Christmas is a wildly special time for me. I’ve never spent a Christmas away from my family, and the idea of going home for 2 weeks and curling up inside without ever leaving keeps me going every year. Everything about Christmas for me is a memorable ritual from going home and setting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving to playing board games with my oldest friend from childhood to “fighting” over who gets to put the ugly ornaments on the tree.

There was a particular “stretch” of time where, for some reason, we took a liking to this tall and creepy snowman in my mother’s decorations we lovingly named “Stretch”, and he would find his way to places he shouldn’t be. If you slept in, you’d wake up and he’d be staring at you in the morning. Or he’d somehow find his way into the passenger seat of your car. It was a fun game of hide and seek that went on for a few years. He even made a trip out to California one year.

I guess that’s tough, given that mine are all family-based, and a lot of people don’t have fond family memories or close ties with their families. But there are surrogate families and friends. I think ritual is important for good Christmas memories. I know everyone’s different, but for me, I’ve spent the last 40 years (with the exception of a couple trips) celebrating Christmas in the same house, with the some of the same decorations, with the same people (some come, some go, sure). I’ve had the luxury of a family that I enjoy and close family friends that have been consistently present. For those who don’t have that luxury, finding a group of friends that they can call family could serve the same purpose. But the communal ritual to me has been the most important and lasting memory of Christmas.

I grew up in America and because I’m Jewish, Christmas was never a big deal when I was little, but then I moved to England and it was a much bigger secular holiday so it made more sense to celebrate it. I remember the strangeness of how empty parts of London felt – I got on my bike and just rode in circles and figure-eights down the middle of Oxford Street while singing because I was the only person there! I bought up all the discounted Christmas puddings after Boxing Day because they were new and exotic for me…and then quickly found out I really don’t like Christmas puddings.

I’m not the most organised of people, and because Chanukkah happens on a different date every year, there was one time I was completely unaware it was about to begin until the day was upon us. I had been moving around a lot and I didn’t have a menorah (the candle-holder you use for eight nights). It was too late to buy one, and even if I had one, there was nowhere to buy the specific size of candles that would fit. I thought fast, went to the supermarket, picked out a packet of birthday cake candles and the longest, flattest potato I could find. It took some precision hole-scooping to make the candles stay upright, but I’m totally not ashamed to say I totally made the potato menorah work without burning down my entire flat.

Don’t try to impress anybody! Gather the people closest to you, stay warm and indoors, and enjoy good food you’ve made together. Oh, and play Wii. When everybody looks stupid, nobody looks stupid.

I don't think I have one memory that comes to mind. I just like the routine. We walk around the town where I grew up on Christmas eve to look for last minute stocking stuffers, say hi to all the others doing the same, walk home to wrap presents by a fire, have a nice meal, hang stockings, and then I get up (still being the "kid" in the family) and put the music on to start the day. More fire, present opening, a rich breakfast, more presents. Eggnog!

I think that just doing the same lovely traditions are what make Christmas so special. Even in my mid40s, I largely follow the same routine as I always have. My mom's house is incredibly beautiful, especially at Christmas. She has the best tree and the perfect fire place to hang the (handmade--same since I was a baby) stockings. She also happens to be the consummate gift giver, always thoughtful, perfectly suited to the recipient!

I distinctly remember finding my first bicycle under the Christmas tree when I was four years old. I remember where it was in the room, what color it was, how it was positioned. I remember the surprise, as it was completely unexpected, and the look on my dad’s face as I discovered it. Very special.

Every year, after my brother and I had gone to bed on Christmas Eve, my father used to get a can of talcum powder and sprinkle it around his feet, making footsteps through the hallway from the front door to the Christmas tree. (We had central heating—no chimney.) Then he’d make a big thing of how Santa Claus had been in the night and left snowy footprints. For years we all joined in the glee and nobody ever pointed out that if it was snow, surely it should have melted, and why did it smell of lavender? Now I do the same thing for my children, and even though they’re past believing in Santa, they put up with me indulgently.

Naff though it sounds, we always used to watch the Queen’s speech in our house, usually turning the telly round to face the dining table, where we were all struggling with our mammoth plates of turkey and all the trimmings, eaten off the ‘good crockery’ using the ‘good cutlery’. We were horribly middle class.

It’s rituals, the same private, silly, naff family rituals repeated every year, and chuckled over together. It’s making and eating the same food, even if you don’t really like it – does anybody really like Christmas fruit cake?

It’s also managing to give someone a gift they’re not expecting, which has ongoing effects. Last year we gave my eleven year old son a small, very second hand motorbike. (We live in rural Tasmania on small acreage.) Although he’d been asking for one, he knew that money was tight, it was too expensive a present, and we had spent months telling him to dream on, and scoffing every time he brought it up, because we really didn’t think it would happen ourselves, and didn’t want him to think he could just get whatever he asked for. But then my husband came across one in a garage sale, for a price that was just about doable. On Christmas Day, my husband went over to the workshop to get the bike. I took my son out to the front of the house, on the pretext that I could hear something coming. My husband rode the bike down the road, in through the gate and up to my son in the front garden. By that point he was in tears. Since then my husband and he have had months of bonding fun, riding it around, creating dirt jumps in the paddocks, and mending the bloody thing and buying it parts. Unforgettable, and worth every cent.

My father used to put a Christmas hat on our dog at Christmas lunch. She’d sit there placidly while he fussed over her. That’s a lovely memory. When I put my first tree up for my son. It was just the two of us and I was so proud of how beautiful it looked. I’d handpicked all the baubles so he could relate to them all. Even the nativity scene was eco/child friendly!

