First Time Hosting Christmas Dinner - help!

[Flower0304]

Hi everyone,

This is my first year hosting Christmas dinner - eek! We are hosting my MIL, FIL and SIL alongside myself and DH and our DS3 and DS12weeks. I am not a 'natural' cook so feel rather nervous and pressured to get this right! So not to drip feed, I am perfectly happy to host this year.

We are having chicken as we don't eat turkey. MIL is cooking a gammon joint and bringing it with her.

As I have a toddler and a new baby I am looking to do as much of the prep etc. on Christmas Eve (after the toddler is in bed of course!).

Please help! What can I pre-prepare? With as simple instructions as possible!

Thank you 😁

The night before I would peel and cover potatoes in cold water - so if you are making mash or roasties you have a lot of work put of the way. Buy ready made stuffing in tin foil.

Cheesecake or trifle is very easy to make the day before. Keep it really easy. Maybe just the jelly / Philadelphia cheesecake.

I think lidl are selling festive veg frozen and lidl food is great.

Would sil bring something - desserts - seems fair

Prep all the vegetables and lay the table night before.

I think some people cook the turkey night before but have never tried it.

Use disposable silver tray for turkey.

Get family to help you dish up food on to plates (which make sure have been pre-warmed in the oven first).

Buy nice ready made gravy.

Good luck.

Red cabbage recipe on good food site can be made now and frozen. Potatoes can be par boiled and frozen. If you are roasting a chicken between now and Christmas, use it to maje a gravy and freeze.

I'm hosting for the first time this year too! I've been told veg and potatoes are best to do night before. I'd also make sure my kitchen was super organised and make sure I have thought about having enough pans/sauce pans and oven space for the timings to work.
Setting the table is a great idea, looking forward to hearing many more!

Could FIL help out with starters?

Have a trial run doing a roast the week before so you can see what pots and pans you're short of and how your timings are etc. I appreciate this isn't either with a toddler and 12wk old.
We did this today and it really helped us, hosting 16 🙈

I did Christmas for the first time in a few years last year. I read an article by Jamie Oliver that was an immense help on the day - he said you shouldn’t fret over the meat, you need piping hot plates and gravy but warm meat. We cooked the turkey first then took it out the oven, wrapped it well in foil and let it sit for an hour whilst we then used the oven space for all the veg. It was a revelation and the turkey was fantastic! He also has a make ahead gravy recipe that you can freeze - we did it a week in advance. We also made red cabbage in advance which freezes well. Hope that helps!

Get the Mary berry Christmas book. She true you all the private in advance stuff, and crucially the timings for getting everything into and out of the oven.

What is DH doing for his mother, father and sister and his little family here. Ho HO HO.

Get him a pinny and a recipe book stat!

Marks and Spencer’s is your best friend!

Agree with ordering from m&s, even if you get a few things, it all helps.

Definitely tell sil to 'pick up dessert and some wine' or whatever you can delegate.

Buy disposable oven trays to save on washing up, or pre line all your oven trays with foil and put them away. I did it when my 2 were young, DH had to do his fair share.

And I think making a starter that is served cold saves a lot of hassle as trying to heat/cook/serve another course hot is an added complication you can avoid. I usually do pate/prawns/smoked salmon/smoked duck type thing, all of which can bought and opened up and put on a plate with some oatcakes/salad/crusty bread or whatever.

We're in a similar position, with the added complication that we're having a new kitchen fitted before Christmas so we'll be putting it through it's paces for the first time and we won't get much chance to prep in advance.

I'm planning to pre-prep veg, make use of M&S for things like stuffing, pigs in blankets etc, and keep it pretty simple. Will probably do nibbles/simple canapés instead of a sit-down starter to make timings easier.

Buy things like stuffing, pigs in blankets ready made, get some small foil trays you can cook them in too.
Buy cranberry or red currant sauce, stir in a spoon of brandy or some orange liqueur to zap it up a bit.
Don’t go overboard on veg, you can get some nice ready prepared items from M&S or Sainsbury’s etc.
Add some brandy or red wine to your gravy, and a knob of butter at the end to give it a gloss.

About a week before, get out all the plates glasses and bowls you will need, give them a wash. Make sure all the things that you need to fit in the oven together will fit, change plan if necessary.

I agree about a cold starter, prawn cocktail is a classic.

Make lists! Especially shopping lists! Make a timetable, working backwards from the time you plan to serve the meal. If none of your cookbooks have a Christmas Day plan, most magazines will have one just now, or look on line. The BBC food site is very useful.

On the day, clear up as you go. But most of all.... have fun and a happy Christmas!

I agreee the best starter would be prawn cocktails prepared previous day
.
For the past 20years i have prepared most items on Christmas Eve morning, this includes cooking sprouts,carrots and potatoes till almost done the covering ,cooling and refrigerating.
I always do Delia’s Parmesan parsnips for the day, which I par cook and cover with Parmesan before chilling too.
I also make my stuffing up, gravy and pigs in blankets in Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Day I put my turkey in early and relax with for the morning until I take it out and cover as someone else said with foil and a big towel to rest. Then pop in the potato’s from previous day for roasties and later put in stuffing, pigs in blankets and lastly veg for ten minutes to finish cooking.