Christmas food craziness

[ChasedByBees]

I'm reading lots of threads on here about pre orders and deliveries and various panics.

Is anyone else like me? We go shopping on Christmas Eve and part of the fun is what food can you get at discount prices. We don't really care what we get but something resembling Christmas dinner is preferable. We've never had to resort to sausage and chips yet and most years have the full works.

It's just turkey (or other meat or veg substitute), crackers, booze and veg. (OK, and pigs in blankets and stuffing and cranberry and bread sauce but all easy to get).

AIBU to think people could chill out a bit more about dinner?

[CaraAspen]

I think it is totally insane.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I couldn't cope with that - I need to have a plan in place and know that I have the main constituents of that plan here, otherwise my stress levels get too high, and that impacts my mental health.

I suspect I am your polar opposite - by the beginning of the week, I had made and frozen braised red cabbage, apple sauce, bread crumbs, stock and peeled chestnuts. The goose for tomorrow and the gammon for Boxing Day were in the freezer too, and I had a Tesco delivery booked for Wednesday, that I booked as soon as the slots were available.

Worse than that, I have a set of lists, on the computer, of all the things that need doing in the run-up to Christmas - usually this is in a note book, but this year I put it on the computer, to save me work next year (sad, yes), and have been working through that methodically, to make sure I was well ahead of what needed doing.

Dh went to the supermarket at the crack of dawn, to get fresh bread, and one or two other bits and pieces he decided we need, but I'd rather not have to set foot in a supermarket today, if at all possible (though they don't seem to get so manic round here).

I'm having a rest at the moment, having hacked through a large proportion of my Christmas Eve list - prepping veg, making stuffing, bread sauce, gravy, brandy butter, boiling and glazing the gammon, stuffing the goose, and baking some gingerbread biscuits and parmesan shortbreads (I made and chilled the doughs yesterday).

[ChasedByBees]

Cara

Wow STD, I'm impressed!

Christmas eve shopping is the best though, £40 turkeys for £5. Excellent.

[llhj]

Do you enjoy it?

[ghostyslovesheets]

I love Christmas dinner but I don't do the stress shop - it's me and 3 kids so I get a LOT of frozen veg, then they like gammon so one of those trays of gammon and I have a chicken breast for one in a tray!

I but crackers way in advance and cheeses etc in the week before

running round a supermarket in a panic is my idea of hell

[llhj]

That's to STD

[llhj]

I just see it as a roast tbh and that level of preparation seems insane to me. I don't like hugely laden plates either with loads of veg. I just do carrots, parsnips and sprouts along with roast potatoes and turkey, stuffing and gravy.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I enjoy it when it's all done, and I can sit down, smug in the knowledge that I don't have any more to do, llhj! But while I am doing it all, I can become faintly homicidal - the family keep out of my way. But I think I would enjoy it all less, and become much more stressed if I didn't have all my lists.

I do put in some laziness too - Boxing day's meal is gammon (boiled and glazed today) with baked potatoes and coleslaw, and today's dinner is a wide selection of Tesco's frozen party food, that other people can shuffle in and out of the oven.

[Lorelei76]

Yabu to say " resort" to sausage and chips, that beats trad Xmas food hands down!

[ghostyslovesheets]

oh we do Christmas Eve party food as well - so much easier to sort while drinking cava!

[ilovesooty]

I've never been able to figure why and how people can be bothered with all that preparation and activity. People differ I suppose.

[GoofyTheHero]

I don't get it either. It's just a roast.
We don't do our shopping on Christmas Eve as I can't be arsed with the crowds, but we've ordered and picked up our meat from the butcher (like we do every week, all our meat is from the butcher), bought some veg and have everything else in stock anyway. Christmas dinner will be roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, cauliflower cheese, red cabbage, roast potatoes, roast parsnips and broccoli. Haven't had to buy anything that we don't buy regularly anyway. The only 'different' thing is that we went to a speciality cheese shop for some nice cheese for Christmas night.

[ChasedByBees]

I enjoy my method llhj

Have set off for shops but leisurely lunch first.

