Fourteen Christmas Resolutions We’ve All Made (in cat gifs)

Christmas is here. We know because all the supermarket packaging has snowflakes and holly leaves on it. Even the toilet roll. Nothing, it seems, is impervious to a bit of Christmas cosmetics.

And it’s around this time that we all begin to make the same promise to ourselves—this is the year we finally get Christmas right. We won’t run out of roast potatoes and we’ll finally get around to making that home-made wreath we said we’d make 13 years ago. 

‘The Christmas Promise’, as I like to call it, is one of the best parts of Christmas because, let’s face it, the time we spend preparing for Christmas far outweighs the actual time we spend celebrating Christmas. 

And that’s where the magic is. Once you’ve opened all the presents, sung all the songs and eaten all the food, you already know how Christmas was. But before, well, it’s pregnant with possibilities! 

And yes, I realise, at some point I ought to say that the days of Advent are actually all about waiting for Jesus’ return, but that’s not this blog (it’s really, really not this blog). 

Instead, this is a blog for the Christmas dreamers and festive schemers. It’s a manifesto to oneself to make it right this time, a resolution  to correct the mistakes of years gone by.

And to celebrate the release of the new Cats musical hitting the cinemas in December, here is everything I promise to get right this year… in cat gifs.

This is the year I won’t leave all my shopping until Christmas Eve 

This is the year I’m going to write cards to all my family

This is the year I will hold off from listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas films until December

This is the year I nail the descant in Hark the Herald Angels Sing

This is the year I’m going to invite my neighbours to church

This is the year the tree won’t be too tall/small/bushy/bare/uneven/lopsided/fake

This is the year I’m going to eat the orange in my stocking

This is the year I get presents that show I really know my family 

This is the year I won’t fill myself up on canapes and nibbles 

This is the year I stay awake until the end of the film

This is the year that the Christmas pudding stays on fire a solid 30 seconds

This is the year the game of Monopoly doesn’t end in tears

This is the year my auntie will behave herself

This is the year I’m going to get Christmas right

Okay. Maybe that was a tad unrealistic. I know full well that it will be me again who ends up raiding the local convenience store for presents on Christmas Eve to place under my wonky tree after having spent most of November wasting precious shopping time watching badly made Christmas films on the Hallmark channel. 

I can’t keep all my promises, not even to myself. But there is One who can <insert audible gear crank> and will….

The Christmas Promise is a captivating retelling of the Christmas story showing how God kept His promise to send a new King. Superb illustrations by Catalina Echeverri and faithful, Bible-centred story-telling by Alison Mitchell combine to make this a book that both parents and children will love.

This hardback storybook for 3-6s is now also available as a devotional advent calendar and a board book for 2-4s, as well as a colouring and activity book, and a giant colouring poster.