7 things NOT to do this Christmas

The festive season is often associated with overindulgence. Which is all well and good - but everything in moderation people. Using inspiration from my beautiful friend Ellen and my own personal experiences on previous years, here are 7 things to avoid doing this festive season.

1) It's always good to avoid getting so drunk on Christmas Eve you spend most of Christmas Day hungover. Your mum/aunty/grandparents will have spent all day cooking for you to struggle to keep anything down. You'll be rubbish company and everyone will be pissed off about it. Christmas Day is only once a year and you can go out and get hammered any other of the 364 nights of the year without ruining Christmas for everyone. Be sensible and be aware of the guilt trip you're in for if you spend all day in bed Christmas Day.

2) Eating an entire selection box/Quality Street tin to yourself in one sitting. This won't be good for your waistline and you'll just feel sluggish and crap afterwards. This is easily done so it's best to strategically position the chocolate so it isn't easy to consume the entire thing in 15 minutes. It'll also help avoiding the inevitable ''who ate all the bloody chocolates?'' argument when family members notice they've disappeared.

3) Listening to ''All I Want For Christmas Is You'' so many times that texting your ex/neighbour/milkman seems like a really good idea.  When in a wine/Quality Street induced state it's often hard to distinguish what are your genuine feelings and what's just you feeling sentimental because of Mariah Carey bleating on in the background. But approach with caution. If you wouldn't say it to them on January 1st don't say it on December 25th.

4) Definitely do not confess your love for your boss at the work Christmas party under any circumstances or any alcohol influence. (Unless you do love him, but that's a whole other blog post). I won't even elaborate on this one as it should be pretty obvious but you'll only make work horrifically awkward for yourself and spend the next 3 months avoiding walking past his desk for as long as possible. His wife won't be happy either. It's also wise to avoid turning up dressed like this:

(Unless you work in a strip club, in which case crack on).

5) Be ungrateful. No word of a lie, one year my dad got me and my brother ''humorous Post It Notes'' as a present and I managed to force a smile and be grateful. People don't always get their presents 'spot on' but to avoid looking like a massive brat and hurting anyone's feelings gratitude and appreciation should be shown at all times. And for the record those Post It Notes did come in handy eventually...

6) Avoid leaving Christmas shopping till the last minute. I work in retail and can only imagine the hoards of blokes that'll be panic buying their significant other presents the day before Christmas. For god's sake you have 364 days to prepare for Christmas there is no excuse for leaving things so late. By that point a lot of Christmas stock has run out so they'll be pretty limited options available. And she'll definitely be able to tell if it was something bought in a mad panic rather than a lovely, well thought out gift. ''A lint roller? Really?''

7) Most of all, don't forget that Christmas for many is a religious holiday, and for all is a time for family, fires and Trivial Pursuit. So don't stress, be ungrateful or get so hammered you openly admit the sprouts are horrible. Have fun, be gracious and above all enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.