Seasonal advice from the great and the good

Clare Balding

I love a good walk on Boxing Day followed by watching the racing at Kempton. Avoid the internet. Be present in the moment, enjoying time with family rather than being distracted by online conversations.

Alain de Botton

My favourite ritual is reminding everyone involved that we will, of course, be having a sad and tense Christmas; there will be arguments, frustration, bitterness and barely suppressed longings to be elsewhere with other (better, more interesting) people. The food will be mediocre or, if tasty, will exact such passive-aggressive retribution from those who made it that it would have been better to have a sandwich. The children’s presents will be a sickening reminder of materialism and everyone’s inability to be happy without a screen. With expectations thus reduced, the chances of spending a really quite pleasant time will increase markedly. For a successful Christmas (or life), avoid hope.

David Cameron

On Christmas morning, we all open Santa’s offerings together. So all three children and two adults are in bed together, opening our stockings.

I would avoid family arguments. You’ve got to get outside at some stage on Christmas Day and go for a walk, which helps to defuse any tensions.

Jilly Cooper

My husband Leo and I used to dream up our own Christmas cards, and I still do. One year we had three black labradors in turbans in the middle of the desert. The caption was: ‘There came three wise dogs from the East, bearing bones, and being wise they ate them.’

The thing that I can dispense with at Christmas are those ghastly round-robin letters — four pages of people telling you what they have been doing during the past 12 months. That darling bird the robin should not have his name attached to such a horror.