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!!!!!

I used to think all that was cheating. I slaved over a starter, peeled all the veg, made gibletty gravy, made a trifle blah blah blah.

This year I had a lovely DS. So there will be no starter. Frozen veg, supermarket bought desserts. The only thing I'm doing 'properly' is the turkey (with paxo stuffing) and the spuds (I refuse to peel them, if DM wants them peeled she can bloody do it).

Think of it as a women's lib issue. In Judaism every week there's a day when nobody can work (including the women, food is put in slow cookers or on a hot plate in advance). In Christianity there are much fewer holidays and most of them involve Mummy slaving away over a hot stove. Have a well earned rest!

As I said on another thread yesterday, it's only a Sunday roast isn't it?!

I've never made a Trifle or Christmas Cake in my life. My friend made everyone Christmas Cakes to order last year. I do cook Roasties in goose fat all the time because they do taste better and it's not hard work. I bung all my veg in a steamer. I don't have a farm shop, if there was one on my doorstep then maybe i'd use it if the price was right.
My Cranberry sauce is in a jar and my stuffing readymade so saves time. I'm not going to make my own pigs in blankets this year but i have been making Mince Pies - thought i'd give some to the teacher.(Not considered if she likes them or not!)

I would love to have the time and energy to be a Foodie but sometimes there is a fine line between accomplished and Smug!

Just watching the m&s Xmas ad - yep that is my lunch! I'm a good cook, but cannot be bothered with it on Christmas day. DH does the turkey and bacon/sausages tho. I just stick the rest of those foul trays in the oven. Yum!

Can I play ... I live abroad, one of the local hotels delivers my entire Christmas dinner midmorning. I just uncork the wine!
T'is a cheaters paradise

I don't think it's cheating.

If you love cooking as my DB does and fun it no chore to rustle up a full Xmas meal from scratch then that's great.

If, on the other hand, you dot partially enjoy it, don't have the time, or would rather spend your time relaxing watching crap TV with the family then what's wrong with buying stuff?

If someone has cooked me a tasty Xmas lunch I couldn't care less if it's all shop purchased or hand made!

I cheat. We have a curry takeaway :o

There's not enough time for playing with my family if I'm stuck in the kitchen all day! It's a big treat and we love it.

Do I win?

I like cooking, I really do. I cook all the evening meals from scratch.

BUT...I'm not slaving away on Christmas day cooking everything. I want to relax and enjoy the kids, play with them with their new toys etc, so I'm cheating! This is our first christmas at home with the kids (in-laws house every christmas so far), so the less I do in the kitchen the better. They will prefer me to be spending time with them rather than being in the kitchen most of the day and getting stressed.
I'll be doing the roasties myself, cutting my own veg, and also planning to make some mince pies before the big day, but other than that, everything will be bought. I have no shame about that!

We M&S everything too

No way. I incubate my own turkey egg in early January and hatch a turkey that I organically rear over the year. I fatten it up with loads of homegrown food. I grow all my own vegetables like carrots, onions, parsnips. I also have a small herb garden. I own a cranberry farm in Canada and ship them over in time for Christmas. I think these things make Christmas more special and it's not that much hard work. Cutting corners is lazy and I can't believe your family are okay with it.

Shame on you

I try not to see it as cheating. I love to cook, I do all the cooking every day of the the year. I make my christmas cake and pud in october but I am NOT standing in the kitchen while my dc's open presents, play games and family drink and chat.

I therefore buy do the turkey prep on Christmas Eve and lay the table. On Christmas Day I shove turkey in oven with waitrose veg and trimming packs and oven ready potatoes, microwave bought gravy. Job done. Takes 10 mins of "cooking" and tastes great.

I make most things, including stuffing and pigs in blankets because I like doing it and enjoy eating the results.

I have no issue with anyone buying stuff in, why would I?

The only thing that annoys me slightly on threads like this is people saying 'oh I like to play with my kids/go to the pub on Christmas Eve' and so on. So do I, and I do all those things.
Everyone chips in for 45-60 mins in the afternoon of Christmas Eve to do all the prep including stuffing the turkey, and then we all relax.
On the day itself it is just managing the timings - all the pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce and so on is done weeks in advance and frozen.

For those who enjoy cooking but don't want to do it on Christmas day - I prepare all the veg and sauces and cook the turkey Christmas eve. I also set up pigs in blankets and things to.

That means on Christmas day very little needs doing!

I'm ordering the turkey, pigs in blankets, gravy, bread sauce and veg ready cooked (freshly cooked on the morning though and therefore still hot) from the local golf club

Can't get more cheating than that.

The only time it would bother me if someone else did this was if they had refused my offer of cooking.

Personally I find christmas dinner an easy meal to do and home cooked is cheaper and nicer than ready made imo. We don't eat until the evening so don't even start cooking until gone 4 but even then the amount of human input required is not what i'd consider slaving.

I spectacularly cheat! And I love it....dont even do a Christmas dinner .

Last year after asking the kids what they wanted for christmas dinner, we all sat down to party food. We had a great big buffet while watching Christmas TV and playing with the kids. Thats not to say that doing a big christmas dinner is wrong though, each to their own. So what if you cheat...as long as you enjoy the day what difference does it make?

Fakebook

We have a pretend Christmas dinner every few weeks, all year round. I make industrial quantities of the trimmings (sauces, pigs in blankets, stuffing etc) and keep them in the freezer. I'd eat Christmas dinner every weekend if my DH would let me

Define cheating.

Everyone has a line they draw when it comes to what they feel is reasonable to do themselves & when you pay someone else for a service, and on what value they put on their own time.

Look at where you draw the line between whether you're "cheating" or not. Prepping veg? Baking the cake/making the pudding? Washing up proper pans rather than using foil ones? Growing all the veg yourself? Making your own sausagemeat & then the sausages? As Fakebook noted above, rearing your own turkey? Butchering your own turkey? Buying the cooking utensils rather than making your own all the way from smelting the iron for the pans?

The important thing is that the family are together enjoying a nice meal.

Well, this is mine and DPs 9th Christmas together since leaving home and moving in together. Not once have I done a Christmas dinner, because every year, his mother hosts it for all the family (can be between 16 and 22 people) and there isn't a chance in hell that we could fit everyone around an imaginary table in our 2 bed flat. So, we spend Xmas morning just us and the kids, playing with toys etc and then onto his mothers in the afternoon for a 5 course dinner (yep, FIVE course. I come away having put a stone on!) and then we all sit around the fire and dish out more presents.

Maybe when we can afford a bigger place, it'll be my turn, but for now, I am going to enjoy someone else doing it for us. So I think I am more lazy than yourself OP

Thing is, it's cooking a Sunday roast when everyone else is having fun opening presents.

DH & DS are lactose intolerant so we have to do some things from scratch bit I am totally buying in anything I can this year.

I buy ready made:

bread sauce
cranberry sauce
turkey gravy
brandy butter

....all far nicer than I can ever do. i also use M&S Brussels sprouts with bacon.

openerofjars what I meant by it's only a Sunday roast is that some people go OTT and make it much more stressful than it really needs to be imo

Open presents first (which is what we do) or have a present opening ban until after dinner.

'It's just a Sunday roast'

Er, yeah, is mine the only household that doesn't bother with Sunday roasts? If we want one, we go out for a pub lunch. We have normal dinners on a Sunday. So having to do a roast dinner at all is a hassle we normally avoid.

Last year it was just me and DD and I bought EVERYTHING from M&S including the mashed potato and roasties. I just heated it all up and it was bloody lovely :)