The other day, I wrote an article suggesting that in order to relieve the stress of Christmas you should throw off the shackles of tradition. Too many people stress themselves out simply by trying to do too much.

The advice was for anyone who is in charge of the family Christmas celebrations. I made sure that the article was gender neutral because although it’s often women who are in charge of arranging the festivities there are plenty of households ran by single fathers.

However, in my own mind I suspected that it’s generally the women who insist on arranging Christmas presents, visits, and all the traditional fare of turkey, Christmas pudding, mince pies and that many men just wouldn’t be bothered.

So imagine my amusement today, when I opened the newspaper to find an article on a report that was recently commissioned by the Red Tractor food standards watchdog in which a third of the 2000 men questioned said that women make far too much fuss about Christmas and they could arrange it better themselves!

Now I imagine some women reading that, choking over a drink as they sit writing out Christmas cards, planning Christmas meals, working out who should be invited over for drinks, or who needs a visit and worrying if there’s someone who’s been left off the present list.

That’s without of course wondering how the money is going to last, worrying about whether the children will go into a big sulk because you’re not going to spend as much as previous years, wondering how you’ll keep everyone happy, planning when you’ll find time to pop round to the neighbours, working out who’s going to need lifts to their friends and the long list of other things that many women arrange which no one ever thinks about.

However, some women are their own worst enemies and stress them and their families out by trying to provide the ‘perfect traditional Christmas’. Sadly it seems that many men think these efforts are rather pointless. Many wouldn’t buy Christmas cards, visit the in-laws and would be quite happy with steak and chips for lunch or have a takeaway.

It seems that children too have equally strong views about Christmas. It seems in a different report commission by the holiday company Butlins they are far more interested in spending time with a parent than they are about presents. Sadly although many children look forward to seeing relatives that they don’t get to see regularly throughout the year many also worry that there might be arguments caused by any family reunions.

A quarter of children are also worrying about how their families could afford the expense of Christmas.

So there you have it. I think I was right when I suggested that you could throw of the shackles of tradition at Christmas and lessen your stress levels . Why not order a takeaway for Christmas dinner rather than slaving over a hot stove to produce the perfect turkey dinner or refuse to visit your in-laws? Christmas is supposed to be a time of celebration and family fun.

And if you have a man who thinks he can do a better job – why not let him? Not this year of course. It’s far too late for that, but as soon as Christmas is over he can start thinking about next year and hit the sales to start getting presents for next year.

Now who’s choking over their drink?