I’m in need of Christmas dinner organisational help!!

[FredAstairesUnderwear]

I feel like I have left it too late, I haven’t been able to book a delivery slot for my fresh food anywhere near close to Christmas, so will be braving the shops for that on Christmas Eve, I haven’t ordered a turkey, I haven’t even bought a single Christmas present yet but that is a whole other thread! This is my first year cooking Christmas dinner, and having just moved house and dealing with all the stress of that I had not even given the main meal a thought! I’m cooking for DP, MIL and myself as well as providing a dinner for my elderly grandparents who can’t get out of the house. What do I need? What can I order that will keep? How can I get my scrambled head around this organisational disaster? I’m being dramatic I know!

Don't worry! It's not too late to order food as long as you don't mind collecting it in person. I've got both the Tesco and Morrisons brochures here. The Tesco food can be ordered until Friday and the Morrisons food can be ordered until Saturday. You can order online or in store. I never do delivery with my Christmas dinner food - I like to be sure I can get everything and be on the spot for substitutions.

I've ordered mine to collect on Christmas Eve - turkey, pigs in blankets, puddings and party food. You can buy items such as goose fat, wine and cranberry sauce now. I've also blanched carrots, sprouts and parsnips and frozen them ready to cook for Christmas dinner. I'll buy a gammon with my shopping next week.

It will be busy on Christmas Eve but I usually take DD1 with me and we have a cup of tea and a bit of breakfast.

Try Morrison's delivery, I've just booked a slot for the 23rd of Dec.

Make a list of what you need food wise and buy the none perishables now.

Order your fresh food via click & collect. My local M&S has very long queues on Xmas eve for click & collect. However, buying a turkey from the chiller cabinet is easier & quicker.

Order or buy nearer the time a ready made Christmas dinner for your grandparents. M&S, waitrose, cook etc do them & you just bung in the oven.

Simplify your gift buying to children & close family only. Vouchers, cash, experience gift, board games & hampers.

Just be wary with the delivery they won't save you anything, you will only get it if it is still in stock that morning. You may want to do an order and collect it instead. Have had them run out of Christmas food for my delivery before and it was ridiculous. Luckily dh went out and found enough.

Do a spreadsheet for the day, showing what time you start preparing all the different things and put them on to cook. That way you won't miss anything or leave it to late. Also put on the spreadsheet where everything will be cooked - so you don't realise on the day you've planned to put five things on the stove at 12pn and you only have four burners.

Dont panic!! Shopping on 23 or 24 December isnt anywhere near as bad as it used to be as so many people get it delivered. I quite enjoy the shops on those two days as people are more friendly and happy 😃. Can you get a turkey from a local farm or farm shop? Most I know are still accepting orders .

I never order anything. I just go to the shops first thing on Christmas Eve (or Dec 23rd, but not this year, because that's a Sunday and that's usually too busy) and buy stuff. Get there between 6 and 7 am if you can, and you'll be fine.

Just have a plan B in case your first choice isn't available, but there will always be turkeys, sprouts, potatoes, stuffing, cream, cheese, desserts, etc etc in enormous quantities in every supermarket in the land (unless there is snow, which is forecast in some areas of the country) so there's really nothing to worry about.

I will probably go to our local Morrisons, which is in a town with a butchers, market and veg shop, so will probably try and get everything in Morrisons, but if there aren't any sprouts or the spuds look a bit rubbish, I'll go to veg shop. We usually have a turkey butterfly (single large turkey breast) which I'll probably go to the farm shop for and they always have a load in the fridge that you can just buy without ordering.

For cooking, I have a spreadsheet of timings that I've honed over the years, so cooking is fairly stress free - it's just a slightly elaborate roast dinner after all, and don't feel you have to do all the sides and veg you can think of.

