Your Countdown to Christmas 2026
Welcome to Christmas Countdown
Count down the days, plan a calm and joyful season, and find the very best of Christmas — all in one place.
02 · PlanChristmas PlanningMonth-by-month checklists for a stress-free festive season.Start planning →
03 · ExploreChristmas Markets Directory139 UK Christmas markets for 2026, by region and date.Find a market →
04 · FeastChristmas FoodTrusted recipes, festive bakes and menus for the table.Browse recipes →
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Recommended Christmas Reading
Four books that between them cover the cooking, the planning and the quiet pleasure of the season. All checked and still in print, June 2026.
Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook
Jamie spent ten years on this one, and it shows. Every part of the dinner is covered, from the turkey and the veggie alternatives to edible gifts and proper cocktails. The leftovers chapter alone earns its place on the shelf.
View on Amazon →
Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities
Nigella at her most reassuring: party food, cakes and puddings, the main event with all the trimmings, and a vegetarian Christmas dinner that is no consolation prize. The book to reach for when the season threatens to become a logistics exercise.
View on Amazon →
Delia's Happy Christmas
150 recipes, menu plans and shopping lists from the woman who taught the nation to cook. Her Classic Christmas Cake recipe has been in print for decades and has never been bettered; the Last-Minute Christmas chapter is there for the years that get away from you.
View on Amazon →
The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater
Part diary, part cookbook: notes, stories and a hundred recipes for midwinter, from the first of November to the last mince pie. For anyone who would rather savour the season than merely survive it.
View on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The links above are affiliate links.
Welcome to our Christmas Countdown blog
We have been counting down to Christmas since 2009 — long enough to remember when advent calendars were all chocolate. At heart this site does three things: it counts the days precisely (sleeps, weekends, weeks and even paydays), it helps you plan the season month by month, and it keeps good food at the centre of it all, where it belongs.
Planning a stress-free Christmas with our countdown calendar
The live countdown at the top of every page tells you exactly how long you have; our month-by-month Christmas planning guides tell you what to do with it. They step through everything from October’s quiet preparations to Christmas Eve, the day itself, and those curious days between Christmas and New Year that nobody quite knows what to do with. There are free printable planners too, for those who like a list they can actually cross things off.
Frequently Asked Questions about Christmas
Years of readers’ questions have taught us that no Christmas question is too small or too strange — from whether Boxing Day is a bank holiday to whether an advent calendar should really start at 24. Start with our Christmas FAQ; if the answer is not there, leave a comment and we will track it down for you.
And if this is your first year hosting — cooking the lunch, extended family arriving at one — the planning guides are written precisely so you can keep calm and carry on cooking.
Christmas presents, properly chosen
No endless lists of things nobody wants. Our gift guides are short, carefully curated and kept current — start with gifts for cooks and food lovers, our Strictly Come Dancing gift ideas or a properly good advent calendar. We also work with leading brands to bring you discounts and voucher codes that make the budget go a little further.
Christmas decorations through the years
Writing about Christmas since 2009 leaves you with an archive, and ours has become a small museum of festive fashion: the year everyone’s tree lights turned blue, the brief and baffling reign of the upside-down Christmas tree, and the way Costa Coffee’s red cups and the John Lewis windows change year on year. If you remember a particular Christmas look fondly, it is probably in here somewhere.