In the run up to Christmas it’s all too easy to allow yourself to get swept up in the hysteria of shopping, planning and partying, with the result that by Christmas Day you could feel completely wiped out. In an attempt to pre-empt yuletide burnout, I spent the morning at the Amida Spa at the Chelsea Harbour Club. The spa is everything a yummy mummy could wish for – the changing rooms are luxurious, with vanity tables equipped with hairdryers and hair gel, Molton Brown shampoo in the showers and flat screen TVs on the walls.

Before going into the spa proper, I had an Elemis Booster facial which was sheer bliss. Elemis are famed for their spa products and quite rightly so. My lovely therapist used my all-time favourite product, Elemis Gentle Rose Exfoliator, (I instantly recognised it from the smell, which is like proper old-fashioned Turkish delight!) followed by a fruity Papaya Enzyme Peel to banish dirt and dead skin cells and feed my skin back to life.

Cleansed and glowy, I entered the spa which is a long elegant space with a 25m pool, a hydrotherapy pool where the water is as warm as a bath and you can stand under a thundering torrent to massage away any aches and pains. I sweated it out in the Sanarium, breathed deeply in the Salt Room, scrubbed my skin with ice from a chute to get the circulation going, and did a few laps in the pool. Afterwards I felt so relaxed and my skin looked great – in short, I was fortified to take on anything – even Oxford Street!

Amida Spa, Harbour Club, Watermeadow Lane, London, SW6 2RR, 020 7371 7744 www.amidaspa.co.uk