Christmas food - what's worth making and what's not?

[ChipperNipper]

I make Christmas cake and Christmas pudding with my dds in the October half term . It's a tradition now so can't change even though I'm sure it's cheaper to just buy them.

I also make mincemeat at the same time as I have most of the ingredients in. That's really not worth the effort & cost but DC like making mince pies and it seems silly to buy mincemeat when I have the ingredients sitting in the cupboard.

I make spiced red cabbage as it delicious made in advance so the flavours can develop.

Made pigs in blankets one year but DH declared it a pointless task after devouring them Might do them again this year anyway.

Always make my own cranberry sauce and sausage rolls.

I fancy making truffles/peppermint creams with the DC this year. But that's more for the experience than the end result which may be inedible after their sticky mitts have been at then.

We also make stained glass window biscuits for the tree and they do look lovely hanging up. Will do gingerbread men this year. Last couple of years I have cheated and bought the 'decorate your own' from Sainsburys

I fancy making shortbread as well - that's easy enough right?

So what do you think is worth the cost/effort of making what do you think you are better off buying?

Premade gravy Jamie Oliver style. Don't bother. Get M and S.

Absolutely yes to home made mincemeat and red cabbage. And indeed cake.

Nope to Xmas pud, lidl one perfectly acceptable.

Yes to biscuits homemade if you have the time. Shudder NO at truffles/p creams or whatever made by children (baked goods are fine) I do accept this is my own attitude to my own sprogs in their hideously unhygienic yoof. Haha.

Pigs in blankies we buy, never made sausage rolls...

Do you make anything else not on my list donkey

Make stuffings, nut roast and gravy. Make pigs in blankets, so can choose decent sausages and decent bacon. Make cranberry sauce. Peel and chop all vegetables.

Hardly ever bother with traditional Christmas sweet stuff such as Christmas cake, Christmas pudding or mince pies, but may make a pudding from scratch. May make some shortbread.

Ooh stuffing. It would be lovely to make a nice stuffing.

Coconut ice is a good thing to make.

Last year's M&S was dodgy though IME donkey, it was gluten free and strangely glutinous, am thinking of going back to JO's this year.

What about stuffing, do you make your own? My mum makes ours using her mum's not-written-down recipe that I must watch her do sometime. It is basically boiled onions, vast quantities of dried sage and breadcrumbs so I understand. Delicious though and makes the Christmas dinner taste like no other.

Cake and pudding need to be home made IMO, I don't care how tasty a shop bought might be, it is really out of principle, we barely eat shop bought puds the rest of the year so definitely won't on Christmas Day. But I couldn't tell you if they're any better or not as a result!

Shortbread is really easy, yes, but I don't think it'd get eaten here at Christmas.

I do make my own sausage rolls (they do get eaten!), but use shop bought pastry and sausage meat so not terribly home made. Do you make them from scratch? I did Delia's from scratch one year but didn't love them.

I have vegan visitors so make vegan sausage rolls too.

I tried making bread sauce one year but M&S's was declared better so I won't bother with that again. Never made cranberry sauce but we don't it eat.

My kids make a gingerbread house every year and love to decorate it - keeps them busy for an afternoon and the can be quite ingenious in getting all the pieces to stick together by propping up walls with eg spaghetti.

I make the filling for sausage rolls using sausagemeat, thyme and softened onion and garlic. Suspect good quality sausages would be nicer though. I might give that a go this year. Have to buy pastry because I'm rubbish at it.

I've never made stuffing. Love the family recipe being passed down - wish we had one.

I make my own gravy when we have roast and was wondering if I could make my normal one and freeze it?

We.always do a gingerbread house as well. I agree it's good fun and fills an afternoon. Then the DC and dh sneakily nick bits till it resembles a ramshackle old shed.

Chipper and Fanny - care to share Gingerbread house recipe and method, we tried last year and it was a bit of a disaster. I hadn't appreciated how hard it would be to build!

Last year I made a steak pie (that was a learning curve, I'm a vegetarian) but it was declared to be delish, so I will do another this year (and it's a good 'make ahead' dish)

Cake,marzipan and icing I'll make
Pudding (I've already got the fruit and nuts for the cake,so the Christmas Pudding doesn't cost much more)

I can make pastry but it never seems to work when I want to make mince pies so I'll buy a couple of packs (though I can't eat them)

Most premade puddings are too sweet so I'll make trifle and apple pie.

