Here is everything you need to make your Christmas easy and enjoyable, from scrumptious cakes and puddings to the main event itself – turkey with all the trimmings, a vegetarian Christmas dinner or a wide range of delicious alternatives.

With treats like Sticky Gingerbread, Panettone Pudding, and Christmas Chocolate Cookies, you may be tempted to dive right into the sweets and ignore the other side of Christmas dinner.With recipes for classics like Chestnut Stuffing, and Perfect Roast Potatoes you might think this is a nod to the Spirit of Christmas Past, but Nigella gives things her own unique twist with Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Lasagna, Fully Loaded Potato Skins, and Roast Squash and Sweet Potato Soup with Buttermilk-Blue Cheese Swirl.

This is an essential purchase for all cookery collections in communities where Christmas is celebrated. As will Sam Dixon’s Very Vegan Christmas, a beautiful little book with so much in it, from which, I’m happy to bring you her Vegan Christmas Cake and Vegan Mincemeat Pancakes. It's a beautiful book, full of great recipes to really get you into the Christmas spirit this year and every year.She has had two series of 'Nigella Bites' in 1999-2001, plus a 2001 Christmas special, and 'Forever Summer with Nigella' in 2002, both of which yielded accompanying recipe books. The one drink I made, a Poinsettia (sparkling wine, triple sec, and cranberry juice), while winsome in the crystal, only garnered an 'okay' on taste. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. They are bright and vibrant and there are so many of them and of all kinds of things, not only food.

We've also got both my Ham in Coca Cola and Ginger-Glazed Ham, both of which are just divine with the Spiced Peaches. I must confess here that I’m one of those bah humbug types who is probably going to be visited by Jacob Marley in chains one of these day. I urge you also to reconsider the seasonal sprout, and go for the Hearty Wholewheat Pasta with Brussels Sprouts, Cheese and Potato, a truly satisfying veggie option (and an excellent way of absorbing excess alcohol, I should add).Beautifully spiced, and juicy turkey - I may have negated the need for brining by stuffing under the breast, but I felt that the brining improves the texture and flavour of the overall bird. If you dust this piece of parchment with a little icing sugar it may help prevent stickage, but don't worry too much as any tears or dents will be covered by icing later. Perhaps it’s because she is realistic about what a home cook can be expected to do, and perhaps it’s because there are a range of secret tips that actually make it sound like you can succeed, even with complicated things like a “spiced and superjuicy turkey with allspice gravy” (she’s convinced me – I’m definitely doing this one for the dinner this year – even my vegetarian in-laws are going to be tempted), or “chocolate fruit cake” (might be the word “incredibly easy” in the title that tempts me). With her no-nonsense approach, her inspirational ideas and empathy for the practical realities of the season - combined here with reliable easy-to-follow recipes and reassuring advice about planning and cooking ahead - Nigella Christmas is guaranteed to bring comfort and joy and make sure the season of good will stays that way.

I adore this woman for so many reasons, but one quite important one is that, with this book, I’ve been able to create my own holiday traditions with my family.I love listening to Nigella Lawson when she is an occasional guest on NPR; I imagine many tv-watching cooks enjoy her program on the Food Network as well. Her cakes, as always, gladden the heart, and her 'At-a-Glance Christmas Dinner Countdown' helps take the stress and strain out of the Big Day itself. After a pomegranate, the lychee feels the most seasonally celebratory of fruits, and it didn’t seem fair to leave it out of the Christmas canon, just because of its unfestive pallor. As Nigella says: "The Christmas rituals of the home are, even if not based around faith, essentially an act of good faith.