What Christmas tips worked well this year and what will you not be doing next year?

[Monroe]

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas
I've picked up lots of tips over the years from these threads. This year we tried the lottery present opening for the 2 dc's. We had a jar filled with numbers that corresponded to the ones stuck to the bottom of the dc's gifts and they took turns pulling out a number then both had to find that gift. It stretched the opening of them out and they really enjoyed playing the "game"

What I won't be doing is buying loads of stocking fillers just for the sake of it. Most of them were opened and discarded within the first couple of minutes

[StillPukin]

I have had to seriously cut back on the money I spend on Christmas this year and I found that the sight of the piles of presents being so much smaller than usual really satisfying.
My children loved their presents and we had a wonderful day, and I was SO proud of the small piles :)

[CombineBananaFister]

OOOhh, some good ideaS am going to steal on here. This year due to some influencing factors throughout the year and some very lucky breaks we got as afamily we decided to do '24 acts of xmas kindness' - the kids got a choccy calender as well before anyone bleats child abuse

Will definately be doing it again next year despite some of the cynicism, bewilderment and downright rudeness - it was a very soul inspiring thing to do. mostly anon and not glory-bathing but bloody rewarding. mentioned it in another thread so won't harp on but really focused us on the what to be grateful for this christmas

[CointreauVersial]

Carving the turkey - whip the legs off, take off the meat, then cut off the whole breast and carve into slices on a chopping board. Carve what you need into a dish, put it in a warm place covered in foil, then it is so much easier to serve onto plates without trying to carve at the same time.

(by the way, whoever said they didn't like the dark meat - I'll swap you! We fight over the dark meat here, and it's the breast which gets left).

Wrap stocking fillers in tissue, just rip, scrunch and secure with a single piece of tape. Ten times quicker than proper wrapping.

[WantToGoingTo]

Good things
Reuse wrapping paper! If it is salvagable. Nothing an iron can't fix and saves a pretty penny for next year :)
Make tags out of last year's Christmas cards
Take the turkey out the oven before putting the roasties in - believe it or not it won't go cold after an hour as long as it is wrapped in foil, creates more oven space for roasties and makes turkey really succulent due to long resting time :)
Not travelling to the back and beyond to see all the family! See a select few and spend longer when you do travel. Cos travelling is pants.

Bad things
Sprouts take a lot longer to cook when there are lots of them
Don't buy too much cheese - everyone is always stuffed after the main and pudding
Do have lots of wine/alcohol on tap - it's Christmas! We didn't have enough but luckily our guests bought several bottles with them :)
Don't stress. It will be fine. If the military plan isn't fulfilled it is not the end of the world.
Stocking presents - make them something useful or edible. DH always gets a toothbrush in his!

[dancingwitch]

On the subject of stocking fillers, our DC are quite young (5&2) but the eldest has had the same tat in her stocking for that last 3yrs. By the same tat, I mean she gets exactly the same items which appear in the stocking, are left around for her to play with until the end of Boxing Day and then get put back in the Christmas box with the stockings themselves ready for the next year. The tat includes a set of reindeer ears, a wind up Santa, a mini snow globe with a snowman in it, a whoppee cushion & a yo yo. The first year they went back in the box it was unintentional and, when I found them when I got the stockings out last year, I thought I may as well put them in again as the stockings were a bit empty. DD was so thrilled to see these items again that I did it again this year and, again, she was delighted. One day she will realise this is a bit odd but at the moment she loves it.
Other stocking fillers are a sticker book which is done in bed, a drink & snack, some bubble bath, new pants or similar, chocolate santa, chocolate coins, satsuma, book.

[Davros]

No I will be fighting you for the dark meat. If I was served a turkey crown on Xmas day I would be heartily disappointed . Best things for me were wrapping early and as you go, putting up decs early, tree followed. I didn't do anything until December but still got everything done smoothly and stress free by thinking about it a lot before I did it . I got worried at one point that I was being too inactive but I managed to get it all done, with done help from dh, and was reasonably organised by the time dd finished school on 11th December. Did quite a lot on-line, shopped early for the soft drinks, crisps, bog paper etc and set aside specific time for wrapping, decorating, cards etc

[RandomHouseRules]

This is probably a silly question, but for those of you who lay the table the night before, where do you eat breakfast? I'm presuming that you have a 'dining table' as well as a kitchen table - is that right? We're in a flat so don't have that.

I got most stuff prepared before xmas day this year and the day itself was so utterly easy and smooth I will do the same again and again but I would so love to come down to a 'dressed' table on xmas day but it would be wrecked by 8.15 with the kids cereal and milk etc. Is there a way round this?

Same: prepping all the veg over the few days before so just had to be reheated. Very basic stockings for the kids - no junk this year was brilliant. Not having as much booze as we've had in the past was better for everyone and we all had a very civilized and fun board game in the afternoon.

Different: Remember to send all my relative xmas cards. Oops.

[RandomHouseRules]

Oh and seeing the ISS both on xmas eve and xmas day (i.e. father xmas on his way out and on his way back) was BRILLIANT. I would like NASA to arrange for that to happen again next year please.

