Five Ways to Job-Share with Your Partner This Christmas

One of the most common complaints about Christmas is that one person ends up doing all the work. Things are much happier when you share the jobs between you. That way, you both feel that you have contributed to the festivities and no-one is feeling put-upon when they should be feeling full of Christmas spirit.

So, here are five tasks you can split between you to help things go smoothly:

The Christmas tree – whether you have an artificial tree that comes down from the loft every year, or you like to head out and choose a real tree, someone’s got to do it. Set a date for the tree to go up, and make sure that you are both committed to getting it done. Make the man in your life responsible for going out, choosing and delivering the tree to your door, or for retrieving it from the loft and putting it together.

The decorations – in the main, its women who like to decorate the house. By all means ask your partner to join in, pick the colours for this year and get on with doing it, but if you take responsibility for it, you’ll be able to indulge your whim for real foliage around the mirror, or a wreath made out of dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks.

The food – this should be done by whoever is most interested in cooking. Some couples manage to split this job equally, but in reality, the person cooking the meal usually wants to choose the menu and buy the food. Just let them.

Image credit 1- Andrea Goh

The drink – if you’re not in charge of the food, you’re in charge of the drink. From laying in supplies for a pre-Christmas party to making sure you have bubbles, wine and after-dinner drinks for the big day, the sooner you can get the drink ordered, the better.

The tidying up – this is often the job that causes the most problems. No-one really wants to wash up, get rid of the rest of the turkey and hoover the floor under the table. But it needs to be done. This is a job that we’d suggest is best shared all round. It gets done faster, there’s no need for one person to feel put out, and you can actually have a lot of fun if you do it together. You might want to change out of your glad rags and stick on some comfortable ladies' trousers, for him a comfortable men’s polo shirt like this poloshirt from Cotton Traders. Then break out the chocolates and put on your favourite movie.