Feeling a little tense at the thought of Christmas Day? It’s ‘meant’ to be fun but the festive season can bring a lot of pressure.

Many people are feeling the effects of a massive hike in household bills while their anxiety levels have soared, and the last thing anyone needs is a great credit card bill.

Yes, it’s been a tough year, and yes we could all do with a lovely Christmas – but that doesn’t have to mean being suffocated by pressure to spend your time and money in debilitating ways.

This year, perhaps what we really need is to give ourselves the gift of guilt-free joy. After all, many of the best things about Christmas don’t cost very much really…

Struggled to remember which day it is for most of 2022? I bet you anything though, you’ll remember the lyrics to all those classic Christmas songs, even the ones you haven’t heard since 1989.

Pop an Ultimate Christmas Hits album on and the world becomes instantly more dazzling and bright.

Not the endless roster of social drinks. I mean the actual things you drink at Christmas.

I don’t really like Bailey’s. From mid January through to mid December, you’d never catch me drinking anything sweet and creamy.

But come Christmas – couple of ice cubes, double shot of the Irish cream liqueur and I’m happy as Larry.

Tradition works in mysterious ways, and it’s oddly fun.

A Christmas walk is just different. Maybe it’s all that love and good cheer in the air. Or maybe, really, it’s because Christmas walks are extra high on smug factor – and we all love feeling smug.

Prising your arm out of the Quality Street tub for an hour or so to get outdoors for some fresh air definitely counts as a smug-worthy accomplishment.

The best Christmas movies are the ones you’ve seen a million times before, and preferably ones where families are doing awful things – like leaving a child at home when they jet off on holiday, or blowing up the house because they got carried away with the roof lights. Nothing says Christmas like a good reminder of how troublesome families really are!

The twisted, masochistic joy of a Christmas food coma… There’s always a few tense minutes where you think you might actually burst after speed-eating 48 roast potatoes, but once the palpitations have eased off, you know you’ll get through it, so long as you spend the next few hours horizontal.

We’re fully on board with elasticated waistbands this year anyway.