Gravy is a base of the water the veg was steamed in and one of those stock oval thingies with some veg Bisto.
Yorkshire Puddings will be Aunt Bessies as I can't give up the entire oven to cook my own but I do make roast potatoes.

I've made mincemeat once, never again,not worth it.
I will try red cabbage this year (I've bought the ready made before)
Bread sauce is really easy but no-one eats it.

I will make a vegetarian main course (maybe a nut roast) that I can make ahead.

My DC have made chocolates before- walnuts and marzipan in dark chocolate- for my Mum (she didn't mind their grubby little paws )

try this one

We do the house in 3 stages -

1. make the component parts out of gingerbread.

2. Stick the walls together and prop with cans/spaghetti whatever. Separately stick the roof slats together like you would a house of cards.

3. Leave to set for a couple of hours, then decorate.

However, the link above uses royal icing, not just normal icing sugar, so maybe thats the key? Certainly we have used liquid glucose to help stick it together before....but usually its only held together for long enough for a photo before being snarffed by the kids!

Home-made fudge is very easy and delicious.

I cheat and buy the Lidl gingerbread house that you just stick together

Takes us a whole afternoon just to get it to stick together so full respect to those that actually make the house themselves. I suspect ours would resemble the ramshackle barn right from the get go if we tried that.

I buy puff pastry and really good sausage meat (from a sausage butchers). I buy a Christmas pudding. I usually just ice ready made chocolate Swiss rolls for a Yule log. I buy pate. I sometimes buy M&S bread sauce. I buy Aldi mulled wine.

I bought mincemeat last year and didn't use it (last Christmas I was half way through getting a new kitchen installed), so I'll be using that next year.

I make the Christmas cake, red cabbage and erm...that's about it. Might do some cookies but CBA with the rest. Just buy the bloody stuff

I make the Christmas cake but not the pud (Lidl's is nice, we are usually given a homemade one, though). I make mincemeat and also liquers earlier in the year in time for Christmas. Sloe gin, bramble vodka, raspberry vodka, Christmas pud vodka are all steeping away in the cupboard, along with brandied plums and cherries.
I make cranberry sauce (we LOVE it!) and usually make gravy, but I think I am going to buy in this year.
Roasties are always done from scratch, and I always make stuffing myself and wrap the pigs in their blankets and do the same with both prunes and apricots.
I make my braised red cabbage, but I get microwave-ready packets of sprouts and carrots and last year I used frozen roast parsnips which I will probably use again this year I do crush up chestnuts and cook some bacon to put with the microwaved sprouts, though
I want to make biscotti and stollen this Christmas, but that's more for the fun of it.

Oh yes I always do aproyts with bacon and cheatnuts - one if my favourite parts of Chistmas dinner and I'm not normally a sprout fan.

What do you with apricots and prunes snausage?

I need to be more organised so i can make flavoured boose next year. I really want to do that

I make cake, pud and snowflake biscuits, and one other pud (pavlova, trifle, profiteroles or some such). Sometimes I'll do a ham and some cabbage but the cabbage is part of the M&S deal this year so I won't bother. Last year we outsourced the whole Christmas dinner to M&S as DS was a few weeks old and frankly it was great.

To paraphrase someone else on here, I love cooking, and am a good cook but I like drinking fizzy wine and playing with the kids more on Christmas morning

ChipperNipper I wrap them in bacon and cook them! Serve with pigs in blankets. Prunes (dried, not tinned!) in bacon are called 'devils on horseback' and I don't know if apricots done the same way have a name, but they're tasty!

It's not too late! You can make Christmas pud vodka now, and raspberry/bramble vodka will also be good if you make it now!

To paraphrase someone else on here, I love cooking, and am a good cook but I like drinking fizzy wine and playing with the kids more on Christmas morning

This is me. However I did M&S last year and it was just dreadful so I may need to just

I will make truffles and christmas cookies with the children but otherwise there will be no baking in my house.

Ooh I am going to have to google Christmas Pud vodka

It's a Hairy Bikers recipe. I think it says 3 weeks to steep (that's probably a minimum, though? I've made mine and plan on leaving it until mid December!

Definitely worth doing stuffing and it is so easy. I always do the chestnut stuffing from Delia's Christmas.
Not everyone likes Christmas pud, so I always make a cold put the day before, trifle or cheescake.
If you're doing cold cuts for supper or Boxing day, it's really nice to make homemade pickles and chutneys. You need to do them now so they have time to mature.

Would anyone mind sharing their stuffing recipe?