There used to be a time when decking the halls and adorning your home with twinkling Christmas lights merely meant sticking up a few tired decorations and a Christmas tree inside. But for many people, those times are long gone – as decorating the outside of their homes is now just as important (if not more so!).

The obsession with so-called housebling has gone a bit crazy over the last few years, with some houses draped to the rafters with endless flashing lights and mad yuletide creations. Even this year’s economic climate doesn’t seem to have put people off, with houses dolled up to the nines for Christmas.

For the seasoned houseblinger, the bling is likely to be well and truly up and in action by December 1 – or earlier, for the true devotee – but there’s still chance to add a bit of interest to your home now, if you so desire. In fact, you could even save yourself a few pounds by buying late, both in terms of the cost of electricity and with bagging a lighting bargain.

Argos, for example, has reductions on most of its Christmas decorations, including this set of 80 blue multi-function LED lights, and at Tesco there’s up to 75% off Christmas lights.

If you need inspiration of what you could create, then Festive-Lights is brimming with product ideas, from simple sets of strings of lights, to elaborate decorations and light-up moulded figures. Or there’s even a whole website, Houseblinger, dedicated to the art of housebling, where you can see current and past housebling in action – or submit examples of your own.

Getting involved with housebling is a sure-fire way of making your house stand out from the crowd – but can easily become for the wrong reasons. If you’ve currently got your house on the market, then it may be wise to tone down your bling, just in case. In the same way that buyers can be put off by unsightly interior issues, too much housebling can have the same effect.

Your neighbours may not love you either, especially if your lights are blazing late into the evening and shining into their rooms when they’re trying to get to sleep. So have fun and be creative with your decorations, but do remember to spare a thought for those who live around you.

Christmas dinner
Dilemma: You don’t know how to stuff a turkey, or you just don’t want to. You’re not interested in making yorkies from scratch or hunting down the right wines to match each course. And yet, at an earlier, more innocent age (probably around October), you stupidly made the grand gesture of declaring that YOU would host Christmas day this year. And now you will have people at your place next week, expecting to be fed something spectacular.

Surely not since The Last Supper has any one meal ever caused this much anguish and gnashing of teeth. Good grief, why don’t we all just give it up and order in. Jamie Oliver’s doing it, so there’s no need to feel guilty.

If you’re in London, take a leaf out of Jamie’s book and order Christmas in a Box from the celebrities’ favourite deli, Melrose & Morgan, in Primrose Hill for £39.95 per head and be kitted out with turkey or goose, wine, cheese, pudding, organic sausage meat and all the trimmings.

If you’re not in London, take a look at The Christmas Dinner Company. They’ll deliver a brilliant pack with everything you need (including a roasting pan) by 23 December.

Decorating
Dilemma: It’s two days until Christmas and you still haven’t decked the halls. Don’t feel bad. You’re probably very busy and important, and understandably, tinsel and fairy lights don’t feature all that high on your life agenda.

Of course, when you finally get the chance to drop into M&S, all the good stuff is gone and you’re left with 80cm of garish multicoloured lights, a box of plastic baubles (half of which are already broken) and some semi-squashed chocolate ornaments.

Never mind. You have two options.

Option One: Embrace whatever tacky delights are left over at your local pound shop and give your Christmas an ironic theme of eye-watering garishness. You’ll need loads of poor quality tinsel in as many different colours as you can find, plus the aforementioned broken baubles and multicoloured lights, and on top of those just throw on anything you’ve ever worn to a hen’s night (feather boas, plastic tiaras, etc). You’ll also need the ability to carry this off with a laugh and a carefree hair-toss as you hand each guest a glass of cava in a plastic cup and trill, “Yes, I thought we’d go a bit ‘Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter’ this year…”

Option Two: Embrace your inner domestic god/goddess and declare this year to be a homemade affair. You’ll need a recipe for stained glass window biscuits (to hang as tree ornaments), some string, a needle, cranberries and popcorn (for a homemade tree garland), and some potted poinsettias from your local florist to dot around the place. Prepare to feel Nigella-like levels of smugness.

Shopping
Dilemma: It’s 22 December. You’ve left your Christmas shopping until the very last minute. Again. And after an office Christmas party, a disastrous ice-skating adventure, and a three-hour performance of The Nutcracker (during which you fell asleep) all in one week, the last thing you can face right now is a soul-crushing trip to the high street.

No problem. Make a list of the people you need to buy for, assign them to one of the following gift categories according to age, gender and how much you like them, and buy online at one of the listed websites (all of which offer same-day or next-day delivery, so you can have everything delivered to your door by 23 December).

• Flowers from Interflora
• Cupcakes from The Cupcake Factory
• Chocolate from Chouchoute
• Theatre tickets from Lastminute.com (print them straight from your inbox!)
• Bungee jumping, skydiving, makeovers, spa breaks, flying lessons, steam train journeys, afternoon teas and wine tasting days from BuyaGift

Christmas cards
Dilemma: All the lovely Christmas cards from your friends and family are piling up. And so are the lovely Christmas cards to your friends and family. Over there. In a corner. Still unwritten.

Avoid writer’s cramp and a trip to the post office by sending everyone free holiday e-cards. It’s the (eleventh-hour) thought that counts.

Home cleaning services, from £7.95 per hour at Belle Casa
Cleaning services: the ultimate gift for homeowners. They will probably erect a shrine in your honour.

Cath Kidston rose blue oven mitt, £9
Cute, classic, practical and inexpensive.

Fire blanket, from £16.99 at Safelincs
An inexpensive and thoughtful gift that says, ‘Congrats on your new home, try not to die in a kitchen fire’.

Yule Tree-To-Be Kit, £17.75
A green and Christmasy way to commemorate moving into a new home.

Bunny dish rack, £20 at the V&A Museum shop
So cute it’s guaranteed to make anyone forget they’re washing up. (Maybe.)

Articulate! board game, £25 at John Lewis
New mortgage = plenty of future nights in = plenty of time to play board games. Articulate! is the greatest game in the world – if you don’t wholeheartedly agree after one round, I will personally refund your £25. (Not really though.)

Personalised Swarovski-encrusted bottle of Moet & Chandon, from £50
Londoners can drop into the UK’s first pop-up Champagne store at 70 New Bond Street from December 3-28 and order bottles of Moet, hand-customised with a name or date written in Swarovski crystals. Nice touch for a housewarming celebration!

Nebula Chandelier, £381 at John Lewis
Giving a chandelier makes you better than pretty much everyone else at a housewarming party. This one is particularly good, as it looks like it belongs on an episode of Doctor Who.

KitchenAid Artisan coffeemaker, £505 at John Lewis
Attractive and practical, this baby lets you brew, froth, steam, grind and any number of coffee-making verbs. Available in cream or red.

Coffin couch, $USD3,500
Little bit morbid, little bit odd… but surprisingly nice. And made from recycled (but unused) coffins, so bonus eco-points for you.