Hosting my first Christmas Dinner this year. Any cheats/tips/advice welcome!

[Fluffiest]

This year DH and I have decided to host Christmas day for our family. We are really excited and want to put on a good day.

We'll have six adults and one three year old. One of the adults has to have dairy/gluten free food so any tried and tested gluten and dairy free recipes will be especially useful.

We are thinking we would like to do canapés, no starter, traditional Turkey dinner and some sort of pudding (not Christmas pudding because only my DF likes it)

We might have a couple of extra people joining us on the evening so I'd also love to hear some Christmas cocktail recommendations.

Please Mumsnetter, share with me your collective Christmas wisdom!

The dinner will be GF by default apart from the gravy. I have used GF flour to make gravy and it's fine. If you are using stock check the labels. Knorr Stock Pots are GF.

Also check things like pigs in blankets you may need to make your own with GF sausages / sausage meat and the same for stuffing.

We had vodka, ginger beer and cranberry cocktails last year which were lovely and will definitely be back this year.

Preparation is key! Anything that can be made in advance, make it in advance!

I make roast potatoes for dairy free friends by par boiling with a stock pot in the water and then putting in a hot oven WITH the stock water. Makes gorgeous fluffy, crispy potatoes that taste delicious.

Tesco finest cocktail sausages are gluten free, if you plan to make your own pigs in blankets.

You can get gluten free Paxo stuffing for a quick cheat (and it's perfectly fine - I couldn't tell the difference).

If you do Yorkshire puddings, good luck. I've yet to find a way of making gluten free ones that actually rise.

We do a trio of puddings - one Christmas one, a chocolate one and a gluten free one. Then a selection of custard/cream/ice cream/dairy free

Thank you for the advice so far! Especially on where to get gluten free sausages. I love pigs in blankets! Making roast potatoes using stock is a new one for me.

I might leave off the Yorkshires. I've had gluten and dairy free pancakes before and they did not taste good. 😕Pancake and Yorkshire batter are the same thing really.

What kind of things do you make in advance? And how far in advance do you make them?

@HearMeSnore have you tried Becky excell's gluten free Yorkshire puds? She's on Facebook and Instagram, her recipe is failsafe for me

My best friends little boy is gluten free she said all of asda sausages (fresh) are gluten free, though you might need to double check the pigs in blankets ones. Stuffing can definitely be done in advance, we also make cheese sause and gravy in advance. Roast potatoes can be but I always prefer these fresh. Most puddings are fine to be frozen and defrosted

Do the veg in advance using Mary Berry’s veg platter recipe. You can use virtually any type of veg and it works. A brilliant time saver on the day.

Get a catering heated buffet server. You WILL mistime things and this keeps things hot while the rest finishes up.
Do as much in advance as you can and wash up as you go

Off to Google catering heated buffet server...

I did wonder about using the slow cooker to keep things warm too. Unless we decide to use that to do gammon as well as Turkey. I'm thinking left over gammon would be good for boxing day.

Buy a decent turkey if you can afford it, taste is better. Put a couple of lemons inside during roasting, I baste with sunflower oil.

Work out your pans ahead of time - borrow if you don't have enough. Ditto serving dishes - my mum arrives with her turkey platter each year!

You can buy gluten free gravy, far easier on the day than making it, but homemade cranberry & orange relish is worth the effort (tub of cranberries, orange juice and sugar to taste, cook on med heat until they burst). If you want stuffing try a rice based recipe (bbc good food is a good resource)

For dessert supermarkets have good selections, you can then ensure allergy information. Aldi Xmas puds are good, not had the gf one but they have a selection of free from in store now

Personally I would skip canapés, just go straight to the main event - unless quality street count!

I like canapés AND a starter! But I always prep the starter before and keep it in the fridge. Think prawn cocktail or pate.

Sausage meat stuffing can be made a day before and served cold. Also cook our meat the day before. The gravy warms it up!

Prep veg and put in water.

Write down timings and sellotape to the cupboards ticking off as you go

No gluten free advice, but regards to preparation, I do all my veg the night before potatoes in a pan in the garage carrots sprouts etc done and put in a bag in the fridge. If your short of oven space remember you turkey will keep warm up to an hour if we'll wrapped in tin foil with a tea towel over the top. As for dessert you can't beat a pavlova if you can find a dairy free alternative to cream.

If you use corn flour to thicken your gravy it will be gluten free. Perhaps make a sausagemeat and herb stuffing which would be gluten free too.

