AIBU to not want to spend my entire Xmas day cooking?

[Honeybooboo123]

last year we had a join family Xmas and expressed this desire to my SIL. I have two DC, she has one. I stated let's make life a bit easy and buy in a few, nice , ready made bits to take the pressure off.

I shit you not, we ended up making everything from scratch. From 7am onwards. Could have cried.

This year, bigger family Xmas, with another family and mum involved, also with two DC.Already getting emails about turkeys and menus.

How to I get across that I DO NOT WANT TO SPEND ALL SODDING XMAS DAY COOKING A MEAL I THEN HAVE NO INTEREST IN EATING

?

Second time lucky?

I’m getting the meats, desserts and starters from M&S this year. I confess I feel very indulgent but it’s the first Christmas without Mum, it’s been a fucking shite year and I just want us all to be able to eat and spend time together without stressing. I’ll get the veg from the farm down the road, it’s ordered already and they prep it for us.

Why is it down to you and SIL and another Mum? Why isn't your DH doing his fair share? OR even the kids? Surely they can peel carrots?

We are going out for Christmas dinner this year. Get some us out of the house for a bit and means no clutter in the kitchen and no dishes. At £16.95 and I’m assuming cheaper for a child, for two courses I’m happy to walk the 10 minutes to get fed lol if it goes well it may be a regular thing lol

Ignore the word ‘some’ I simply meant “gets us out of the house”

Go to the pub and say they're welcome to cook in your kitchen if they want

Does it bollocks take 7 hours to cook Christmas dinner. I'd say 4-5 max with quite a lot of downtime when you drink fizz. I start at about 9 am on Christmas day and it's all done by 1 or 2.

And the best bit is, if you make enough so there is a decent amount of leftovers, there is no need to cook again for a couple of days. You wouldn't get that with M&S - the portions look quite small for what you pay.

Get people to help prep the veg and buy in bread sauce and cranberry sauce. They can also do things like set the table and dig spare chairs out of the loft.

Quack Where are you going to get Christmas Dinner for £16.95? It's about 50 quid even in Fayre and Square or Toby Carvery. Or are you going on a different day and calling that your Christmas dinner?

Prep all veg the day before. I also part roast the potatoes so they only need half an hour in the oven on the day. Stuff turkey and wrap day before. Buy cranberry sauce. So much can be done to make your day easier so you can relax a bit!

We are going out for Christmas dinner this year. Get some us out of the house for a bit and means no clutter in the kitchen and no dishes. At £16.95 and I’m assuming cheaper for a child, for two courses I’m happy to walk the 10 minutes to get fed lol if it goes well it may be a regular thing lol

Its £50 a head in our local carvery!

Spreadsheet with everything including crisps and paper napkins. dishes and drinks, with quantities, allocate out names. My family are often 50 people at Christmas and do it this way. The more relaxed hosts list green salad x 2, the fussier hosts list Damien pignolet iceberg salad recipe attached. And you make it and bring it.
But seriously , you are still just suggesting. ' Hi all, last year's Christmas was a bit much, I'm not cooking from scratch this year. I've looked through the catalogue and for our contribution I suggest I'm bringing this , this, this and this. Happy to negotiate as long as it's in the catalogue! So excited! X '

Cook and M&S are your friends. You can buy in the whole lot.

Altho this year we're going to the Wolsely, I normally prep Christmas food in advance so that the only thing to do on Christmas day itself is stuff the turkey while my husband peels the potatoes.

Delia Smith's cranberry sauce can be made a week ahead. Bread sauce is prepped a couple of days before by soaking onion with cloves in milk. Christmas Eve we parboil carrots and parsnips and lay them out on trays ready for roasting, make devils on horseback and lay them and the cocktail sausages out. I buy ready made chicken stock to mix with the turkey juice to make gravy and I buy M&S Christmas pudding - it's excellent.

It's just a question of organisation.

My DDs and I have a tradition now of opening a bottle of something on xmas eve and doing all the veg/food prep ie sausages in bacon, laying the table and putting all the glasses out onto trays and same for tea/coffee making. Bread sauce, cranberry sauces and stuffing can all be made/prepped the night before to ease the pressure. There will be around 14 of us this year and we've kind of got it down to a fine art. Then I don't get stuck in the kitchen for hours as I used to - I missed out of years of watching our DDs open presents from family and never knew who gave them what !!

Buy in sauces, stuffing. I do it all in the day, takes 3 hours. I enjoy it, no interfering as it slows me down and have a bottle of baileys on the go as I do.

It’s only me and DH this year in our caravan, might spend half the day cooking in a tiny stove but looking forward to it.

Don’t let others dictate, that’s what makes it miserable.

