Mumsnet Talk

I've often thought of getting as much of the christmas food ready prepared from M&S. When I collected our pre ordered Turkey and nut roast I noticed lots of other people who seemed to have ordered the whole lot, including veg.
I know I do get a lot of satisfaction out of making my own pudding, cake, mince pies etc. but I'm also always totally knackered by Christmas day and a bit stressed out. Just tell me someone, should I get Christmas in a box in 2013?

It depends: are you Margot from The Good Life?

I'd keep the bits I enjoy doing. And wouldn't compare to what others do.

We got almost everything from m and s this year, for the first time.

Have to say its been the most relaxing Xmas day ever. Pop everything in the oven and throw away the trays afterwards.

The only thing we didn't like was the honey parsnips.

But everything else was lovely.

The party food is lovely too. Going to do the same next year.

No food prep
No washing up

Though I should add-I think it's quite expensive for what the Christmas dinner is. Could probe my get a good equivalent cheaper from morrisons etc

I bought the turkey crown with stuffing. Came on its own tray with timings. Was lovely and reduced stress, cost and waste.
There is no way back to a whole turkey (despite fil moaning about no brown meat - who likes the brown - bleurgh! )

This was our third year of ordering the Festive Feast (turkey crown with stuffing, full lux veg pack incl mash and roasties, garnish pack, gravy, bread and cranberry sauce, a dessert and a cheese selection with oatcakes).

It was so so easy to do, its supposed to be for 6 but it fed 4 adults and 1 child easily for a full Xmas lunch AND same again on Boxing Day. Still have half the pudding and cheese left for nibbles today! We order it in November, costs £100 but if you order early enough you get a bottle of cava or decent wine free (the one we got last year was worth £15 and was lush!)

i think that's an ok deal for masses of food, no hassle, able to spend the time with DS. We don't like Xmas cake or Xmas pud much (although I did buy a small sainsbo one this year for my dad which was fine) so I wouldn't slave over those anyway.

We are totally converted as we enjoy our day so much more.

Yes my mum gets everything out of m&s for 14 of us and it is always delicious.

I've been doing this for some years. This year we had the festive feast, I'd booked the 7am pick-up slot so was back home with everything by 8am.
Everything is beautifully prepared and presented, there was plenty for 5 adults and 1 child, the roast potatoes were fabulous. We supplement with some peas/corn and some ready-made yorkshires. The dessert was great as none of us like Xmas pud, but I'd also ordered one of the raspberry panna cotta desserts as we loved it last year. This year we got a bottle of vintage Cava free with the dinner, and a £5 off voucher as we stood in the collection line. I decided on a serving time and worked the timings backwards so I had a good crib list. Everything cooked perfectly.
My MIL spent the day at BIL's house and did make her usual pointed remark yesterday about him doing the potatoes himself. I simply replied that I had been able to have an extra bucks fizz or two with DH and spend time with the DC instead.
The M & S cheeseboard is delicious.

I got a turkey breast thing,pork and chestnut stuffing and most of my veg all from M and S this year. It was fab and definitely worth it.

My parents ordered the turkey and parsnips from Morrisons this year, for the first time they were offering a similar service to M&S. Except it wasn't. M&S have it all down to a fine art and while there are queues and mistakes can obviously be made, in general it is very well-organised and you will get what you paid for at the time you booked.
In Morrisons they hadn't got items ready for orders. They weren't telling people the correct place to go. They hadn't made items up - eg. someone was collecting platters of sandwiches and the sandwiches hadn't been made, they started making them there and then. Items which had been ordered just weren't there. It was a nightmare.
Oh and the turkey was fine but the parsnips were a bit bleurgh.

I think I will try it as an experiement next year, when it is just the 4 of us, and see how we go. If it frees up some of my time for more creative stuff that would be great. Maybe I resent some of the effort as DS2 and I are vegetarian and have a tin of braised tofu and some veggie sos.

Been doing an m&s for years, can't fit a whole turkey in my oven and it's too much anyway.

Had a swede and bacon crumble this year instead of swede and carrot mash and it was gorgeous!!

Growing up it was horrible watching my mum get stressed and upset to get one meal right,

springlamb the cava is lush isn't it?! Hee hee. About to tackle the cheeseboard today cos we didn't even touch it the last 2 days with everything else we had.

I like making the food so it is not something I would do. However if I didn't enjoy cooking I might give it a go

I usually get a bit of the stuff, but I do all my own veg. Braised red cabbage can be made ahead and frozen (it's one of those things that actually gets better for this) as can pigs in blankets and stuffings (though I do buy some as well).

Oh - and I LOVE the brown meat, so long as it's off a free range turkey. It's really dark and almost like duck.

We got the festive feast this year and it fed 6 adults and 4 kids! We did supplement the turkey with a ham, but we only ate half of it. It was great - I want to enjoy Christmas eve and Christmas day, not be stuck in the kitchen.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a real foodie and love cooking and finding new ingredients/recipes. But Christmas day is just a big roast dinner supplemented with lots of booze and chocolate, so I feel no guilt in getting it all in a box and having a day off!

Personally, I love the planning of the Christmas Meal , even the veg preparation so I wouldn't.

But I'm not averse to NYE or NYD dinner from M&S

I agree the honey parsnips were vile ! Turkey breasts were fab as is their Christmas pudding .

Someone up thread mentioned morrisons...

We did morrisons this year pre-order. It's the first they have done it. Food was lovely, good value and only for two of us (but we have tonnes leftover!) so we didn't want to spend loads.

When DH went to pick it up it was a complete disaster. None of the staff knew what they were doing and he had to go to each individual section of the store to pick up each part ie butchers, deli etc. with a hungry toddler in tow. We thought it would have been a quick in an out-it took and hour and a half!
I love the concept, but morrisons need to sort out some sort of system before we do it with them again

Doublemum and newton exactly the same with Morrisons here. They lost the goose , and I waited close on an hour for them to pick up all the bits from different departments, slice the salami, arrange the deli tray They never found the goose, but I forgive them because the staff were so incredibly kind (I was in tears of frustration by this point... literally thought I would be able to waltz in and pick up lovely chilled bags of food in five minutes - was that too much to ask of pre-ordering?), and a neighbour who worked at Morrisons (although I didn't know that until the ordering debacle) actually dropped round a bunch of flowers for me afterwards

But if I had been relying on that goose, or it had been Xmas Eve, I would have been spitting.

So food was fine, just it would have been easier to shop for it myself...

I still love Morrisons though. It is so cheap and so homely [sigh] Just not the world of big business.

Btw, I prepared all my own veg, stuffings, puddings etc...which was lucky

My parents did this and said the food was great , my mum is no cook! However my poor 80 year old had to queue for 3 1/2 hours at m and s in eltham se London. Really not acceptable, and there excuse was they hadn't expected so many online orders !!!!! May try another supermarket next year

I think morrisons had banked on people doing their Christmas shop and picking up food at the same time. Unfortunately for us, we'd done out shop with sainsburys and had it delivered so poor DH had just gone for our order.

I've got a baby and a toddler, and DH was working over Christmas so don't want to have to do my own veg etc but can't justify the huge potions of veg with all other pre-order stores (m&s, sainsburys etc) Will have to have a good think for next year!

Just to update, Morrisons just rang up, and gave me a large free goose to apologise for the mixup on the 23rd! As well as the aforementioned bunch of flowers.

I love them! But never again will I pre-order...