Palmer's festive season advice

Forget big projects and think shade in the lead-up to Christmas, advises Better Homes and Gardens' resident handyman and DIY exert Rob Palmer.

"It may be unrealistic to make something too big," said Palmer while in Perth for Telethon last month.

"Think about shade. Temporary shade, permanent shade; just think about shade.

"You get incredible heat build-up in the afternoon and if you are going to try to cool your home down, try external covers rather than internal covers because they block the sun before it hits the house.

"You could do a star jasmine climbing wall . . . so you stay cool inside and the outside smells beautiful and looks really good."

Palmer and the Better Homes team are rarely all together in the same place at the same time but they got together at garden guru Graham Ross' house to film the show's annual Christmas special.

"We had the standard family around the table - and we do see each other as family after this period of time together doing the show," Palmer said.

"There's an intimacy we have and a respect: each one of us respects the other's profession. I ask Graham how to fix my frangipani and he will ask me what he should do about the underside of his deck.

"It's a great big dysfunctional family; we have a lot of fun and we are very lucky to be where we are."

Airing tomorrow, the Christmas special is packed with festive ideas. On the Fast Ed food front there's turkey on the barbecue, a flat-pack pavlova and something for the kids, "reindeer poo".

Karen Martini whips up a deluxe potato and prawn salad while Johanna Griggs and Jason Hodges help bring some sparkle to the lives of very sick children with the help of a special fairy, Tara Dennis has an easy gift to make for the young and young-at- heart and Ross shows you how to get your garden ready for entertaining.

Palmer builds a pack-away table that's perfect for your Christmas feast and hinted he had something else lined up.

"I've got a great toy: it flies, and it's easy," he said. "I know I say it's easy but this is easy. In fact, the majority of it is made with sandpaper so it is pretty basic, and it's awesome.

"My brother and I every year get each other something that can fly: if it launches or it flies it is a good Christmas present as far as we're concerned.

"If it lasts the day that's great, if it breaks on the second day that's just part of the fun. We spend every Christmas basically flying stuff."

While the Better Homes presenters traditionally work alone on their segments, Palmer said this was starting to change.

"It is happening more and more. Towards the end of this year we've been doing a couple of big renovations; Tara and Jason just went and did a few jobs each at one house.

"You don't have to cut your arm off to get things done, you just do what's comfortable, do what you think you can achieve in a weekend.

"If we can break those big jobs up into small jobs, then people do think they can achieve those things themselves."

Palmer, who has three children with his wife Gwen Jones, is a Telethon regular and was particularly moved this year because their baby Greta had been ill in hospital a few months earlier with high temperatures.

"Seeing all the kids today ripped me to pieces; having so recently being in hospital, not knowing what was wrong, they were doing tests for meningococcal, it was a nervous time but thankfully and lucky for us it was just a nasty virus she recovered from.

"It is so unfair that children get sick and that's why I come, time and time again, I think, because we have an opportunity to make sure the kids who do get ill have the best chance possible."

Palmer hails from a long line of builders and proudly finished his bachelor of construction project management with first-class honours from UTS this year.

"I have always had a head for building; I like to stay involved in what's happening in building because you do never know when the day is going to come when you need to use your knowledge and if you're not practised you can get rusty," he said.

"Even though studying as a mature-age student with kids and a full-time job may seem difficult it was really something I loved so it was almost a break to go to uni.

"I think if people can find something they absolutely love and study that it is almost like a break from work to further your education, it can only be good, can't it?"

'If we can break those big jobs up into small jobs, then people do think they can achieve those things themselves.'