[ChasedByBees]

PS the car park where you normally have to fight for a space is almost empty.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Yes, it's just a roast, and normally I'd do the cooking on the day, but getting stuff done ahead of time means my Christmas Day is more relaxing and fun, because I'm not having to spend time peeling sprouts when I'd rather have my feet up with a mug of mulled wine, watching the boys open their presents.

[YouTheCat]

SDTG, I also made all my pastry and stuff yesterday. Just got to put it all together in an hour or so and then it's buffet tea, sherry, mulled wine and then a nice bath and a chill out.

I also like to have things planned.

[PberryT]

I don't get the big rush and uber preparations, it's a roast dinner fgs.

Fair enough guaranteeing you get a turkey but the rest, does it really matter.

We don't have a starter, nan makes the pudding and the dinner is a turkey roast dinner. Who the he'll needs to write lists on a computer for a roast?! Madness.

[PaulDacresConscience]

For me, YANBU, but if I were hosting people then I probably would disagree. It's difficult to cater on a large scale without some kind of forward planning - and that's before you get into dietary requirements.

I went yesterday, simply because I try to stay out of supermarkets on Xmas Eve because they are so busy. I did end up going back in when passing on foot earlier, because I wanted some biscuits which I'd forgotten the day before. Only 1 item so I could self-serve but the main checkouts were heaving.

[MiddlingMum]

But is it all really so difficult? For visitors dropping in you just need tea/coffee/fruit juice and something like cookies or mince pies. For lunch, just what you'd normally eat but maybe a couple of extra things to make it a bit more special. Lots of salad and some nice bread. Possibly a pudding but certainly plenty of fruit. Job done.

Having a vegan meal does make it easier - the queue to collect turkeys at Waitrose looked stressful a couple of days ago.

Personally I'm hoping to do a hour or so's gardening before it gets dark today. Christmas will happen tomorrow.

[HeffalumpsnWoozles]

I'm a planner too, again MH related due to anxiety. Chocolate & nuts etc. I start buying a couple of things a week when they come in to the shops.

The frozen turkey crown & gammon usually bought the 2nd week of Dec (only ever 2 of us for Christmas plus the 2 dogs) OH gets the booze but I agree it's just a roast dinner I just couldn't wait till last minute in case they didn't have what I needed.

Cake & Yule log the 3rd week, I do it all online as I freak out in crowds & can't concentrate on much more than breathing

[neveradullmoment99]

I dont get it either. I make a ham, some sprouts and roast potatoes. Pudding is a choice of things - cheescake, roulade or ice cream. Starters is a selection of deli meats, olives etc. Thats my xmas meal.

[GoofyTheHero]

I start buying a couple of things a week when they come in to the shops

I think this might be the big difference. We don't really buy all this stuff. No nuts/crisps/tubs of chocolates/Yule logs/Christmas cakes etc. The girls get a bit of chocolate in their stockings (they're only young so don't need much) and DH and I just wouldn't eat it all. We've spent money on some really nice beef and some nice bottles of wine but consumables wise that's it really.

[MangosteenSoda]

This year I've booked a turkey, gravy, sprouts and green beans to be delivered at about 1pm tomorrow. I'm not in the UK and Christmas lunch delivery is pretty common here.

Will do roast potatoes, stuffing, extra veg etc. Have made a cake. Did my food shop today. We have guests coming and not sure of the running order.

Normally this would stress me out somewhat, but we are moving house on the 28th and I'm officially 'post stress'. I'm catatonic. It's quite a relaxing state to achieve.

[GingerHollyandIvy]

My dcs have SNs and food issues, so we have to make sure we have food they can cope with eating. I made sure I had everything in earlier in the week that could be frozen, and just had our regular grocery shop with a few additional items delivered yesterday without a problem.

They don't cope with the supermarket on a good quiet day. The week before Christmas we won't set foot in a supermarket unless it's an emergency (and I can't even think of what that would need to be - something pretty damn drastic!!!).

[thereisnocheese]

We moved into our new house last week and essentially it's still being renovated and our kitchen was installed but not yet finished. So we are going to the supermarket around four o clock to swoop in for some bargains- I'm looking forward to not being governed by my lists and seeing what we can pick up.