Allowing people to celebrate how they want to or not. Christmas can be horrendous for some people, for a variety of reasons. Both my parents are dead so it’s never been the same since they passed. I have bipolar depression and that makes it very difficult. I always feel a huge pressure to be joyful and sometimes it just isn’t possible. And the energy I have to pump in to fake it is very costly over the next couple of days.

Just be kind & don’t expect everybody to love the holiday. Can be very difficult.

My mum, still to this day, tries to find new and inventive ways to hide the fact she's bought me a Toblerone. The box is a giveaway, and if I unwrap one without knowing what it is, she feel's she's "won" Christmas.

You can tell in someone's face when you have really nailed a present. And there really is nothing like it when you do!

Jingle All The Way is an underrated modern classic!

The time the cat climbed into the floor-to-ceiling tree, fully decorated, and knocked it over. A mess! Amazingly, when lifted up, only about 10 ornaments were smashed. I used the shards to make a cat ornament that hangs front and center on the tree every year. Since the incident of the cat in the nighttime, I’ve lashed the tree to a hook in the wall!

Have rituals/traditions. Some of mine: Christmas Eve shopping at the dime store for stocking stuffers, followed by dinner in front of the fire. Stockings hung by the chimney with care by ALL, young and old. First person to wake Christmas morning cues up “Joy to the World” on the player to wake everyone. Stockings are opened with coffee and tea. Breakfast by the fire. Rule change here. We used to then get dressed, make our beds and reassemble for presents from under the tree. Forget it. We now slob around in our jammies until 2 in the afternoon.

It has come to be expected now that every year Christmas is held at grandma’s house, there will be a component to the Christmas lunch missing. One year, we didn’t find out where she had lost a whole large dish of Brussel sprouts until two weeks later. Another year, she lost a jug of gravy and never found it again. Jug and all!

Christmas games! A bit of light hearted competition combined with a few G&Ts…

Farmers have to get up very early every day to milk the cows and such like, and everyone assumes that Christmas Day is the worst. One year, when I was a teenager, we had a phone call after Christmas Lunch to say the cows had escaped and were on the road. Hauling ourselves outside into the cold and running around after cattle was gruesome, after a heavy meal washed down with copious amounts of wine.

We like our Christmas rituals and routines. We look forward to them every year, even if we decide to mix it up a bit – the anticipation of a known pleasure is really powerful.

Spending Christmas in Denmark as a kid was amazing. The Scandinavians sure know how to create a wonderful cozy atmosphere with candles, homemade biscuits, mulled wine and playing board games together. Hygge!

To make something together with your friends or family, if you are into crafts that is. Like a gingerbread house with the kids is always a winner. I have a book called Nordic Crafts, which features over 30 Scandinavian style projects. Or, My Felted Friends, featuring over 35 needle felting projects. If you fancy trying needle felting to create a miniature animal, why not try making a mini version of your friend’s cat or pet hamster. That would make a very unique gift.

In the New Year 2019, I will have another book coming out—which features lots of the My Felted Friends projects and two new projects: My First Needle-Felting Book: 30 adorable animal projects for children aged 7+.

Don’t leave things to last minute, make time to sit down and relax on your own as well as spending time with your friends and family.

Some of my favorite memories of Christmas are the Ronco commercials with the snowman riding on a razor that would always air when I was younger. It instantly signaled it was close to Christmas time. I also fondly remember being excited when the Sears Catalog came in the mail because once again, it was a sign of Christmas. I got to go through the catalog and pick out what I wanted “Santa” to bring me and it was always so cool to find it under the tree on Christmas morning.

I don’t think there is a BEST way. I believe in letting things happen organically. The memories will come.

I remember watching the classic Seventies disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure on Christmas Eve on a black n white TV in my parent’s attic. I must have been about six or seven. I was so into it, trapped in a giant capsized ocean liner turned into a dangerous assault course, a young boy’s dream. My Dad and brother were off to the neighbors to watch Close Encounters, they told me it would be better than Star Wars. How could I resist? To my bitter disappointment it wasn’t (very few laser gun-battles) and this being the pre-video era I didn’t find out what happened in The Poseidon Adventure for another twenty years.

There’s a very simple and familiar list of essential British Christmas ingredients: Friends and family, eat an incredible amount, booze, argument, a walk in the countryside. Films. In no particular order.

My one Christmas tip is always try and invite at the very least one friend/neighbor for Christmas lunch/dinner that may not have anywhere else to go.

Obviously, the Christmas that snowed. There was one year and we were at my grandparents and—yes—the fantasy became reality and we woke on Christmas Day to snow—enough to make a snowman.

It sounds tautologous but creating memories is about creating memories—doing, and not just buying—stuff. Most of the things we remember are things we've done together (the Christmas Eve games of Trivial Pursuit, a walk on Boxing Day) not the stuff we've unwrapped.

No, apart from—love it!

I am one of 8 siblings, so my parents always had a very busy Christmas Eve as we were horrible about going to bed. They had to wait till we finally went to sleep (usually sometime after midnight) before putting presents in our rooms and then we’d get up at about three and never go back to bed. I shared a room with my twin and our older sister and it was always amazing to wake up to our presents. The best year was discovering a huge dolls house in the middle of the room. Our Dad made it, furnished it and even put in working lights. It was magical. We rewarded him by shrieking with excitement. Our poor parents, they were probably desperate to sleep, but there was no chance. I’m grateful our kids were better behaved.

Probably a bit corny but just by spending time with family and showing them you love them and enjoying being together. It’s as simple as that for me. Also going to Midnight Mass, Christmas isn’t Christmas for me without going to Midnight Mass, it’s a beautiful way to start the day.