What prep do you do the day before Christmas (for dinner)?

[grannyinapram]

Reading another thread and the Op is talking about prepping christmas dinner the day before.
I was thinking about it and I just couldn't think of anything other than thawing out a frozen turkey? Maybe peeling spuds?

It's just a big Sunday dinner here with a few extras.
We definitely don't prepare anything the day before.

What is this extra food I've been missing out on?!

(this is light hearted clearly but this is also mumsnet so I need to state it clearly)

As much as possible so the day is mainly bunging stuff in the oven.

• peel and chop potatoes (Christmas is special - we have skin-on roasties the rest of the year) and leave them in a pan of water
• prep the goose
• put the giblets in the slow cooker overnight to make stock for the gravy
• chop red cabbage etc. and leave in the other slow cooker
• peel and chop the sprouts and leeks (we have chopped sprouts with leek, bacon, chestnuts and cream)
• make the brandy butter
• make the bread sauce

The following go in the fridge in oven proof dishes, ready to shove in the oven at the appropriate point

• wrap pigs in blankets
• make stuffing and roll into balls
• chop carrots and parsnips and toss in honey and mustard

Then on the day I chill the stock (makes it easier to skim the fat), boil my ham, parboil the roasties and toss in goose fat and shove everything in at the appropriate time. Giblet stock gets reheated and thickened with roux for the gravy, bread sauce gets heated up and that's pretty much it.

Thaw everything and set several alarms on my phone about when everything needs to be put in the oven.

In the evening I prep the Turkey Crown.

I bring a block of butter up to room temp and mix in chopped curly parsley a bit of lazy garlic and season. I manipulate the skin to separate and put the butter under and over the skin securing ends with toothpicks to ensure skin stays in place during cooking.
I chop up 2 large onions , carrots, celery sticks and 1 orange to create a trivet to sit the crown on.
Place crown on trivet in one of those large foil disposable turkey roasting trays
Place streaky bacon all over the crown (it adheres better because of the butter)
Foil tent the whole thing and put in fridge overnight.

In the morning get out of fridge 30 mins before shoving in the oven then remove foil 45 mins before done and keep basting.

I cook the turkey and.....well that's it...everything else comes from the freezer on Christmas day. Why make work for myself if I don't have to?

christmas eve just peel the spuds, carrots and parsnips and leave in pans of cold water turkey crown so doesent take as long to cook as a whole bird everything else on christmas day takes either seconds to make or put together or in the oven at the right time so leave it all till christmas day

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

Anniecott Do you make your yprkies and freeze them whole or just freeze the batter? To then cook them do you chuck them in to the oven frozen?

Cool them first, cool them, part freeze them on a tray, then transfer to a freezer bag to finish of freezing, then you can just take them out and reheat aunt Bessie style, it's great. X

Extend dining room table, bring down extra chairs.
Sort out crockery.

Cook ham.
Peel potatoes & carrots, leave in salted water.

Stuff & baste turkey, wrap in foil.

Cook giblets up with onion to make stock.

Sausages & breadcrumbs out of the freezer.

Calculate timings for turkey for Christmas day (usually oven on ~7/7:15, then out of oven 12/12:15 so potatoes can go in, ready to dish up 1pm prompt).

Obviously I mean cook them first !!!! Then cool them !!!!
Sorry. X

Panic buy food and wrap presents. Takes 5 mins to
Peel carrots. Why do
People do them the day before?

Everything possible the late afternoon before ( in normal years we go out to church then friends on Christmas Eve from about 6pm).
So...
Peel potatoes - into water in their pan (new water before boiling on the day);
Prep sprouts and put in the steamer to go on the top of the potato pan.
Make forcemeat stuffing. Stuff end of turkey and put it into the roasting tray and inti the fridge covered in foil.
Roll the rest of the stuffing into balls into a pyrex dish. Clingfilm.
Break up chipolatas into pyrex dish. Clingfilm.
Break up white bread into breadsauce bowl. Clingfilm.
Push cloves into a peeled onion in a pretty pattern ready to infuse the milk for the breadsauce on the day.
Lay the table.
Empty the hostess trolley ( yes, really, used as a cupboard for the rest of the day) and put plates and serving dishes in.
Done the same for years. It is part of the Christmas ritual in our family.

I collect the ham and turkey and cook the ham for Christmas Eve dinner. (I'm cooking the red cabbage to go with it tomorrow, as well as making a big batch of minestrone to stash in the freezer for lunches between Christmas and NYE.)

I'll wrap the pigs in their blankets and cook them Christmas Eve, as well as prep the sprouts and make and cook the stuffing. The bourbon butter and cranberry sauce will have been done earlier. I might prep the carrots as well if I have fridge space. I'll take the giblets out of the turkey and make a batch of stock for the gravy the next day.

Christmas Day tends to be less pressured, as we don't eat til the evening, so the more prep I do Christmas Eve, the less I have to worry about how much fizz I drink the next day.

WineIsMyMainVice thanks for the tip I didn't know you could freeze homemade yorkshires. I'll definitely do that!

I'll cook the gammon on Christmas Eve morning, and get the stuffing and PIB out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge. Take the giblets out of the turkey and make the gravy with giblet stock, passing the resulting giblety feast on to the cat). Once the gammon has cooled, I cut it in half, wrap one half in the fridge, and stick the other half in the freezer fore New Year. Usually in the evening, I will sit with a tray on my lap in front of the telly and do the veg like that, and put it in bags in the fridge ready.

I have been known to cook the turkey on Christmas Eve if we're having a lot of people round and it's a big one, but there's only 4 of us this year and we are only having a turkey crown so I will probably cook it on the day.

The other thing I do on Christmas Eve now is to go to my local Morrisons an hour before they shut and see what's been reduced. By that time, the freezer has been emptied of turkey, stuffing etc so there's enough room in there. I've had some fantastic bargains, steak, chops, salmon fillets, all sorts. They often reduce veg too, and I store that in the shed. Root veg keeps for weeks that way.

Make the soup and cheesecake the day before and lay the table.

And actually we peel veg the day before and put in fridge in water

I do all the veg, peel pots, carrots and parsnips. Prep sprouts. Put all in fridge.

Cook stuffing, sausages, pigs in blankets so just pop in microwave on the day.

Cook ham

Make bread sauce to reheat on the day.

rose69 Why the day before?

Because it takes longer than 5 mins to prep carrots and potatoes. It also means the mess is dealt with the day before too. Because although I like cooking Christmas lunch 'properly', I also like to spend time looking at presents or (usually) chatting to relatives etc.

Plus it is how I have always done it, so why change a working system.

This is inspiring me to keep and freeze the side dishes ahead.

Then we can have loads of lovely sides instead of "I can manage three types of veg and one type of potato because that's all I can do in one go"

@rose69 it doesn’t take 5 mins to prep 3 or 4 types of veg for 10 people.

I love how posters can’t see beyond what they do 😆

In the days before I go to M and S and stick up on:
Pre-prepared turkey crown
Pre-prepared roast potatoes
Brussels sprouts with pancetta

Sorry - I pressed send too quickly!

Brine the turkey, if we're having one + chop veg & put in water.

Put lots of nice wine and champagne in the wine fridge putting my quaffing stuff in a cupboard

I do nothing the day before because I do a family buffet on Christmas Eve which is actually more time consuming / takes more organising than Christmas dinner .

I measure out stable ingredients like dry spices well in advance. The day before I chop all veggies, measure our dairy, even cook a few dishes. The day of, I’m like a tv chef with everything measures out in little bowls.