If your instagram feed is anything like mine, it is brimming with eucalyptus wreaths, quirky advent calendars, an abundance of Christmas crafts and elves on the shelves who get up to all sorts of inventive mischief every. single. night.

And if you are anything like me, you have done none of the above.

In years past, I’ve been guilty for all the cookies I haven’t baked and the craft that hasn’t eventuated.

But I suppose I’ve evolved as a mother because I can proudly say I feel no guilt this year.

In this season of my life, with school just finished, a teething (cranky!) toddler and a good dose of we’re-all-so-tired, I’m putting any handmade plans to the side and embracing a slow, easy, no-expectation lead up to Christmas.

This morning we went to the library to stock up on books and then to the grocer to stock up on fruit and veg. And now we’re home and pottering about…reading, tidying, playing, sleeping.

We don’t have any rituals to remember or places to be and right now I’m so incredibly grateful for the space and the free time.

I don’t feel obliged to tick things off the list, to turn on the oven on this hot, humid day or to wrap cellophane around ginergbread and deliver it to the neighbours.

So if you have been feeling sad or defeated at the sheer amount of handmade goodness that seems to be surrounding you, admire it and move on.

That doesn’t have to be the way you do Christmas.