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)

I wrap the pigs in blankets. Make and cook two trays of homemade stuffing (husband’s grandma’s recipe). We use it for various recipes over the next few days so we just reheat the right size piece as and when. I also make the dessert which is usually some kind of brownie as DH hates sultanas and raisins etc.

We alternate between having goose and beef, so when it's a goose year I cook it on Christmas Eve and heat it the next day (Jamie Oliver recipe), but other than that agree with a pp - it's just a roast dinner so don't really do any prep the day before other than popping to the shops for tin foil or some other essential thing we forgot :)

I don't hold with making stuff from scratch when it's all available to buy ready prepped. So I will be buying in everything and enjoying the fact that all I have to do is cook it and serve it up

They most certainly should!

As much as poss - bread sauce is already made and in freezer, I will make brandy butter next weekend & freeze, all veg prepped on Christmas Eve, homemade stuffing prepped in advance, make pigs in blankets. I will probably make and freeze the gravy in advance too.

Table laid day before.

I work until 5pm on Christmas Eve so prefer to get as much done as poss before, trifle will be made in the evening and I have a Christmas pud left over from last year!

I know everyone on Mumsnet says 'it's just a roast dinner' but I do a lot more sides than for a normal roast dinner - even though that doesn't include Yorkshire puddings, cauliflower cheese & mash which I really don't think go with Turkey ..

I usually just cook my ham and maybe make some mince pies.

I make the veggie main, the gravy, starter if we are having one, and the desserts the day before usually.

I do lots lots the day before. But then we have divided the cooking up between us.

I'm vegetarian and we all love vegetables so I prep stuff for the steamer. Usually sprouts, carrots, tenderstem broccoli, baby corn, green beans and cauliflower.

I do leeks in the microwave with butter. Chop the night before but takes seconds

Also we tend to have parsnips 2 ways, so I prep them but then the are mashed or roasted depending on their fate!

I also prep a cauliflower cheese before hand.

Apart from that I tend to peel and chop the carrots and swede for mash and the potatoes for roasties.

I have already made the stuffing, the apple sauce and the spiced red cabbage and apple - they are all in the freezer with the goose.

On Christmas Eve I peel the potatoes and parsnips, prep the sprouts, use the goose giblets to add to the stock I have already made and frozen, then make gravy, and I’ll make the brandy butter. I also cook and glaze a gammon joint, to have cold, with coleslaw and baked potatoes on Boxing Day.

That is assuming ds1 and his pescatarian fiancée can’t come (depending on COVID). If they do come, on Christmas Eve I will make salmon en croute (I’ve bought and frozen the salmon and the puff pastry), but it will be served with baby potatoes and asparagus, so no prep needed. However I will be making a pavlova, as an alternative pudding, and cheese scones for lunch on Christmas Day.

Basically I have two completely different plans - we bought the goose when we saw it on offer at a good price, and we’re thinking ds1 and his fiancée wouldnt be allowed to come, and then the rules changed, so we thought yes, they can come, but we need a different plan for Christmas dinner and for the rest of the meals while they are up here.

Since then, the rules/guidance keeps on changing, so I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, and have two entirely different meal plans for the week ending in Christmas - with two entirely different shopping lists.

I have no idea who will be here or what I will be feeding them. By Christmas Day, I may be rocking in the corner, eating all the Quality Street, or serving up red cabbage and salmon stuffed goose en croute with apple sauce gravy!

@icedaisy brilliant, thanks very much. It's very similar to one I have done previously in the pressure cooker, but due to a crappy seal on it and filling the kitchen with steam, I will slow cook it this year. DD1 & I made a load of cider last year with all our apples. However, it is quite tart but goes amazingly in a slow-cooked chicken casserole. There is a fair bit left so I will ear-mark some for the red cabbage. Many thanks

I prep all the vegetables, including parboiling the potatoes. I make the chestnut stuffing and the second dessert a few weeks in advance and take them out of the freezer on Christmas Eve. I prepare the turkey (cover in bacon etc.) and put it in a roasting dish in the fridge. I lay the dining table ready the night before (we have a dining room and a table in the kitchen) . I make the jelly for the little ones. I get everything ready to go, so the Christmas pudding and custard are ready to heat up, the cranberry sauce is in a dish etc. Basically I prepare everything in advance so that all I have to do is the actual cooking and I can enjoy the day without spending any more time than necessary in the kitchen.

I love Christmas Eve prep, get some xmas tunes on and have some fun. DM makes a ginger bread house with my DD (a bought one you just have to icing together!) and I make gravy, prep veggies, maybe layout serving dishes then sit back with a very large glass of wine and order a Chinese Takeaway for dinner, a christmas tradition in our house.