Gluten free nibbles include olives, cubes of feta or other cheese, padron peppers, hard boiled quail eggs, dips served with carrot sticks sliced peppers and endive leaves.

Thank you for the tips. I'm getting that preparation is key. I will do a count up of my pans and serving dishes. My DM is near by and will be up for bringing extra dishes or pans.

I was looking at the M&S Christmas food catalogue earlier, and they did something called Luxury Garnish Selection (or similar!) which was stuffing balls (I think wrapped in bacon) and pigs in blankets, which were gluten free. In fact, quite a lot of their stuff was gluten free, so might be worth having a look.

We have a gluten-free person in the family.

Last year I made Nigella's chocolate cloud cake for pudding, it went down well.

www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-cloud-cake

Don't understand the PP about roast potatoes? Mine are always both GF & dairy free - made simply with potatoes and roasted in rapeseed or coconut oil.

Also GF sausages are quite widely available - just check labels. Tends to be the posher brands. I like Helen Browning's organic mini sausages.

Another option with stuffing is to get gluten free bread and make your own

Buy a meat thermometer. The only time I did Christmas lunch it became apparent during carving that the inside was not cooked. I’d checked the juices but clearly not well enough!

As much in advance as possible.
I always cook my braised red cabbage, apple sauce and mashed swede way in advance and freeze it. They all freeze really well and just need heating on the day. Saves pans and faff. Just green veg then needs cooking last minute. Stuffing also freezes if you do so before adding any egg.

Christmas Eve is the time to peel everything. All spuds, carrots, sprouts etc. And keep in water for cooking on the day.
I also make my turkey stock for the gravy on Christmas Eve so, again, on the day it just gets the turkey juices added and thickened (we like a LOT of gravy).

I set the table (mostly) on Christmas Eve too if hosting a fair number - breakfast can be eaten by just living a few places up (or leave a breakfast space). It’s often amazing just how long setting the table can take with all the extra finery.

So basically what I’m saying is - prep everything (where possible) in advance and just cook it on the day.

Make ahead and freeze items
Stuffing (I make a second gf one as well as regular)
Sausages
Bacon rolls
Brandy butter
Bread sauce (can't do this gf sadly it turns to glue)
Stock for gravy

Make ahead items
Christmas cake (gf ones are quite tasty)
Chocolate log - buche de Noel for gf
Cranberry relish

Do the night before
Peel potatoes and put under water
Veg
Put turkey in roasting pan and cover with bacon, warp in foil

Cook everything you can in disposable roasting trays, just sit them on the regular ones so they don't collapse on you. Saves loads on washing up
Pre Label all serving dishes with what is going in them and allocate serving spoons etc
Set the table the night before
Allocate seating

I knew mumsnet wouldn't let me down. I'm taking notes down. This is so helpful! I wouldn't have thought of getting a meat thermometer but I am going to now!

I often see people saying how much easier it makes life if you cook the meat in advance. I can see that, but a really lovely part of Christmas for me is smelling the turkey cooking on the day. I make the gravy on the day too, using giblet stock and the juices that come out from the turkey. I thicken it with Bisto powder - no idea whether that's gluten-free, sorry, but I'm sure there is a GF alternative if necessary.

We never have a starter and that simplifies things a lot. We have a big breakfast and eat dinner in the late afternoon.

I use Delia Smith's Christmas book as my Bible for cooking the turkey and a lot of other things too. I write out on a piece of paper what I have to do in chronological order and tick it off as I go. The starting point for the timings is the weight of the turkey, because from that I know how long it needs to be in the oven. It not only can keep warm for a long time after it finishes cooking, it needs to, like all roast meat, so that the juices sink back into the meat. This is extremely useful because when it comes out of the oven you can turn the oven right up and do the roast potatoes and parsnips, while on the hob you make the gravy and cook the sprouts and any other short-cooked veg. (I do Chantenay carrots in the oven in a foil parcel, flavoured with orange juice, tarragon, salt, pepper and oil or butter - they take a while but they are lovely and trouble-free, sitting in the bottom of the oven for the last hour or so.)

Get the table set early on so you don't have to think of it again.

And finally, it makes life a lot easier if people serve themselves to veg, gravy etc. The veg dishes ideally need to be heated, as do the dinner plates, so everybody gets everything piping hot. That's not too difficult if you've got a second oven, might need a bit of thinking about otherwise. Check you've got enough dishes, platters etc to do this. You can buy foil platters from a Pound Shop or similar very cheaply.