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?

Agree that some people seem a bit too frantic. For me, I don't want to be dragging the DCs around tesco on xmas eve. I want to be watching Xmas films and eating chocolates.

Similarly I don't want to be traipsing to the shops on 28th so I get enough in to last a week.

I'm not hosting anyone, but if I was I'd have a list of timings in spreadsheet form

I don't get it either. It's just a roast

If its just a regular old roast, you're not doing it right.

No, just that we only ever have bloody good roasts! DH is a great cook and when we have a roast (not all that often actually) it's always pretty special. Doesn't require military planning and manic shopping though.
No we don't go mad with size dishes because the meat is the crowning glory (we never have Turkey), and surely you can only fit in a certain amount of food anyway??
We've got some amazing looking cheeses for afterwards.

cara - im so impressed with your organisation - can you publish your lists _ I'm sure they are threadworthy -in the interests of those of us who are disorganised or have never yet cooked a xmas dinner ( me - 46 and stinging to my mums!!!)

I agree with you but I love reduced shopping and have only me and my husband to cater for and we are very near Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

We're eating a reduced pork belly tomorrow which is one of my favourite roasts. The foie gras and cheese was a present as were the mince pies which we'll eat for dessert. Veg and apple for sauce was free from a friend. Had to pay for cream, bread and biscuits. Alcohol put a bit of a dent in the budget too.

I went in early today to pick up some cat litter and hollandaise sauce that I forgot yesterday - I have to pay full price for some things. I spotted the lovely things dated 26 Dec - beef, poultry. I will be back...

oop going

I like to have a huge feast on christmas, we get a goose which would be way too expensive for an average roast. I just get veg delivered from a local farm (we live out in the countryside now), meat from the local butcher (queued for 10 mins) and other stuff delivered by Tesco yesterday. I love writing the lists and doing the timings etc. so it's not too crazy for me, we rarely bother having a Sunday roast so it's nice to make it really special for us.

All our meat and veg comes from the local butcher/farm shop anyway (my cousin is game keeper at the farm), we have a weekly order with them. We have whatever meat they've got available usually but ordered a special fillet of beef for tomorrow.

It's just a glorified Sunday lunch. I am pretty chilled, did all shopping yesterday. Will do the prep today and cook early.

Well, I'm not hosting Christmas day this year, so just got the rest of the week's food yesterday, but normally I'm a pre-order delivery type. I hate food shopping, so sitting on the sofa with the laptop and and glass of wine to order it all is much better than having to actually go to the supermarket when it's busy.

Plus my family contains a selection of nightmares allergies and fussy twats people with limited palates, so I have to plan to ensure there's something everyone can/would like to eat.

Normally order from Ocado or Waitrose and have never been let down on the key items - sometimes stuff like fruit or particular biscuits weren't available, but i've never had to go out to get it as it's never been that important. (Every year there's several threads about Asda letting people down)

There's no way I'd chose to enter a shop today after 8am.

Dunno where you live but they are mad busy here all day today (I've been in them - not out of choice)

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius

Bows down to domestic goddess and throws oven chip offerings at her altar.

Every now and again, when I go to the supermarket, I'll have an actual plan, but I usually don't.

I always try to buy at least one thing I've never tried before.

Three out of four Christmases, it's a lucky dip with the buffet lunch provided by the Catering departmemt.

The fourth, I go to my brother for Christmas, staying in a hotel nearby.

Nothing like your military precision.

Awestruck.

Depends who you are cooking for. I spend my Christmas Eve with family, and in a candlelit church service. Then I have eight people wanting breakfast and lunch tomorrow. No time for flexibility.

I don't get it either. It's just a normal Sunday roast-type dinner. We do get some extra food that we wouldn't normally get - like nice cheeses and nuts, and make extra stuff like pigs in blankets and a couple of cakes, but otherwise it's quite normal food. We don't buy a turkey but we have duck instead, which everyone likes.

Well I'm left feeling very inadequate that I get my meat (Turkey ) from the supermarket (Tesco ), that I get in some chocolates, nuts, general nibbles (no speciality cheeses though ) and that I put a little bit of extra effort into Christmas dinner and get a little stressed about it as my bog standard roasts are quite frankly a bit crap!