The portions are generous in m&s Christmas food. The veggies are all pre prepared, it saves hours.
I want that amazing seafood platter that's in the m&s Christmas catalogue, but at £100 I think I'll have to give it's miss

I think it can take that long if you're doing everything from scratch on the day. It takes me that long but that's because I'm casually going at my own pace and enjoy it. My husband and brother and sister in law like everything from scratch so there's not an option of buying in. However, I'd repeat what pp said and suggest you enlist the help of the men? My husband is a good cook and has wanted to do it two years in a row. He sees it as his duty a bit as due to work circumstances I cook from scratch for the family most days except the weekend.

That sounded cheesy above but what I meant was 'where are the men?'

I second Cook food this will be my fourth year I will buy the meal for 2 which will feed the four of us

Good lord. 'Only' 4 or 5 hours (never mind 7!) to cook Xmas dinner? It's just a slightly posher Sunday lunch, how the hell is it taking all this time?

Dh is the main cook here and I'm his assistant (i.e. I run around and do whatever he tells me as I don't have a clue). But we never spend hours and hours in the kitchen on Xmas day.

Starters and dessert are always made the day before. Starters just need to be heated or cooked and served (soup/prawn cocktail/fishcakes) and dessert is pre-made, chilled and individually portioned - so it's as simple as taking a tray of something out of the fridge and plonking one in front of everyone with a mince pie and cream.

For the meal, all the veg is already prepped and laid out the day before, ready to be steamed or roasted, stuffing made and waiting, turkey prepped, pigs wrapped in their blankets and waiting on a tray in the fridge.

Much of the 'cooking' on Xmas day is just shoving things in and out of the oven and turning the steamer on. The only actual cooking from scratch is the gravy.

Do people really spend hours in the kitchen on Xmas day, peeling and chopping and making stuff from scratch there and then? What a massive waste!

I second M&S. In fact any supermarket will have everything you need pre-made. I’d probably go Waitrose or M&S though for Christmas. That said, the Tesco mince pies (£2 for six) last year knocked the Waitrose ones out of the running for me...

That said, I wouldn’t scrimp on the spuds or Yorkies - I personally wouldn’t buy those “ready made”. This is mainly due to the fact that my mum has perfected the art of making yorkies rise to the size of one’s head
Plus for perfect spuds you need crunchy bottoms and a fluffy interior with a crisp, golden shell ... you just don’t get that with pre-made.

—as an aside, my auntie used to roast tinned potatoes 🤢 The thought of the taste can still make me urge to this day...

Buying everything from scratch also works out more expensive in my experience, but the cost of living where I am is sky high so that might not be everyone’s experience

Well a big turkey would take 2-3 hours and roast potatoes are usually done afterwards while the turkey is resting so that's your 4 hours there.

Veg, pigs and blankets and stuffing are prepped just after the turkey goes in, but there's still lots of downtime.

It all takes time and 'just shoving things in the oven' on Christmas day, either requires pre-prepared stuff, or effort the day before, so you either have to pay extra for pre-prepared stuff of put the effort in at some point, but either way, it's not really 'all day' in the kitchen, but most people do like something a bit more than an average Sunday lunch on Christmas Day.

We always have gammon or beef and turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, sprouts, cauliflower cheese and another vegetable plus a starter and dessert, so quite a bit more effort than a standard roast, which is why it takes longer. But I have a well honed spreadsheet and shopping list, so it's no big deal really and there is plenty of time to sit down in front of the TV with a glass of fizz.

when you make the cranberry sauce from scratch and every vegetable known to man, it takes 7 hours

You're making life difficult for yourself. I'm a big fan of cooking from scratch but why the hell are you making sauces from scratch on the day? Either make them well in advance or buy in...it's just a sauce!

My mum does the 'meat and 12 veg' thing on Xmas Day too. We don't, we'll 'only' have probably 4 or 5 veg...garlic sprouts with bacon, broccoli, roasted carrots, mashed swede and peas. Plenty. Much easier and stress-free.

How to I get across that I DO NOT WANT TO SPEND ALL SODDING XMAS DAY COOKING A MEAL I THEN HAVE NO INTEREST IN EATING

How about either writing or emailing:
"I do not want to spend all sodding xmas day cooking a meal I then have no interest in eating. I'd really like to relax and enjoy the day this year. Let's enjoy ourselves more and spend less time in the kitchen by concentrating on the stuffed turkey/nutloaf and take advantage of all the great trimmings in the shops?"

Then if they persist, just don't do what they demand.

Why not have everyone who is coming prep something in advance and bring it with them? When we did really big Christmases (I mean like 30 people), everyone was in charge of something (parsnips, stuffing, potatoes, etc.) so they had to bring it with them either cooked to be re-heated or prepped ready to go in the oven. When when we host (just us and my mum/step dad), most of the sides I do the day before so there is little to do on the day but turkey and a few nibbles.