Eat & be MERRY

In her new book, The Christmas Companion, food writer Skye McAlpine shares her cooking and hosting secrets, from planning the perfect menu to sorting your seating plan

- WORDS, RECIPES & PHOTOGRAPHY SKYE MCALPINE

IF ONLY IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY

I love Christmas. I have always loved Christmas. I love the bonhomie and the conviviality and the excess of it all: the food, the sweets, the brandy-laden puddings, the rustle of tissue paper on Christmas morning, the jolliness of singalong carols. I love that sweet, outdoorsy smell of a real fir tree and the twinkling lights in the street at night. I even love how bustling and busy the shops get in that last mad rush before the day itself. I love it all. So, to have the excuse to lose myself here in the unadulterated joy of eggnog-fuelled holiday baking, to conjure up festive menu upon festive menu for family and friends, this is truly my happiest place.

Before we really get started, I should say that the holidays should never feel like work: there's plenty to do and plenty more to be getting on with in the pages that follow, but it's important to me that none of it reads like it's a 'to-do' or 'should-do' list. If we're going to think in terms of 'shoulds' (and I am loath to do so, because it is 'shoulds' and 'musts' that suck all the joy out of the holidays): cosy, relaxed, perfect and memorable in its utterly human imperfection is exactly how Christmas 'should' be. And that's the kind of Christmas you'll find here.

Cooking for Christmas – when we get the balance right and don't overstretch ourselves (I emphasise this caveat, because it's an important one) – is infinitely more fun than cooking over the rest of the year. There is a treat-like quality about what we eat at Christmas, a unique mix of the celebratory and the deeply comforting, which makes Christmas food very gratifying to eat, of course, but also hugely rewarding to prepare and to share.