Racing round the shops on Christmas Eve with a load of totally stressed out strangers, with no idea about what I'd manage to buy for dinner, does not sound chilled out to me. Rather like completely unnecessary stress actually.

"Who the he'll needs to write lists on a computer for a roast?!"

Pberryt - my lists cover everything that needs to be done in the run up to Christmas - who we are sending presents to, what we're thinking of sending, all the things like cards, buying a tree, decorations etc, menu plans, shopping lists, stuff I can prepare ahead and freeze, stuff I can do on Christmas Eve.

And as I said, yes, it is only a roast dinner, and usually I wouldn't bother with any lists or day-before prep to do a roast - but I'd rather spend Christmas day relaxing and having fun than peeling veg and stuffing the goose.

I find it makes my life easier to have it all written down - I get stressed too easily, and would rather write things down (and look stupid to people like you) than lie awake fretting about things I have forgotten to do, or still need to do. I know that's not good for me.

For a few years I was a manager in a French ski resort, all of our (200) guests (in 20 varying sized chalets from 2-20) from the UK. The company was as tight a ducks bum, so the 'Hosts' were all 18-25, most of them arrived incapable of boiling an egg, they get a week's training and sent out to resort. One year the snow had been so bad that we didn't have guests until very late...the FIRST meal they were serving to guests was Christmas dinner . The shopping trip was mammoth and Christmas Day I didn't stop from 4am until gone midnight racing around chalets 'fixing' ovens (lighting the gas - PMSL), peeling veg, consoling homesick hosts, etc. It was similar most years, but 'First Meal Is Fucking Christmas Dinner' year was the worst...

SDTG You don't need to write a list if your Nan's doing pudding and you're having a Turkey roast. However, it makes sense if you have a lot of family & friends to buy for, cards to send, children to run around here there & everywhere, a lovely celebratory meal to make with lots of trimmings you don't ordinarily have and still enjoy Christmas Day

I'm not frantic but I have put effort into it being lovely. We have visitors who come in for tea/alcohol/and it's lovely to have nuts, chocolates, Christmas themed biscuits whatever - I want the kids to enjoy a period of Christmasness not just one day focussed on presents. So everything gets done, decorations, cards, thinking of other people, calls to elderly relatives, and it's important to me to have it like this. So buy bits each week and stock up. Lunch is important as I want to enjoy it, not think oh I wish I'd bought bread pudding - it's once a year and I love the build up.

We're having a ham and a sirloin joint with soft bread buns and pigs in blankets! Also got crisps, dips, cheese and crackers and loads of sweet treats. Just the 4 of us for most of the day and I'm not cooking an extravaganza for a 4yo and 3yo!

Did pop into sainsburys this morning for some carrots for the reindeer and it didn't seem too manic and the shelves were full!

Depends how many people. Just the 4 of us? No worries at all. 18 as there are this year, or 20 like the last time we hosted? There needs to be more of a plan!

Just got back from Iceland Warehouse, where they had bronze free range turkeys (fresh) for about a tenner. Slightly regretting paying £30 for one earlier tbh - if we'd chanced it and they'd no fresh ones left we could have got a frozen three bird roast for £15.

It wasn't particularly busy, either

I'm another of the don't get the big deal camp
It is just a luxury roast dinner - that said my normal roast dinners have at least 6 veg - we just like veg!
DD and her DP are bringing a starter (probably salmon and prawns)
I ordered the meat in advance and collected yesterday
Did my normal supermarket run on Thursday eve for drinks fresh food and normal weekly shopping
DP is in charge of a pud - which he bought 3 different choices of ready made from M & S yesterday
We will probably nibble on leftovers for a few days including bubble n squeak

I have I think 8 or 9 a4 pieces of paper stapled together with each one having exact instructions for each dish of the Xmas dinner that I use every year I'm normally really disorganised but going in the shops Xmas eve and just seeing what i could get would be my idea of hell, the shops are so busy atm!