I make Christmas cookies and mince pies on Christmas Eve with the kids for Santa
I cook the ham on Christmas Eve.
Prepare all the veg
Make the Yorkshire pudding batter and keep in the fridge
Assemble the pigs in blankets
Dh sorts the turkey out on Christmas Eve removing the innards and stuffing it and it’s put in its tray.
And set the dinner table
I get out all of the pans/trays/serving dishes/gravy boat etc and work out what will go in each pan/dish. Saves a mad root through the back of the cupboards when we’re trying to serve everything up.

Peel the tatties, maybe prepare carrots and keep them in water in the fridge.

We don't like Turkey so usually have chicken, and as it's just DD and me, I just cook chicken breasts on Xmas Day.

We occasionally have beef, so if we are, I cook that on Xmas Eve.

I set the table before I go to bed

I tend to dole out ingredients for stuff into little tupperware boxes and organise them, and write up a schedule for what goes in the oven at what time. Oh and we bake a Yule log on Xmas Eve. 😋

I do everything on Christmas day. I tried doing all the prep on Christmas Eve last year which spoiled the evening and left me all stressed and flustered and then after that I had all my present wrapping to do. I was bloody knackered.
Christmas day was very organised and a bit boring tbh because I had nothing to do. And I had no excuse to slope of to the kitchen to have a secret swig of wine avoid pointless chit chat.
Definitely won't be doing it again.

All peeling, par boil potatoes ready to roast, cook sprouts & carrots a bit more, fast cool in iced wated, dry off, put in serving dishes with butter, whatever herbs I may want. They go in the oven with the roast potatoes and are ready for the table. Make the soup, store in large jugs ready to microwave hot and pour into plates for the table. My aim is to have no dirty pans when we sit down, sink permanently full of hot water, things are washed as I go along and put away or maybe just the gravy pan.

Nothing - it's just another version of a Sunday roast!

Christmas Eve Jobs List...

1. Politely decline offer of assistance from mother who still trembles at the idea of her perfectly competent 37 year old daughter using a sharp knife.
2. Peel and parboil potatoes, rough up the edges and into a Tupperware in the fridge.
3. As above for the parsnips.
4. Make stuffing balls (Paxo here I'm afraid - we are heathens) and lay out on baking tray then into the fridge.
5. Prep carrots, sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower - into the fridge in separate Tupperwares.
6. Remove sweet potato mash and braised red cabbage from freezer to defrost.
7. Prep potato chunks, onion chunks, mushrooms and carrot chunks to put the beef on top of in the slow cooker.
8. Assemble sponge layer, raspberry layer and jelly layer of trifle and place into the fridge.
9. Remove prawn ring from freezer to defrost.

10. Last minute panic that Iceland "cook from frozen" turkey isn't actually "cook from frozen" had and then recovered from once box is checked. 11. As above for pigs in blankets. 12. Prepare salad for evening buffet and put in the fridge. 13. Whilst all this is going on run crockery that is only used on Christmas Day through the dishwasher. 14. Put beef in slow cooker just before going to bed at around 11.30pm.

I am not a great cook, but we have a tried and tested formula for the Christmas Day meal that everyone enjoys so I just stick with it.

None! I leave that to M&S to do. I just stick it all in the oven at the right time

Make two types of stuffing, stuff the bird - both ends. Perfectly safe if you know what you’re doing (because eleven billion people will now post to say it’s unsafe!)

Make sausage roll filling, assemble sausage rolls ready to bake Christmas morning.

Prep all veg apart from potatoes and bag up - carrot batons and sprouts etc take too much time Christmas Day, easier to do ahead so I can drink wine instead on the day!

Make and assemble vegetarian option ready to bake the following day.

I cook the ham Christmas Day as well as the turkey. I make proper giblet gravy on the day. Parboil spuds and roast in goose fat (veg oil for the veggies).

Simple starter prepped on the day - prawn cocktail (cliche but yum) or smoked salmon.

Everything is on the table, turkey and ham carved at the table then people help themselves.

Christmas pud goes in the slow cooker to steam, only thing it ever gets used for.

None of the above is stressful at all, I enjoy it. Christmas dinner is a big deal in our family, we love it and love the tradition and ‘sameness’ of it. Also come from a family of good cooks and have never cooked a dry turkey in my life.

Nothing in advance - we usually have a houseful staying Christmas week and everyone mucks in - a few doing veg prep, someone on starter, another preparing dessert, someone getting the table ready etc.

This year Christmas lunch is coming from Cook so little to do.

I prep as much as possible the day before... The pudding and starter mainly. Also red cabbage cooked in port, celeriac gratin (it's lovely!). I usually cook a ham as well for sandwiches (we don't eat the main dinner until about 5pm)
Essentially I want to do as little as possible on Christmas Day although it still takes most of the morning up

I make my stuffing, home made pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese, mashed carrot n swede, red cabbage with apple and prepare all other fresh vegetables so that on day just need to steam or throw in oven
Xmas day involves minimum cooking n quite a bit of drinking here!