Christmas can be a wonderful time of the year for families however, it can also be a difficult time for separated parents. As Head of Family Law at Johnson Legal Family Law, I’ve been helping families with their Christmas co-parenting arrangements for over 25 years.

Communicating effectively with your ex-partner is one of the most important aspects to a smooth Christmas. One of my colleagues, Fiona Mundy, recently trained as a coach with the New Ways for Families training programme. The pilot is run by Shared Parenting Scotland and aims to keep high conflict cases involving children away from court.

Fiona has coached several parents to communicate more effectively and de-escalate conflict. Our Family Law team has collated our top tips to help separated parents communicate better over the festive period:1. Keep all correspondence with each other brief and informative. Don't respond to comments that don't require a response. Where possible, ask a question which has a yes/no answer.

Focus should always be on what’s best for the children at Christmas - Beverley Johnson