To Ask For Your Christmas Dinner Shortcuts?

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I'm cooking this year, for 6 people (all adults, no children). I've never cooked Christmas lunch before, and I know it's basically a fancy Sunday lunch, but I've not cooked one of those for donkeys years either .

Please share your Christmas dinner shortcuts! Thank you!

Peel the potatoes the day before....and leave them in water in a big pot overnight. They won't discolour or anything. You can prep all veg in fact...just immerse it in water. Make sure you've got enough baking trays to fit all your stuff. Cook your turkey early and have it out of the oven early too so you can just concentrate on vegetables.

The turkey will cool of course but you just put gravy over it.

Make the kitchen inviting for guests. I am moving my kitchen table into the dining room so have revamped a small table of sorts to house drinks and nibbles for 'helpers' to keep me company while I cook! Lots of festive decorations and candles in there also!!

And Xmas tunes will be playing!!
Or you end up lonely chained to the cooker missing out on the mingling!!

Start now and freeze stuff! Then it's ready to go in the oven or microwave on the day.

You can peel, par boil and freeze your spuds and parsnips now, then roast from frozen on the day.

Aunt Bessie’s Yorkers are good, cheap abd very quick to warm through.

Prepare everything on Christmas eve and set the table before you go to bed.

A few days before make a list of ingredients for each dish. Then physically take it out, put it on the kitchen table and tick it off. Group everything together in courses so you can see if there are gaps. Then you have time to shop for missing items before a big panic on Christmas eve.

Assign a list of jobs to the people that you live with so it doesn't all fall on you. Decide what time you want to serve lunch and then work backwards to make a list of timings.

I serve the starters as a light lunch around 12pm and then main course is served at 3pm. Coffee, mince pies and puddings are served around 6pm after a post lunch walk.

Don't serve all the alcohol at once because you don't want people getting blind drunk and spoiling your efforts. You only have to read the posts on here on boxing day about drunken fights. Make sure there are lots of none alcoholic choices available.

Pre make and freeze gravy then just pop it in the fridge christmas eve to be warmed up the next day. Agree about prep all the veg on christmas eve and leave in water. I even par boil the potatoes christmas eve and then pop on a baking tray, cover in goose fat ready for the oven the next day. I love hosting christmas but I've got young children and don't want to miss out on christmas morning so do as much as I can the night before.

I prepare all the veg the night before, leaving the potatoes in a bowl of water and the other veg in sealed freezer bags in the fridge. In fact I don't prepare the veg myself, I get the DC to do it.

DH is in charge of the ham, and he cooks it the night before. He also gets the turkey oven-ready.

I make the stuffing the evening before as well, and the pigs in blankets.

I do a list of all the timings for cooking dinner, so I know exactly what needs to be done when.

The freezing gravy idea is great! Not sure about cooking things and freezing them though...wouldn't taste as nice to eat cooked, frozen and reheated veg.

No cooked breakfast
No starter: they can make do with nibbles pre-lunch
Someone other than you lays the table and sorts drinks and entertains guests
Turkey crown or similar rather than whole turkey
Pre-prepared everything you can find: gravy, stuffing, pigs in blankets, bread sauce, veg, cranberry sauce, brandy butter
Do not under any circumstances buy sprouts that you have to chop the ends off and peel all the manky outside leaves off - this is the longest and most faffy prep job
Use microwave for Xmas pudding and any of above that are microwaveable
Once you have served the pudding, you are allowed not to do anything else for the rest of the day and let everyone else clear up/wash up/get their own drinks etc (though you may just want to check the leftover turkey is covered and in the fridge).

We buy the foil oven trays so theres minimal washing up. We can also prep pigs in blankets, make sausage meat stuffing etc and put them on these trays covered in fridge so we literally just have to take cling film off and put them in oven. Peel veg night before, we have found a frozen roast potato we like so use these for easiest too, same with Yorkshire puddings we buy the beef dripping ones.

Tesco’s have a prepared veg selection, good reviews.

Use aluminium tin trays to reduce the washing up

Par boil the carrots/parsnips/potatoes on Christmas Eve and store in the fridge when cold.

Cut all veg and soak in water

I don’t tend to eat turkey so I cook my beef/lamb the day before (in my slow cooker)

I often make a decent breakfast but then only have cold cuts etc in the evening

Learn to delegate!

My mum always did - as kids from fairly young age we would prep/peel veg and even my dad (who is definitely no cook) did pigs in blankets and stuffing and laid the table.

I'm a single mum so most years it's been just me and dd and quite honestly I've mostly done "cheat" versions, I'm fussy and also I'm veggie and dd isn't (although she eats veggie dishes too she likes turkey, pigs in blankets etc) so obviously I wasn't buying a whole turkey just for dd! And honestly the ready made stuff especially in recent years is pretty good quality.

So...

Turkey Breast fillet for dd

Veggie main for me - varied greatly over the years has included quorn fillets, quorn roast, quorn peppered steak, veggie Kiev, veggie wellingtons of various descriptions, ditto pastry plaits - there are SO many options now it's great

Ready done pigs in blankets for dd (she prefers the chilled version but I'd cook some on Christmas Day and she'd have the rest for a snacky lunch Boxing Day)

I have veggie chipolatas

Frozen or chilled ready to roast potatoes

Frozen Yorkies

Ready Prepped glazed parsnips or other ready to roast/cook veg

Ready made cranberry sauce

Paxo sage and onion stuffing we both like that's dds "job"

Bisto gravy again we both like

My mum is a great cook and quite traditional but even she now uses frozen roast potatoes and yorkies and yes foil disposable trays to reduce how much washing up there is.

