Kirstie Allsopp has revealed her top tip for Christmas day - here's why I won't be following it

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Kirstie Allsopp has revealed her top tip for Christmas day - but it’s one piece of festive advice I won’t be following.

The ‘queen of Christmas’, Kirstie Allsopp, has revealed her top tip for an easier Christmas day - but it’s one piece of festive advice I won’t be following.

The Location, Location, Location presenter has returned this year with her hugely popular Channel 4 show, Kirstie's Handmade Christmas. The show, which first began in 2014, has featured various crafts over the years, from wreath making to cake decorating.

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With years of yuletide entertaining under her belt and an obsession with everything Christmassy, there’s not a lot the 53-year-old doesn’t know about pleasing guests over the festive period and so, when I read she has a single tip that she says was a 'complete game changer' for her family, I felt sure I’d be adopting whatever she suggested in my household too.

That was until I found out what it was. Speaking to Ideal Home, Kirstie revealed her tip relating to the timing of the Christmas meal, saying: “'My first piece of advice is, if you are a 1pm family, move to 6pm.”

This came as somewhat of a bombshell for me. Namely because I had no idea some people didn’t have Christmas dinner until 6pm.

Kirstie Allsopp has revealed her top tip for Christmas day - but it’s one piece of festive advice I won’t be following.Kirstie Allsopp has revealed her top tip for Christmas day - but it’s one piece of festive advice I won’t be following.
Kirstie Allsopp has revealed her top tip for Christmas day - but it’s one piece of festive advice I won’t be following. | Kirstie's Handmade Christmas / Channel 4

Now, I’m no stick-in-the-mud - I’ll happily make amendments to Christmas tradition to make life a little easier. For instance, I’ve ordered a chicken instead of a turkey for my young family, as that’s more than enough bird for the main meal plus cold meat sandwiches for the next couple of days (feel free to leave your comments of derision below). But not having Christmas dinner at Lunchtime? That’s too far.

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Everyone knows you need to have your main feast early enough so the whole family can then retire to the sofa to contemplate why it was necessary to eat quite so much that you now resemble a beached whale, before giving it an hour and then starting on the tinned chocs and After Eights.

If you leave dinner until 6pm there will be no time for watching Christmas specials together or playing the boardgames Santa brought the night before. And who doesn’t love the Christmas evening buffet made up of dinner’s leftovers and some special bits you perhaps might only treat yourself to on this special day?

Not to mention, without the pressure of getting everything prepared for 1pm I would likely spend even more of the day in the kitchen away from the celebrations and completely miss the opportunity to put my feet up at some point. I know, once I sit down for that meal, the hard work of the day is done (my husband does the washing up, it’s only fair) - and that’s just the way I like it.

Anyway, I will continue to take on Kirstie’s Christmas advice - any excuse for crafting I say - but this particular ‘top tip’? No. No, it’s not for me. Christmas evenings were made for overeating from the Christmas treats cupboard and putting your feet up, and I won’t hear otherwise.

:: The 2024 series of Kirstie's Handmade Christmas premiered on Channel 4 on December 9. You can watch this year’s and previous series on Channel 4’s on demand service.

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