It's just been decided that I'm doing Xmas dinner this year. Please help a first timer!

[MamaTT]

The plan was to go to PIL for Xmas dinner but poor MIL isn't in a great place at the moment so I've just offered to do it here.
We only moved house on Tuesday so I'm still getting to grips with new kitchen.
Where do I start? What do I need and what can I buy now? I have a tall larder fridge and a big freezer so storage space isn't really an issue.
There's 4 adults, 2dc and baby (who will happily chow on boob milk and a bit of mash).
Please help! I've never even cooked a chicken dinner let alone a Xmas dinner!!

You'll be fine, if you can cook a roast chicken dinner then you can do Christmas.

You can prep veg on xmas eve or 1st thing better yet get your OH on prep duty, keep all the veg and potatoes in cold water. If you plan Turkey I should get a crown, so simple to cook.
You could get things like ready made red cabbage, stuffing balls, carrot batons to make things easier.

Get people to help, someone else can lay the table, and make it clear you are not responsible for clearing up.

Don't panic, don't expect perfection and sip a nice glass of something while you cook to relax you but don't go mad!

Make a lost of the cooking times and write a timetable, it will pay off so , Turkey in oven at 10am (or whatever) and so on.

The turkey can be under foil and clean towels resting for a good 45 minutes while you roast the potatoes and finish off.

Pigs in blankets, you need hundreds!
Think about foil, cranberry sauce, gravy, bread sauce, all those extras you may need but nobody will have the day ruined if you forget something.

I just saw you can;t cook a chicken dinner! But you'll still be fine.

What specifics do you need to know and we'll help! I did a 'live' cook one year with a novice and it was great fun for both of us!

First timer on Christmas Day go for all the short cuts! Thinking of the prepped veg and bird you just chuck into the oven, ready rolled pigs in blankets etc

They'll all have a time on them like 40 mins so plan a time you want dinner to be ready for and count back from that what time everything needs to go in.

Practise cooking with your oven now so you know if things are going to require more/less time.

Make sure you have a variety of cranberry sauce and horseradish that sort of thing you're likely to run out of in the day

If you're going to do anything from scratch it should be the tatties, get pealing them as soon as you've got a spare minute on the day or pam that job off on anyone else you can. You can buy sachets of seasoning for them and you always need more oil than directions say

Plenty kitchen roll

Ask your guests what they want because it's one of those silly things everyone has a different idea of what it should be so my Dp would be gutted if there was no sweetcorn, I need parsnips, my Mum likes cauliflower cheese....there's no right answer we can give you but between Aldi and m&s you'll be able to get everything pre prepped with instructions

I think 2 lists, one for fresh and one for cupboard

Cupboard you can get right now - jarred sauces, crackers, napkins, Christmas pudding if your'e buying it, if you don;t usually cook just get a decent gravy granule and use the veg water to mix, make it easy on yourself.

The fresh stuff get on the 23rd and yes to checking what people want but don't pander to silly requests. If anyone does want cauliflower cheese then ready made is the way to go. It is your Christmas too and you have babies so take the pressure off.

Make sure you have enough plates, glasses and so on.

100% go for pre-prepped everything if you are not an experienced cook.
Oh, and disposable silver foil oven trays to save on washing up.

Aunt Bessie is the friend you need here! You can pretty much get everything frozen. A lot of it is only £1 a bag in Sainsbury’s at the moment. And yes to foil cooking trays, you can chuck them out after.

Firstly, if you have a MIL you have a spouse. He/she can do half the cooking and preparation. Unless you've already decided that they're going to be in sole charge of baby and entertaining the guests, while you cook, and that's how you want it, of course.

But yes, Aunt Bessie. And a list of timings - start with the size of bird and read all the instructions on everything to see how long it needs cooking for and at what temperature. Work backwards from the time you want to eat, and make a list of what time each item needs to go in or out of the oven. Then on the day it's pretty easy.

If there are any older men there (FIL?) they often expect that the carving is their job so you can delegate that bit!

If you can afford it m&s and their Xmas lunch package. Just need to work out timings

Thank you for the replies!
Unfortunately, DP has just had surgery on his arm and is up to his arm pit in plaster so he's as much use as a chocolate tea cup.

I had a practise run yesterday and did a chicken dinner. I did:
A chicken (obviously)
Roast potatoes, parsnips and carrots (made my own rather then packaged - v easy
Broccoli
Swede mash
Mash potato (bought ready made from Tesco to bung in microwave)
Yorkshire puds (kids love them)
Peas
Sprouts fried with onion and bacon
Stuffing

All was fine but I pooped up the gravy so ended up with bisto haha.

Any fool proof gravy methods please?

Is cooking a turkey crown much different to cooking a whole chicken?

It's not too different no they come with instructions I would gently put my hand between the skin and the meat of the crown with big chunks of butter but I'm a fatty like that. Then cover the skin in bacon

Gravy I do 50/50 butter and flour and then gently whisk in stock on the heat till a nice gravy look but never on Christmas Day it's just another pan to clean and at the end of the cooking when you're just desperate to plate up. I buy those plastic tubs of gravy and they do us fine I just go for anything extra special looking.

Gravy is easy buy it from Waitrose/M&S or maybe tesco/sainsbury finest ....same with stuffing, i make most stuff but can never get gravy as good!,

Just to add you can cook the turkey way ahead of time to free up oven space just wrap I foil and put a tea towel over will keep it heat for at least an hour, also make sure you have warm plates I put them in a sink of hot water.

Oh and gravy i put all the veg trimming (not potato) in water and cook til soft, add some chicken stock cubes, chicken bisto then add all the turkey jiuces.