Organized Home Christmas Prep

[bandthenjust]

Does anyone else do it? does it work for you?

There is a forum, Magical Holiday Home, which has a nice group of dedicated Christmas lovers following the various Organised Christmas plans (there is a 6 week "don't panic" plan too for those who think 14 weeks is waaay too long!). And some following none. (I can't get in at work anymore, and I have no time at home, so I haven't been active in probably 3 years now - but they were all lovely!).

I am currently working on clearing out the kitchen freezer - I still have French beans from last summer, and a few other small bits of things to use, and lots of "stuff" taking space that doesn't seem useful. I want to get it reloaded with lasagnas etc for Sept (starting secondary school - eek!) and for the autumn as a whole, including Christmas.

Although, I do find crusts useful - making breadcrumbs, and once I have enough spare in a bag that I can keep some as crumbs (for flour/egg/crumb covering on things like crab cakes), making a generic stuffing to be able to use straight from the freezer for various things - a mushroom, some chicken, over courgettes,...

And bags of veg already prepped for roasting, to just throw in the oven tray straight from the freezer some evenings. Which can often be made by using up what is in the fridge drawer before it goes beyond use!

There is a FB group for the plan, there are two plans both set up by Cynthia Townley-Ewer and she ran them again last year. I think the link is on the webpage, I'll have a look later.

biddypop you sound incredibly organised lol. Im going to chec k out that forum

Biddy you've opened my eyes a bit as to the time this is going to take I could only hope to be as organised as you! I'm determined though, even if I'm not sure how I'm going to balance going back to work full time after mat leave with all my festive plans!

I did start some winter prep today, I'm doing a freezer stock up. 5.5 litres of spag bol today. The same of some butternut squash and red lentil curry tomorrow. Then I'm going to start on soups. It was either this, or spend the day making gingerbread men and mi mince pies

Ooh Pinstripe do you have a recipe for the curry? That sounds right up my street.

It's based off of this one Wooly I use vegetable stock rather then chicken, and play around with the spices quite a bit, but it's a lovely recipe. Easy to make in bulk too!

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/red-lentil-squash-dhal

Thank you

Posted too soon. Thank you - that sounds lovely.

I can’t follow plans. My brain is allergic to organization. If it’s paperwork week I’m absolutely guaranteed to be nauseous at the smell of paper; if it’s garden week I’ll put my back out

So my system is to do whatever I feel like doing off a giant master list within reason. I’ve just sorted out my freezers no idea how anyone survives with just one which was so lovely in a heatwave that I might do it again tomorrow.

I do Christmas batch cooking in October/November. My top tip is to bag it up in individual portions. I usually do a boeuf bourguignon, and a Normandy pork casserole and a couple of soups. If we have a plague of locusts visitors dropping by, I chuck as many small bags into the sink of cold water to defrost which is much quicker than trying to defrost a huge lump. It also means that if we don’t have many visitors, I have easy dinners for January. Stews and casseroles are much nicer the day after cooking so ideal for freezing really. Frozen mash, microwave rice, frozen green beans and dinner can be on the table in under half an hour. I stock up on macarons when lidl have a French week and freeze them too. They defrost on a plate in about 5 mins for dessert.

If I’m making a family dish like lasagne or shepherds pie to freeze, I line an oven dish with tinfoil and freeze it in that (retrieving the dish when it’s frozen. I just make two when I’m going to the bother of making one at all so it’s a minimal effort.

I also make double batches of scones and cookies and freeze them just before cooking (on a tray lined with parchment to freeze them separately and then transfer to a big ziplock bag). Cookies can be popped into a cooling oven while we’re eating dinner and served with ice cream.

I’m much better at winter cooking than summer! I can’t think what to eat in the current heat never mind face standing in the sauna to cook it. I have to fantasize about December to survive the heat

Alan ! I survive with lots of flat frozen zip lock bags to maximise my space. I'm really hoping that in our next house we'll have space for one or two chest freezers.

I never thought to freeze macaroons!

With shepherds pie, that sort of thing, I got some ceramic one portion sized dishes from Asda for £1. I tend to make size individual portions, then cover them with foil. They stack really nicely.

I think my biggest issue will be DH. He has serious hoarding tendencies, and whenever one room is spotless, he fills it with 'stuff'. It's pretty much a full time job just trying to keep on top of his clutter.

Pinstripe it's not that it takes soooo long, it's that my life is already far too manic and deep cleaning is way (way way way!) down the list of priorities! You could probably do most rooms in 1 day of that week, or maybe 2/3 evenings uninterrupted (as in, about 1-2 hours maybe twice or 3 times would do it). I just don't get that sort of time.

But it has been handy to get a general list organized, of main cleaning and seasonal maintenance items that I can tackle, and festive preparations, to get through over the course of the autumn and early winter. So that by early December, I am mostly organized, and can actually enjoy the festive season itself, have a reasonably clean and organized house, be relatively organized for Christmas and not up until 2am the night before international postage cut off dates wrapping, or 2am on Christmas Eve.

