Saw the cheese tree too - love it We often hosted Christmas...will miss having all my family together this year

Our Christmas was all about being easy on the day, and cold (seeing as Christmas is so hot!). It's a day to spend with family, not in the kitchen.

We stuff and cook the turkey the afternoon before, then the Guinness and honey glazed ham goes in straight after. Salads here are very simple - just a garden salad (mixed leaves, cue, tom, feta, olives), potato salad (made the day before), and separate bowls of avocado, blanched asparagus, beet root, corn, pineapple, beans etc. Whatever can be washed or cut the day before is, and the cans go in the fridge to cool. We buy bread the day before. Put condiments in fridge - salad dressing, cranberry sauce, mustard. If it's really big group we sometimes do a pumpkin and feta cous cous, beetroot and walnut salad or pasta salad - just assemble on the day but prepare the day before.

DH makes a traditional Christmas pudding in October (though he's doing ours this weekend) and I make brandy butter the day before and buy custard to go with.

Fridge space is always an issue, so DH gets the big esky full of ice slurry for drinks, salads, condiments and canned foods - meat always stays in the fridge

Table decos are simple....white cloth and dishes with a coloured table runner. Bowls of baubles in the centre, or wire trees, depending on how we feel. Sometimes the Bon bond are the table centrepiece. Mum made serviettes rings by stapling wired ribbon in a circle years ago and we recycle them every year. We have a separate food table, put ice around the cold stuff and eat buffet style, outside.

Tips - Plastic plates, but real cutlery; check you have enough serving plates/spoons/tongs etc in advance; put glasses out beforehand if you have room (on a separate table); ice, ice, ice; extra cold water; extra bread (when everyone gets the nibbles later on you can crank the BBQ, cook the ham and serve with toasted bread); get others to bring the bread, a salad or nibbles to start with.