticipation is at it’s highest.

10. Party pieces. We have a ‘train’ in the centre of the groaning dinner table, little cardboard trucks containing gifts. Each person has to perform a small party piece to claim a gift. The prospect of the impending performance and the quandary of ‘what to do’ tends to weigh mightily upon the shoulders of members of my family as the big meal approaches, but it’s always a total hoot when the time comes, with everyone rising to the occasion.

11. Play family games. Charades, quizzes (there’s loads in the paper and magazines at this time of year), Twenty Questions, board games, card games…

12. Batteries. I bet seventy five per cent of the presents you buy your kids need batteries. However, if you’ve forgotten to buy them, you can always take them out of your television control. The walk back and forth to change channels will be good exercise.

Have one to remember.