Anyone else cooking their first ever Christmas lunch this year?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

We've always had lunch at my parents house - they throw a massive gathering and we are incredibly lucky to have lots of lovely food and drinks (we provide the turkey).

This year, due to Covid, we will be having Christmas day just the four of us (2x dc under9). I'm very much looking forward to it.

We've spent almost the whole year now doing the bare minimum of trips outside (kept it local to the park or woods etc).

So for the Christmas period I'm hoping to go all out. And I want to smash the lunch. I'm fine with roasts etc so not scared, per se, just feel like it's a bit of an important meal

Anyone else on their very first Christmas lunch this year?

We're looking at having our first Christmas at home this year too, usually visit family and they cook a lovely Christmas dinner. Last year DD went to her dad's on Christmas day so we did mini Christmas dinner which taught me one thing- my oven is way too small 😂 not sure how I'm going to do a bigger version but will look online for some tips. My number one tip is to cook everything in disposable foil containers- saves space in the oven and massively cuts down on washing up

Me - plus will hopefully have newborn by that point!!!

I also need to buy a new oven before Christmas plus practice with it!!!

I cook mine every year and the best advice is

1. work out before the day how you are going to organise your oven

2. Work back from when you want to eat to do timings. Right it all down and when things need to go into oven, on hob.

3. get your DH to keep topping up your drinks

ME! I've never cooked a roast before not even a roast potato!!!!

Great tip on the trays. We only have one standard oven so a little oven Tetris will have to come into play.

I've perfected the Yorkshire pudding and do them last so timings tip is good - I need to know what I can put in the oven last for that set 20mins the yorkies need.

I'm also thinking of planning Xmas Eve and Boxing day though one of them will just be a cheeseboard/charcuterie.

ifiwasascent

Are you going to do a practice run?

Is it best to cook the turkey in full in the morning when we are doing gifts and breakfast, then reheat when we eat (probs about 5pm).

I think it's also good to remember that if it doesn't go right it's not the end of the world, my mam says that she used to get really stressed about dinner being perfect and thought that if it wasn't then Christmas would be ruined which is a lot of pressure!

ME! I've never cooked a roast before not even a roast potato!!!!

Brilliant! I'm in the same boat...... I'm just going to drink my way through it and hope for the best 🍷

If it will be just the four of you, you will only need a turkey crown or turkey breast so will only take a couple of hours to cook, so you can do it all at once in the afternoon

Me and dh are cooking our first this year! Restrictions allowing, my mum and sister will come to us 😊

Usually we have a great big extended family Christmas so feels like a lot of pressure... but we are excited.

Just got to work out the timings now!

Really tempted to put a chicken in the slow cooker and crisp up the skin in the oven afterwards to save space. Or do the same with a turkey drumstick

Me too! Have also never cooked a roast dinner before
I hate Turkey so think it will be chicken or beef. I’m going to buy as much of it ready prepared as possible, and use Aunt Bessies Yorkshire puds. I make a mean sherry trifle so worries about pud.

I'll most likely be doing my first this year for me and 2 DC too, I've never even cooked a roast dinner I work Christmas time (nurse) and I don't even know what my shifts are yet so it'll have to fit around that as well, as if there wasn't enough pressure already!

It's just a roast. Write down timings esp if you are having starters. Make the table look beautiful the night before. Have a large glass of wine whilst your cooking and most importantly you are with your family it doesn't matter if it goes wrong. Turkey sarnies Christmas Day and bubble & squeak Boxing Day.
P.s. Don't forget the little ones will be full up on chocolate if you're not careful.

Prep all the veg the night before. Just peel and put the potatoes into a pan of cold water. Do NOT par boil the potatoes until the day. Goose fat/beef dripping.
Do NOT panic. You and your family are going to have a wonderful Christmas.

Me! I've just ordered one of those turkeys that come with the meat thermometer that are meant to be easy to cook. And I'm not brilliant with roast potatoes either so was thinking about having mash as well in case roasties go wrong!

I've had to cook Christmas dinner every year since my mum passed away when i was in my very early twenties and it is not as big a deal as you imagine it's going to be. Make sure everyone's drink is always topped up, prep as much in advance as you can (e.g. peel potatoes night before and prep whatever sauces etc. you can in advance). I quite often use my slow cooker on low on Christmas Day to keep things hot enough to serve after they've come out the oven (e.g. pigs in blankets). Some things you can buy completely pre prepared from supermarkets (Marks do some really lovely prepped veg and sides) and even although it seems silly to waste money on something like that, in the early days I found it really useful as it was something I didn't have to worry about at all. It's a lovely thing to do and you'll be great! Best of luck xxx

Our dining table is in the kitchen, we don't have a separate dining room.

Wibu to move the whole dining table into the lounge (where the tree is) for the meal? It would leave room for the sofa still.

Most magazines like Good Housekeeping etc include a Christmas Day menu timetable in the December issue, so grab a copy as a starting point if you’re new to all this. Have a read of it, then adapt to your own requirements.

A week or so before hand get out all the dishes you’ll need (wash if necessary) and make sure they fit in your oven, that you’ve got the right number etc.
With large foil trays for heavy items, use them as liners for your metal or ceramic roasters, they will still cut down on washing up!

Don’t get over enthusiastic on the cocktails till after dinner, you don’t want burnt arms or tea towels on fire!

When I could cook a full roast I just used to think what’s the panic it’s a roast dinner, but this year it’s a pork joint for dh for sandwiches and a turkey crown again for sandwiches or if he wants with ready roast spuds and peas, he’s not a big veg eater but Christmas Eve is steak and chips best beef joint fillet cut into steaks.

Oh all good luck with your first Christmas dinner.

Not the first time for me but you can make a Christmas dinner as hard or easy as you want, it’ll still be special. Last year, I did two types of stuffing (paxo and one made from scratch), made everything from scratch. I’ve also done Christmas dinner using paxo, bisto gravy, aunt bessies roasties and Yorkshire’s. It’s fine either way. Don’t try to over do yourself, especially if you’ve got kids to enjoy Christmas with.

We have a tiny oven, so we have to juggle things a little bit and work backwards from when you want to eat. List your timings out, then if you get delayed by getting caught up in Christmas Day you can just scribble the adjusted timings over the top.

So for example you would go:
4.00 - eat
3.45 - put other vegetables on
3.35 - Yorkshire’s and pigs in blankets go in
3.30 - meat comes out and is left to rest (note we don’t have turkey so it can fit in with everything else, for Turkey you might be better cooking in the morning or the day before)
3.15 - roast potatoes go in
3.05 - parboil your roasts
And so on... Prep what you can in advance, check your oven temperatures for each thing and include those in your list. You can also cross off on your list as you go, which means if you get caught up in something else, someone else can follow where you are up to.

I started doing Christmas dinners after having the DC so it's always just the four of us. My top tips if you've got a large turkey is to cook it in the morning, wrap it tightly with foil and cover it in a towel....keeps warm for hours and keeps your oven free for all the vegetables.

Also you can par boil the potatoes, parsnips and carrots and roast them all together to cut down amount of pans and keep things simpler (keep carrots and parsnips whole or halved if they're very large so they cook at same time as the roasties.)

I make braised red cabbage weeks before and freeze it then it can be taken out and microwaved.

I cheat and just buy nice ready made gravy from M&S (not granules.)

I also have used the Aldi cook from frozen turkey crown before and it was perfectly nice. It's not a centerpiece but when it's just for us I just slice and serve up on plates.