Christmas is shrinking before our eyes, as Covid curtails the usual celebrations. But maybe, just maybe, there are some advantages to a smaller, quieter, pared back Christmas Day.

Here are a few reasons not having to host the whole family has some silver linings, albeit not many…

1. It’s easier to agree on things

When your home is packed with more aunts and cousins than the average royal wedding, group activities quickly become fraught. Your great-great-grandmother is far too frail for a festive walk, the in-laws have very different views on when is too early to start drinking, and we’re pretty certain (and relieved) there’s no such thing as 20-man Monopoly.

With no extended family around, you might even be able to agree on a movie. Wouldn’t that be a Christmas miracle.

2. It makes it easier to avoid difficult family members

You don’t choose your family, and Christmas gatherings are a classic forum for black sheep coming out to play. An extremely cantankerous grandparent, a politically extreme cousin, a sibling that never forgave you for stealing their lunch money aged 13 – familial ties are no guarantee of mutual affection, and it may be that a smaller Christmas is also a Christmas off.

They’ll be back next year – for better and for worse.

3. You’ll likely end up with a comparatively calm kitchen

Come Christmas morning most families divide into two. Those responsible for Christmas dinner isolate themselves in the kitchen, feverishly wrapping pigs in bacon blankets, worrying about the parsnip-to-carrot ratio, and frantically steaming sprouts no one will eat.

Everyone else assembles at their leisure, and merrily waits for dinner to materialise. Everyone loves a large festive meal. Everyone, that is, except the chef.

4. It’s different

They say you should try everything once, and the saving grace of a small Christmas may be simple variety. Watching a bad movie can be more interesting than watching a good movie for the 10th time, and a more intimate, stripped down celebration will at least have novelty value.

5. Present etiquette goes out the window

Every Christmas Auntie Gladys insists you try on the socks she thoughtfully picked for you, and every Christmas it’s painfully obvious they don’t fit. You then have three choices: claim they do, admit they don’t, or valiantly fudge it down the middle. None of these really work.

This year you can skip the live show, and simply send her a nice note.

6. You get time to use your presents

Boxing Day is normally the allotted slot for actually using your Christmas presents, and in a normal year your shiny new Playstation 5 would taunt you from its box while grandma runs through her holiday snaps. Not so this year.

7. Transport is suddenly very simple

Goodbye dashing through the snow to stations and airports trying to coordinate your frighteningly long guest list; hello sitting sedately by the fire. Best of all, you can get as tipsy as you please over Christmas pudding as there’s no need to drive anyone home.

8. You can decorate your house however you please

Getting the house ready for visitors can feel like a full-time job, but this year you can embrace the tasteless tinsel or ditch decorating at all. You have no one to impress but yourselves.