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This is a quick summary of what is needed to make a perfectly satisfactory Christmas, based on what has worked for several previous Christmases. There is only us to please now, so no need to succumb to seasonal panic and depression.

Food

For Christmas dinner, all we need is a piece of dead animal to roast. Or a chicken. G doesn't like turkey, so forget turkey and just get a small roasting joint of some kind. Pork is good because we can have stuffing and applesauce. Yum! But beef is fine too if there is no pork or chicken left by the time you do the shopping (which is unlikely, to be honest, even if you leave it until Christmas eve like you did last year because we'd been away).

Make sure we have a pack of stuffing mix and a jar of applesauce or a couple of cooking apples.

For veggies we need: potatoes, sprouts, carrots and parsnips, also frozen peas and onions (for gravy).

Pudding

Sadly the bakers in town where I used to buy puddings has turned into a café, but the Co-op have some nice ones. But if you've left it too late and they've all gone, remember these are actually very easy to make. Bread will grate perfectly well straight from the freezer, so you just stir everything together and steam for hours and hours. If you are totally disorganised (what do you mean "if"?) they can even be made on Christmas eve and then eaten at New Year and then for special treats whenever. After a big dinner, do you really appreciate a heavy pudding? If you use the recipe in the slow cooker book it avoids making kitchen into a Turkish bath. The second batch can even be cooked on Christmas day in the slow cooker. (Like you did once.) It won't get in the way of the other cooking. Heinz treacle sponge from a tin with custard is fine for Christmas dinner. Or ice cream.

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So that's it. Nothing to get worked up about now is there?

For some years I have made a habit of looking back at a post I made in January 2009 about what makes a perfectly adequate Christmas. Unfortunately, the note that some cards have to go airmail now just serves to remind me that my old university friend from New York passed away just over 12 months ago. I also referred to visiting my Dad who died this April.

As the point of the post is to be totally upbeat and positive, I decided to do a slight re-write so that in future I'll see an updated version that has no overtones of sadness.