She has the additional challenge these days of creating a "soft" version for my dad so very well cooked meat (they don't actually like turkey so it's always been a slow cooked ham at mums), mashed potatoes, well boiled carrots, stuffing, and he gets yorkies still but she soaks them in gravy so they're soft for him.

Yes to physically checking you've got what's on the list - one year at mums there was no stuffing what happened was ingredients weren't in shop when she did that shop, she meant to go back and get but forgot and got it in her head she HAD bought it as it was on that shopping list.

Also do a timetable start with the serving time and work back - then add 20 mins as SOMETHING always happens to put you off track and nobody ever complains if it's a bit early but they do get hangry if you end up running late.

And yes to limiting especially little ones what they're eating before hand as they'll just fill up on selection box etc otherwise

We also do the starter a good while before the main and have a break, starter can be soup & bread, salad, dd likes a seafood cocktail sometimes.

Dessert is often not had until the evening I like mince pies and Christmas pud but dd isn't a fan, too rich for her so she will have things like choc mousse or syllabub with amaretti biscuits or profiteroles

I'm sure you'll be fine. It's one meal on one day, not the end of the world if it doesn't go perfectly - the imperfect ones just become funny family anecdotes - like the time my aunt was feeding 15 (inc toxic in-laws!) and was all organised - but didn't turn the oven on and only realised when she went to put the veggies in that there was a very cold uncooked turkey in there! Or the friend of mine who laid on a feast for her new husbands family only to be told when it was too late that new mil was allergic to garlic, onions etc! Mil ended up having just the starter (Seafood cocktail) some steamed veg and some ham friend had in fridge for next days buffet, and dessert. New husband to blame on this one - idiot! He was with her when she bought and prepped all the stuff with garlic/onions/shallots etc and never said a bloody word!! His mum tore into him later when it was just the 2 of them and apparently was very understanding and gracious to friend but friend was still mortified.

Christmas Eve : Cook turkey , cool, wrpa, put in fridge.

Peel the potatoes and leave in water over night

Get already cut / peeled vegetables...
Or again, cut / peal and put in water the night before...

Frozen Yorkshire puddings

Frozen stuffing balls

Pre done pigs in blankets....

Do the table Christmas Eve

prep has much has you can xmas eve.
foil oven trays are good to use they save on the washing up they have them in poundland.
I set the dinner table on xmas eve too

Slightly more than blanch carrots, sprouts etc.,a day or so earlier, put into oven proof serving dishes, butter, cover with foil. As the roasties are in put these in too, they're ready to go to the table.

What’s the reduction in washing up - are the foil trays easier to wash/nothing sticks or are you chucking them? I regularly burn cooking so keen on anything that makes washing up easier but would wash foil to recycle it - so same amount of washing up?

Make a timing plan for the day including when each item needs to be cooked. This helps you work out if you will have enough cooking space or need to adjust your timings. I even work out which pan I will use for what so I don't end up with one small pan left for the largest veg.
Organisation and delegating are the keys and I echo all the tips above about getting all the veg / stuffing /table laying etc done on Xmas Eve.
Oh and get the turkey out of the fridge a couple of hours before you put it in the oven. It needs to be more or less at room temperature.

Cook the turkey early and wrap in 3 layers of foil on the roasting dish . It will keep hot for a long time and will be much better for the resting . The oven will hot and ready to for the roasties etc with plenty of room for 6 .

Peel potatoes on Christmas Eve, leave in water. Use packet stuffing but add fresh (or frozen) cranberries and a teaspoon of cinnamon to it. Use finest turkey gravy granules. Don't bother peeling carrots, parsnip etc just bung in an oven tray for an hour. Takes me about 15 mins of prep to make Christmas dinner!

Get most items made and in the freezer now. Worst case of panic, use some ready made frozen items. Buy from M and S if you must but it’s not difficult to do homemade now and freeze.

Cranberry and port sauce is very easy. It lifts the meal much better than a jar of jam. Defrost on Christmas morning and warm through in microwave.
Part roast your potatoes in a foil tray. Cool freeze cook to completion from frozen. Just put foil train in hot oven for 45 minutes.
Stuffing likewise. Make ahead and freeze.
Cauliflower cheese will cook happily from frozen. In a foil tray and pop into the oven.
Red cabbage freezes well. Don’t freeze in foil though. Plastic bag and defrost overnight.
Yorkshire puddings can be made and frozen ahead.then just cooked for s few minutes once meat is out.

Electric steamers are great if you're doing loads of veg, much easier than cooking on the hob. Put your veggies in, set the timer, forget about it while you get on with the other stuff. Also means that you have more space at the hob for heating up gravy, bread sauce etc.

I cook everything before the turkey goes in, I cook my pigs in blankets, gravy, stuffing and my veg. I cook my sprouts with bacon lardons and sauté them in butter, sauté the carrots too. The only things that come out of the oven and onto the plate are the roasters/parsnips (I like them freshly crisp) and the Turkey.

I'll either put the earlier stuff I cooked back into the oven to warm up, whilst the turkey rests, or microwave it.

This way I can have all my pots and pans in the dishwasher before we start eating. I hate the mess a roast dinner causes. Hate it. Now I'm in my 50's, I only cook them twice a year, Easter and Christmas. Spending all Sunday afternoon cooking just wasn't worth the hassle.