To feel guilty about ordering prepared Xmas dinner

[merrygoround51]

Just that. I orderEd a slap up meal from a local fine food shop /deli. Everything is cooked or prepped.

Cost is quite high but we can afford it but I have a niggling feeling that I should be doing what my mother, grandmother and aunties do/did - ie martyr themselves for 3 days prepping Christmas and Stephens day dinner. Maybe it’s particularly Irish but an exhausted, wrung out mother almost seems part of Christmas and I feel like I am somehow letting the side down with my laziness and am tempted to give in and prep it all.

Another Irish mammy trait that I hate is cooking far too much and having a ridiculous amount of leftovers and complaining when they are not used up
My mother was always stressed out of her head and hard to help
I assign a dish to everyone and leave them too it

@ShrikeAttack I had a great time at l'Enclume a few years ago. How does their delivered Christmas lunch work? Do you have to do much cooking once it's delivered? Enjoy!

Go for it. You have probably saved money not buying unnecessary stuff also.

Why would you feel guilty? We always order M&S or Waitrose Christmas food ready to sling in the oven.

Christmas is supposed to be enjoyable and even though I'm a good cook and enjoy cooking, I don't want to spend the day in hte kitchen.

We are doing this too! The whole bloody Christmas except my famous tiramisu that's being asked for every year. Not a single regret!!! Enjoy!

Bugger that slaving away, we use tinned peas tinned carrots roasts just put in the oven, pigs in blanket, turkey joint there’s only two of us. You enjoy your Christmas.

@Otherplans, DH and I go a couple of times a year, love it there!

Here's a link to the NYE dinner they're doing, the Christmas one isn't available to view any more as it sold out a while ago but is quite similar. It says you just have to reheat, we shall see!

(I obviously went for the wine flight, optional fresh truffle and caviar too! Also got canapes and fizz, cheese and port and mince pies).

I'm not sure my plating skills are quite as good though...

I voted YABU but I meant YABU for feeling guilty!!

we would usually have Christmas Day at our local restaurent. Going into Tier 3 has scuppered that this year. Fortunately, they are happy to cook turkeys/joints in their big ovens for us to collect on the day. Oh and roast potatoes, pigs in blankets and gravy.

They tell me that a big joint can easily sit for an hour after it comes out of the oven, so we will time everything around that. Our kitchen will produce lots of vegetables and their will be lots of leftovers too, which is the best part of Christmas for me.

It's bliss, next best thing to eating out as we usually do. And absolutely.no.guilt.

Christmas should be a happy time for all. Don't stress over it and just enjoy your day. If I could afford to do the same, I would!

Why the guilt? I'll be eating corned beef out of the can on christmas day, so will the cat.

Thank you all. This thread is a revelation to me.

I am not denying my kids some sort of martyr tradition but instead teaching them that the world evolves and women’s roles evolve with it. So pre prepared food is fine if it makes you happy and less stressed and there is no need for women to take on ridiculous levels of work just to please others

How marvellous if our generation kills the martyr woman in kitchen Christmas trope so our children know nothing of it...

I’m confused about the voting buttons. I voted YABU meaning that you would be unreasonable to feel guilty and do it all from scratch.

@HTH1
Sorry this was my first voting post and I quite clearly made a bags of it !
@MsTSwift
Exactly wouldn’t it be wonderful if our daughters saw Christmas as a family occasion to be enjoyed rather than an endurance test for mother’s

Oh arsed wrong thread

Definitely don’t feel guilty. My DH buys all the Christmas food and cooks the dinner. He goes all out and subsequently spends about 10 minutes actually sitting with the rest of us to eat dinner. Drives me bonkers. He knows left to me it would be a turkey crown And all pre prepared veg or frozen and instant gravy.

I then clean up as he done dinner and it takes forever. Every pot, pan and plate has been used.

Sounds ideal @ShrikeAttack
I'm intrigued what their take will be on Christmas staples like mince pies.
Something I may try next year.

I'll let you know @Otherplans, I may come back to the thread post-Cristmas with photos and a review (if you're interested).

It cost £670 for four of us with all the extras, so I'm hoping for great things!

Having said that, I took my Dad in August and lunch was £1500 for five of us, so I don't think it's too bad. We shall see, I'm really quite unreasonably excited about it being delivered.

I'd love that. I'm shielding, so alleviating the tedium with complicated recipes. But I may regret it and just start ploughing through my fridge full of cheese.

Haha, yes! DH and I have been making lots of complicated recipes, taking it in turns to cook a four/five course dinner on a Saturday that we all have to get dressed up for. It's been such fun we've decided to carry it on.

(Although quality cheese is always a more than acceptable alternative).

YANBU but where do you find a pre-prepared Christmas dinner. I NEED this for lonely elderly relative.

[quote merrygoround51]@Aprilx The sort of dinner my mother and grandmother prepped can’t be done in one day. Along with cooked breakfasts it was w huge amount of work[/quote]
Absolutely. The meals my mum made could not be down in one day. Christmas of my childhood were great for us children.with lots of people, food and presents etc but I agree my mother was always stressed and frazzled for at least a whole week before if not more .

Oh messed up buttons Yabu to feel guilty. I love making Christmas dinner but it's no great shakes, I love the appreciation I get for a morning's work.