Francis Brennan: How to host a perfect Christmas dinner

Now, don’t drive yourself mad with keeping the house spotless on Christmas morning: every house in the country will be a mess. Let the children at it!

If your family receives visitors on Christmas morning, watch your own and your guest’s drinking. It’s a long day and we don’t want people asleep by 3pm. As I said last week, leave alcohol until after dinner, if you’re a host or on dinner duty.

There is only one failsafe way to host Christmas dinner and enjoy it, and that’s by having a list made out from the days before, with timings, etc.