Does anyone else cheat at the Christmas meal? And I mean really cheat?

[bbface]

I keep hearing and reading about everyone making their own Christmas cake, cranberry sauce, cooking roasties in goose fat, making a trifle, delicious home made stuffing, ordering the turkey from a local farm shop... The list goes on.

Fact is, I cheat at almost everything, and without M&S I would be up the creek without a paddle. I buy one of their ready stuffed turkeys, I buy their sauces, their trimmings, their mince pies. Everyone basically. Oh, I make my own roasties, but the fuss and the mess I create.... You would think I was doing something truly special and inventive, as opposed to peeling potatoes and then bunging them in the oven.

I have to go very quiet when discussions turn to recipes, as I have nothing to contribute, other than the latest new trimmings at marks. I love reading the Sunday supplements about how to cook the tastiest this and that, but I never actually deliver the goods.

My family are all very sweet about about it, and make a big deal about what a lovely meal I have served, when in reality my job has been to manage all the different oven timings for my various dishes.

Does anyone else cheat? Or is it just me, as it sure as hell feels like that!!!!!

What are you talking about cheating for? If you serve up a lovely meal, who the heck cares how it gets to the plate?

If you can afford it, go for it!

do you enjoy your christmas meal the way you do it?

Of course I cheat! Doing the shopping is enough - you want me to squash my own cranberries and peel my own chestnuts too? I don't think so. I want to sit and watch Merlin on Christmas eve too!

Join me on the sofa, bbface with a shop bought mince pie.....

Well no - I don't cheat but only because I love cooking and Christmas Day dinner is my idea of heaven! But I can quite see that if it's not your thing that you'd take whichever way out is easiest and best for you. I don't think there's anything wrong with what you do!
Oh wait - I do buy ready made Yorkshires - from M & S - I could never hope to make them that good myself.
Do you like to cook? Do you feel you just can't do it? My friend can't really do it (and hates it) so every year I make their Christmas gravy for them! It's become a bit of a tradition

They wouldn't make it if you were the only person who did it that way.

Other than the stuffing I do most bits from scratch but that is only because I love cooking!

Life is too short to stuff a mushroom

I spotted a tray of ready roasties in goose fat in the supermarket the other day and thought 'I'm definitely getting those'.
So I'm even more slack than you.

i really can't see why you shouldn't buy in everything you need. takes some of the stress out of it.
if you want things a particular way, or you want to show off, by all means do it yourself. but i don't castigate anyone who buys in!

I cheat. On Everything. My turkey is just a crown in a nice tray all ready to shove in the oven.

I plan to sped all Xmas day playing with playmobil rather than cooking.

It's not cheating just because you don't martyr yourself making it all!

We do it all from M&S, plus fresh veg and DD and I make a pudding from scratch.

We never have a roast any other time, so it's an absolute treat for us.

I cheat and have no guilt at all about it. Christmas here is sadly a diplomatic situation (on the part of my family) and I need to be on hand to defuse situations before they impact on the children. We also go to church Christmas day which is lovely but eats into the time. I'd love to cook form scratch and I am sure I will one day but not at the moment.

Oh yes indeed! Cheat so much that we don't even pretend and go to the pub for our Christmas meal
Thought it was sacrilege the first year but now I love it! Such a lovely hassle free day!

I cheat. On Everything. My turkey is just a crown in a nice tray all ready to shove in the oven.

I plan to sped all Xmas day playing with playmobil rather than cooking.

Well yes, I love the meal. It is not going to be bad tasting if from marks. But def not home made.

I am it a cook. The dinners I serve my family are either a shop bought, let's say, chicken breast in a sauce, and then I will do some veg and new potatoes with it, or I do stir frys, sausages and cauli cheese etc. Very simple. And I guess I just follow that through to the Xmas meal.

It was a bit of a lighthearted thread really to see the extent that people cheat. I am bad, very bad, but you know what? It is pretty comfy on that sofa with Beckandcall!

for some people its a hobby though, isnt it, like i would suggest being fashionable is. And both have the air of smugness

I am not a cook

Yes - I know it was lighthearted but some people really do feel guilt pangs because they're not stuffing their own mushrooms. Plain daft.

You get on the sofa and enjoy the day.

I cheat for the same reasons as MsGee. Before children I made everything from scratch but it didn't taste any nicer, it cost more money and I couldn't see the point. I don't want my children to have memories of Mum and Dad being stuck in the kitchen on Christmas Day.

I think a roast is the best meal to "cheat" because you really can't tell the difference between homecooked and posh readymade ingredients.

I have made my own Christmas cake and will make my own mincepies, roast tatties and yorkshires but everything else is bought!! I love Paxo with Christmas dinner, the chestnuts are vacuum packed (only because I couldn't find frozen sprouts nad chestnuts this year) and I always buy the pud. Why make things harder for yourself?? I even cook the turkey crown and the roasties in foil trays so I don't have to wash messy roasting tins!!

I can cook (and do) but I have to say that if there's any day I would use whatever help I can get in the kitchen, it's a holiday meal like Xmas. I'd rather enjoy the day than be a sweating, irritable mess.

I think a roast is the best meal to "cheat" because you really can't tell the difference between homecooked and posh readymade ingredients.

That is true unless it's an aunt Bessie's meal (or other straight from the freezer type I'm sure!) then I can tell the difference!

I love cook

It's a big sofa here! Someone get some Pringles

I'd far rather someone bought in ready made than fucked it up if they can't cook.

Do not sweat it my dear, almost everyone buys ready made and frankly I can understand why, cooking can be dull. I enjoy it myself because I can hide from my inlaws in the kitchen and insist I be left alone there for at least four hours on christmas day so do not have to hear their babbling.

Sorry!!
I love cooking, I even make my own bread, but on Xmas day I cheat!

As someone else said, I want to spend the day eating, drinking playing games etc.

I do make my own rosties but almost everything else is m and s or waitrose. Oh dh makes the starter, he usually does canapés. Dd will also make a Yule log on Xmas eve.