[IDismyname]

Cut my Christmas card list by about two thirds.

I actually plain ran out of time, so scoured through my list for people ( mainly elderly) who I knew would appreciate a card from us.

Then we went away fro Christmas.

[MrsLindor]

Remind MIL that she decided to give me the money to buy any clothes she wants to get dd next year, it will save time in the long run having to return things that don't fit and finding alternatives when the shops are in a mess with sales.

The waitrose Christmas cake mix was amazing.

[NowBringUsSomeFuzzpiggyPudding]

I think I need to be much more organised about the things I don't really enjoy doing. Like choosing presents for the few people other than DH, DCs and DSCs - I put it off because I worry about it and then end up rushing and stressing at the last minute.

Also must not assume DCs aren't bothered about writing Xmas cards for their friends - do it earlier next year.

[Rugbylovingmum]

We did christmas dinner on Christmas Eve this year and it worked so well we are definitely doing the same next year. The kids made cookies with my mum while we made dinner - it was a bit hectic but nice to all hang out in the kitchen together. We had christmas dinner, played games and ran out to see ISS/Santa flying past. It kept the kids busy until bedtime and finished up being a lovely relaxed evening. On Christmas Day we had a big, late breakfast then made up a buffet with the leftover meat plus lots of nice flatbread, dips, olives and m&s party nibbles. It was perfect, everyone just grabbed a plateful when they were hungry and we didn't have to stop the kids playing or work dinner around the little one's nap. I could play with the kids all day rather than spending time in the kitchen. I'd recommend it for anyone with young children!

[AuditAngel]

We have a family dinner out (Indian) on Christmas Eve, after attending family mass.

Not opening stockings in our bed this year (DF is getting too frail to perch on a very low armchair in our bedroom).

Delegating clearing the table to the DC (4, 7 & 10), delegating the dishwasher to DSIs and her fiancé

We host Boxing Day, which can be for up to 40 people, 24 this year. We keep a note of what we bought, what worked and what didn't. Comes out every year for the online shop.

[sooperdooper]

I do this every year, but wrapping paper, tags and cards in the sales then pack them away with the decorations - cheaper and one less thing to do next year

[GetMe]

Following some tips on here I froze the part boiled potatoes, defrosted and tried to roast Christmas day - they were a disaster!!! All mushy and didn't crisp up. What did I do wrong??

Would really like to be able to do this as part boiling is such a faff Christmas day. It obviously works for some of you!!

[WhoKnowsWhereTheMistletoes]

Not going to make tags out of cards again, we had quite a few missing tags where they had caught on other parcels when bagged up to hand over to other families apparently. Stickers only next year.

On the plus side, did a big Ocado order the last day without the extra charge and had the turkey and veg delivered free on Christmas Eve by Riverford, I haven't set foot in a supermarket since last Tuesday evening when I picked up a few last basic bits of bread, milk etc.

Things that I have tried in the past and won't be repeating include wrapping as you buy, I need to get everything out once or twice and check it all, also far more efiicient to stash things away quickly and unseen by DCs than have to get all the wrapping stuff out over and over again. Getting it all done in a couple of sessions is far more efficient for me. Keeping a bag with tags, sellotape, ribbons, scissors, bottle bags all together is very handy though, as each person can use it whenever they need to.

Keeping a Christmas file with recipes, gift lists, timings for dinner cooking, shopping plans is also very handy.

[Davros]

I agree, it works better for me to do a couple of sessions of wrapping as I also need to do an audit and work out who is getting what for the "minor" people like teachers, friends' kids etc. this year, once I had made those decisions and stuck to them, no twitching on the minor gifts, they are usually good enough and if you've wrapped them then it's a done deal

[WhoKnowsWhereTheMistletoes]

I do keep a gift list on my phone, but sometimes forget to update it especially if The DCs are around and I want to quickly stash something, also it's so complicated now the DCs are old enough to be buying presents for us and GPs and friends but not old enough to maintain lists reliably, I just keep all the unwrapped gifts in carrier bags according to who the sender is or according to recipient families, then wrap a bagful at a time.

[Theshedofalfredogarcia]

No stodgy xmas pud this year.I bought a fancy frozen ice cream dessert ,much lighter and nobody even mentioned lack of pud.

Red cabbage in slowcooker was fantastic-thanks mn.

I made a panettone loaf overnight in the breadmaker so we came down in the morning to a lovely christmassy smell and had it toasted for breakfast.

[ArcheryAnnie]

Go out NOW to buy stupidly expensive posh crackers at knock-down prices, and stash away for next year. This year we had crackers that should have cost £40 for six (who the hell would spend more than six quid per cracker?) but I got them for about 70p per cracker, and they were fantastic, with real, useful things inside. A real treat.

[RandomHouseRules]

GetMe - you need to make sure the potatoes are really dry before you freeze them and once defrosted that there's no excess water left on them. Also par boiling only for 3 or 4 minutes max (I used to always leave for too long). Try it again before next xmas!