Also ask your DM and MIL for advice and run through your shopping list with them to make sure you haven't forgotten anything, as it's likely they've both cooked dozens of Christmas dinners

If you want to do 2 meats, cook one the night before and reheat in gravy on the day if you think you will be short of oven space.

You can also rest turkey for an hour or two under foil and tea towels to keep it warm, if you need oven space to do the roast potatoes etc.

There's also ready made options - I'm buying cauliflower cheese this year as I can't be arsed to make it in addition to everything else.

Get several easy to cook options (like ready made roast potatoes) and pre-prepped veg. Then apart from cooking the turkey, everything else will just need popping in the oven. Grab a Christmas pud (most can be microwaved in a few mins so need to pre-cook) and serve with cream, and you're done!

I'm not ordering any food this year. I'm just going on the Sunday 23rd and will have a list and buy the food. The shops will have plenty in. Just make a list of what you would like. If something is out of stock you can pick some thing else.

Dont panic. I do everything in the last few days and havent had a supermarket delivery ever since the substitutions were so bad I had to go anyway. Supermarkets get turkeys in, but there's loads of meats you can have in the unlikely event you cant get what youd like.

Presents are OK too unless specifics for children. Do those now if you can.

I have a tiny freezer so all my frozen stuff I will be buying on the Saturday.
I am buying all my cupboard stuff this week and fridge stuff next week. Make a list of what you need and stick to it, bring it with you and tick off each item as you go.
I've just started on presents, and have bought them all from Primark in store and the rest from Amazon. I will wrap as they arrive.
As for cooking dinner on the day, do as much prep the day before. I make my stuffing and freeze it a few days before and then defrost it in the morning the day before. I use the giblets from the turkey for gravy and that goes on the day before around 4pm on a low heat. The turkey again on a low heat from 6pm the day before. I will also prep my beef Wellington the day before ready to go in the oven on the day (hence why I cook the turkey earlier on the day before so it cuts down on cooking time on the day and means my tiny oven isn't fighting for space).
I also prep all my veg on Christmas Eve evening too.
The table is laid just before I go to bed on Christmas Eve
It's all about how much prep you can do in advance. The first year I cooked, we had 10 guests and I was 7 months pregnant. It did not go well and I ended up in tears. I have learned from that and i now enjoy doing it!

My method is prepping the week and day before:

I always serve vol au vents as a starter because I can make the filling a week or two before and freeze it. Take it out the day before, reheat it (not boil!) while the pastry is in the oven (5-10 min or so, see the packet/ don't make the pastry yourself). Serve with parsley on top because it's
Pretty. If you can buy the sauce in a tin even better, just reheat it with lot's of added parsley and extra added mushrooms (fried the day before of course) and people will think you made it from scratch.

Everybody likes ice cream for dessert, just crumble some honeycomb over it to make it look special and serve with a caramel sauce or something (shop bought and ready to pour of course). Or take normal vanilla ice cream, mix it with crumbled oreos, refreeze and serve on the day with an oreo on top and some chocolate sauce. Or bale a cake the day before and serve with a scoop of ice cream.

If you do this then you only have to figure out the main meal: meat, two veg and potatoes. Most you can buy a couple of days before. I tend to keep veg a bit simple, so peas and glazed carrots or a salad or something like that.

Don't panic. It's a glorified Sunday dinner.

The only extras you need are pigs in blankets, which you can just pop in the oven twenty minutes from the end and cranberry sauce, basically.

Pick up bits and pieces like mince pies, cheese. Pate and crackers leading up to the day.

Don't forget the fancy table crackers, napkins etc and to make life easy Bisto Turkey granules.

Cook the Turkey the evening before and possibly get a Turkey crown instead as there's not a lot of you eating.
( I used to do this the night before regularly when I was doing it with a two year old and a baby!)

Prep the veg early morning or night before. I bung everything in my steamer.

Then if you have already done the Turkey you can just focus on the roasts.

I usually give everyone a time to arrive when I know I will have more or less finished cooking.