And I may even (it's happened a few times, just not every year) actually feel like and be able to host a gathering of some sort at home without blushing at the state of it, or getting frantically stressed at trying to organize it.

(DH may feel the same about me and my hoarding tendancies, as you do about your DH!).

For freezer meals, individual portions are great (I have a bunch of ceramic dishes from "Cully and Sully" ready meals). But I also do a few family sized meals - I have 4 pyrex family sized, and 3 two person sized, rectangular dishes with plastic lids. The great thing about those is that you can make a meal and freeze it, and the dishes stack when the lids are on. Once frozen, remove the meal from the dish and pack in a large freezer bag to stack/store. Just try to make sure you keep 1 dish empty (or use a meal in a dish first from the frozen ones) so then when you want to defrost the meal - you take off the wrappings and put it into the dish straight from the freezer and it will keep the shape. Then the dish can go into the oven as well.

I'm going to use the quieter days at work this month to get my lists in order, as I know this autumn is going to be worse than usual (DD starts secondary school, 3 big work projects will have busy periods between Sept and Christmas, and I am losing a Cub leader as well so will have no weekends off as we'll have no cover).

I freeze my saucier meals (spag bol, chilli, curries etc) in tubs saved from takeaways (yes, we have a large collection!). They stack well, can be bagged up once frozen if we need more space, and they work out as 1-2 person portions each. And it's easy to write the item and date on the lids (and sometimes sides as well to find easier) in sharpie, which comes off when washing them afterwards.

Ok, you all sound super organized lol. Do you have set days for doing things - gift buying/gift wrapping on certain days, or do you do it as and when?

As and when in this house.

Although I try to shop (including internet shopping) early on (summer sales can be good!).

I try and organise myself to be able to have a wrapping night when DH is on a work night out. I clear off the dining table, bring down my rolls of paper and ribbons, and my sellotape dispenser (really, REALLY makes a difference!), and set to for a couple of hours. A few large bags to put the wrapped gifts into, split by families/how they'll be delivered (some postage, some hand delivered, some driven down on a weekend "down home", some for school, etc) to make it a slightly less organizing headache later. Christmas music going in the background, and a promise of a nice glass of wine at the end. That gets a lot of the main wrapping done, and I tend to have the paper, ribbon and tape kept together after that to quickly do any that are left.

Yes yes tape dispensers! Not many hiding places in my house, so I have to wrap as I buy to stop kids from seeing them. Still have paper from last year to hand

I love my chest freezer!! My OH didn't want to get one but I ordered it anyway, put it straight in the garage & now he says it was a great idea.

I love Christmas, so I might have to look at this. I usually start the majority of my shopping in September, but have bought a few little stocking fillers over the last few months. The food prep is always something I get stressed about, end up ordering too much food close to the time & there's always a lot of waste, so I want to be more organised this year.

Thanks OP this has reminded me to book the panto that always forget about every year until November when it's fully booked

Also want to get organised because last year was a disaster. I don't think I've ever bought a present before November before but I'm planning to start next pay day (this Friday) and first thing on my list is a chest freezer for the garage!

I usually aim to be totally wrapped by December 10th, otherwise the paper gets all dusty.

I stash everything under the bed, or in a storage unit seat thing we have in the lounge. It's the perfect size to stash wrapping paper in too (actually off to our local paperchase outlet tomorrow! They've stuck out their Christmas paper and stuff already, got 50p rolls of paper last year).

I don't know from Christmas but Organized Home is like CRACK

I bought a veritable shit tonne of paper in the M&S and JL sales. Doubt I'll need more any time soon!

I do need a sellotape dispenser though. Must get into that one!

I've started buying bits and bobs from places, but I'm saving the big stuff for when the DC have done their lists, unless I get a hint beforehand! (DS asked for a big Lego set, so that's already hidden upstairs!)

I really need to print the weekly sheets for this and see what's what, and the things I can ignore / skip.

I also have a hoarding DH, like Pinstripe. Drives me to distraction.

Is anyone old enough to remember the cook on This Morning called Susan something(?) I used to love her when she did the get ahead for Christmas stuff- she would make a big pot of Mince and then show you how to freeze it and make it into chilli, or lasagne or shepherds pie.
She used to do One a week- once it was mince, then a roast chicken, then a big fish - and show you how to make and freeze meals for the inbetween, before New Year. Me and my Mum used to LOVE it. It was just so organised and homely.

Her name was Susan Brookes! (thanks Google)

That sounds fantastic crochet! I need to google!

I think I may have gone overboard this Christmas already the bargain thread hasn't been helping me restrict my buying for DS! Certainly not going to help with the Christmas clutter.

Roll on August when I can get started properly with this cleaning and organising lark!

I got Exploding Kittens for £8 on eBay. Excited!

Oops. Wrong thread!