to NOT be stressed about cooking Christmas dinner. It's only a roast FGS

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Why the stress?

Loads of threads on here. And SIL harping on at the weekend about how stressful it is, she always ends up tears on the morning, there is so much pressure.

I actually said to her 'it's only a jumped up roast dinner, what's so stressful about that' and she looked just looked at me and started talking about sprout preperation.

Just get on with it.

YANBU, it IS a roast with a few extras.

My usual roast is always
Meat
Roast Potatos
Roast Parsnips
Carrots
Peas
Gravy
Yorkshire pudding (only with beef)

The only extras I do for Christmas are
Stuffing (made the night before)
Pigs in Blankets
Sprouts (fried in butter with pancetta, yum)

Cranberry sauce comes out of a jar and bread sauce out of a packet [hgrin]

Absolutely nothing to it so long as you are organized. Time plans are the secret IME.

I have cooked it every year for - well ages! Time plan starts the afternoon before when I get any willing helpers to do whatever preparation can be done in advance - and that usually means most of the veg prepped.

Then turkey in first thing and nothing to do then for ages so that we can go to church, open a bottle of champagne to go with breakfast, open the pressies, ring family members who are not at ours etc.

Finally about an hour of intense stuff, again roping in volunteers as necessary.

Oh and yes in order to appear as cool as a cucumber when dinner is served I slip a clean shirt in to the freezer about half an hour before we are due to eat. At the last minute I can slip that on and all is well (unless there is a hold up and I have to beat it in to submission)

The whole thing is really bizarre, I had no idea people got this freaked out about Christmas until we moved to the UK.

Thankfully this year I am back in Oz. A BBQ and some mangoes for Christmas! And lots and lots of beer.

5foot5 - shirt in the freezer? [hmmmm]

My mum used to get up at 4am to put the turkey in the oven, and spend all day running in and out of the kitchen looking stressed.

I have a Christmas day plan, which takes all the stress out of cooking the roast dinner.

It involves gin.

Loving the idea of preparing Christmas dinner the night before (ie Christmas Eve). That's when I'm having French Christmas dinner (which I have also prepared).

I do find Christmas a bit of a food marathon but I certainly wouldn't talk about it in October. I might start thinking about ordering a turkey a couple of weeks ahead, and making some mince pies for the freezer...

Lol at 'jumped up roast dinner'. That's exactly what it is of course.

I guess the stress comes (if you're susceptible to it) from all the banging on about it from the likes of M&S, Waitrose etc.

I also bring to mind my mum's Good HouseKeeping magazine which seems to whip itself into a complete froth about Christmas which I smile ruefully at each year.

According to them it's supposed to look like it's all been casually thrown together when in fact if you did everything they suggest you'd have to start work on it the previous January, move to a country mansion and order snow from the North Pole.

Tis so easy. just the extras of pigs in blankets etc. dh makes fab trifle. i make a roulade. stress ? what stress ?

yes, chandon - I spent about 5 seconds thinking "I'll do venison this year". Not exactly the same as writing lists, ordering vegetables, thinking endlessly about 10 different ways I can annihilate cook sprouts, or worrying for months about what a stress it is going to be.

I very rarely make a roast, so I can pretend that there is a sense of occassion about making a jumped-up roast dinner :)

I only like packet bread sauce, so that's one thing sorted

I know! Just got home a bit after a woman at work said did I not want to save a days holiday for Christmas eve as I was cooking Christmas Dinner this year for 6 people (1 a toddler, 1 a baby)

I was like why would i do that I don't usually start cooking a roast the day before?! Plus as I am mother to the toddler and baby I am taking the easy route or frozen roasties, parsnips, stuffing balls and pigs in blankets as well as frozed ready to roast turkey joints. The only real cooking rather than bunging in the oven of frozen stuff will be the vegetables and I really cannot understand the stress of boiling some carrotss and brocolli etc!

People need to chill who cares if it is not up to the standard of Delia it's just a meal and everyone knows Christmas is about the presents!

Agree getorf. Totally.

It's a big roast with some extra stuff. No big deal.

Now christmas shopping is another matter...