Christmas
A Christmas Bucket List for Adults Who Actually Want to Enjoy Christmas
Not 75 things to complete before 25 December. Just the things you would genuinely be sorry to miss. Choose the ones that sound like your Christmas. Ignore the rest.
9 min read
“A Christmas bucket list should help you notice Christmas, not measure your performance at it.”
I love Christmas.
A lot.
I start thinking about it long before December. I can become excited because I've spotted the first really good Advent calendar, because the Christmas things are appearing in shops or because I've found a present for Bas in September that I already can't wait to give him.
By the time December arrives, I don't need help finding things to do.
If anything, I need the opposite.
Because Christmas has become surprisingly good at giving us homework.
There are Christmas bucket lists with 50, 75, sometimes 100 things you're apparently supposed to squeeze into a few weeks.
And somewhere around number 43, Christmas starts looking suspiciously like project management.
A Christmas bucket list should help you notice Christmas, not measure your performance at it.
So this one is deliberately shorter. Choose the things that sound like your Christmas. Ignore the rest.
1. Have a proper Christmas-tree day
Decorating our main tree isn't something I squeeze in between two other jobs. I make a day of it. Christmas music goes on. The ornaments come out.
Because our main tree is full of things Bas and I have collected over the years, decorating it takes time: Prince, coffee, crisps, Coca-Cola, travel ornaments, Nijntje, a frikandel speciaal.
It is not a restrained designer tree. It is ours.
The tree going up can be an event without becoming an event you need to host.
2. Buy or find one ornament that belongs to this year
We collect ornaments over time rather than buying one perfectly matching collection. When we travel and I find a good one, I'll often bring it home.
On our Christmas trips to London, buying an ornament at Harrods has become part of the trip.
One day you'll take it out of a box and remember exactly why it's there.
3. Go somewhere specifically to see Christmas
We love Christmas markets and usually make at least one Christmas-market trip: Cologne, Vienna, Düsseldorf, London, Antwerp.
But this doesn't have to mean booking a trip. Go into your own town. Find a beautifully decorated shopping street. Visit a garden centre that has gone completely overboard. Drive through a neighbourhood where everybody has put their lights up.
Go somewhere where the only point is that it feels like Christmas.
4. Have one evening with nowhere else to be
No visit afterwards. No reservation. No errands. No "we should probably quickly…"
Christmas lights on. Comfortable clothes. Something good to eat. Something you actually want to watch. Stay home.
An empty Christmas evening is not a gap in the calendar.
5. Watch the film that means Christmas has started
Home Alone is firmly in our annual rotation. So is The Santa Clause. Harry Potter occupies its own Christmas-adjacent territory and I will not be taking questions at this time.
Pick yours.
A tradition becomes powerful partly because you already know how it feels.
6. Get an Advent calendar you genuinely want to open
I buy an Advent calendar every year. I love them.
Not because I desperately need 24 tiny things. I love the anticipation.
The mechanism matters less than the anticipation.
7. Wear something that would be ridiculous in March
Christmas pyjamas. Christmas socks. The jumper.
Christmas is allowed to be a little ridiculous.
8. Make the house smell like Christmas
For me, cinnamon is Christmas. Pine. Gingerbread. Warm amber.
Choose the scent that tells you Christmas has arrived.
9. Bake something mostly because you want the house to smell good
Something warm in the oven. Cinnamon. Gingerbread. Coffee nearby. Music on.
Christmas is not a baking examination.
10. Look at other people's Christmas lights
I genuinely love this.
Sometimes you're simply driving home and suddenly there is that house. They have committed. Perhaps excessively.
Excellent.
11. Start one present ridiculously early
I often start buying Bas's Christmas presents in September.
Looking forward to giving someone something is part of the gift.
12. Make or buy someone's favourite thing
Bas loves beef Wellington. I enjoy making it for him.
Christmas food should know who is sitting at the table.
13. Have picky bits for dinner
Bread. Cheese. Something hot. Something crunchy. A few things you've found. A few things you've made.
Our Christmas Eve revolves around exactly this kind of dinner because it lets the evening remain the important part.
14. Give someone a present that proves you listen
Maybe it's a beautiful candle in exactly the sort of scent they love. Maybe it's a LEGO set connected to a film you watch together. Maybe it's a complete coffee basket.
A good gift is evidence that you've been paying attention.
15. Have one proper slow Christmas morning
Our Christmas morning is breakfast. Freshly squeezed orange juice. Warm bread rolls. Coffee. Christmas music. No particular hurry.
Protect the pace.
16. Go outside when it's properly cold
Walk in the woods. Walk through town. Wear the coat you actually need.
Then come home.
Coming home is one of winter's best activities.
17. Do one Christmas thing you've loved since childhood
What do you actually miss? Not what looks nostalgic on Pinterest. Yours.
Growing up gives you the rather wonderful ability to bring things back.
18. Create one tradition that belongs to your life now
Bas and I exchange presents on Christmas Eve. We take turns. Picky bits are usually on the table or we've moved on to coffee. Then we settle down with a Christmas film.
Start something. Repeat it next year if you loved it. That's enough.
19. Keep one piece of Christmas completely unproductive
Don't photograph it because you need content. Don't make it useful. Don't turn it into a project.
Just do something because it makes December nicer.
Protect it.
20. Let Christmas last after Christmas Day
Keep the lights on. Eat the leftovers. Go for a walk. Have another film night. Take a little day trip. Enjoy the tree you spent all that time decorating.
You don't have to end Christmas because the main event is over.
Don't Try to Do All Twenty
This is the most important item on the list
- Ignore some of it.
- If five things made you think yes, I want that, choose those five.
- That's a Christmas bucket list. Not a challenge. Not proof that you made enough memories. Not another set of boxes to tick before the year ends.
- The point isn't to fit more Christmas into December. It's to notice the Christmas you don't want to miss.
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Written by Esther
Esther is a photographer and storyteller, and the founder of Essy's Essentials - a seasonal home for stories, rituals, recipes and everyday luxuries.
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