Do you think a no chores Christmas Eve - End of Boxing day is possible?

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We're having a really small just our family of five quiet Christmas this year.

I'm wondering what food and things I could advance prepare so that other than loading the dishwasher no time is spent chopping, preping and plating food.

Not sure we're fussed about the traditional Christmas lunch either. I do wonder whether a cold buffet would be a bit dissapointing but want to contrast that with all of us downing tasks and just enjoying the days. We're thinking takeaway curry to round things off on boxing day evening.

What do you think? any suggestions?

Yep totally possible, we have a similar rule. Dishwasher etc will still gets done as does cleaning the kitchen but don’t do any other cleaning like vacuuming etc.

If you're not fussed about a traditional lunch then something like beef bourguignon and mash, both cooked in advance and reheated, would be nice for lunch on Christmas Day. For other meals, I'd look at frozen pastries (Waitrose ones are nice), bread/cheese/pickles/ham/other similar stuff. You could cook and slice a gammon in advance, get nice stuff like pork pies or whatever from a farm shop, nice crusty bread for Christmas Eve.

I wonder whether if you had all other meals taken care of you might actually enjoy some element of ritual for Christmas lunch itself. Not necessarily the whole shebang, but sitting down to something hot, and something you wouldn't have too often, might be a nice central point to the day. I don't know whether it might feel a touch empty otherwise. Something like the beef bourguignon would be easy to reheat, and forgiving, but maybe still a bit of a celebration? But that's just my musings, I'm not trying to tell you how to do Christmas!

Other things would be stuff like making sure the bin is empty in advance so it doesn't need to be taken out during the day, being on top of loo roll and all that boring stuff. Depending on what you're doing about presents have a box in the corner for wrapping paper to go in so it can be left and recycled later on.

We're not bothering with trad lunch here. We're having hot turkey rolls [a bit like a hog roast] Bread basket full of buttered rolls, bowl of stuffing, bowl of pigs in blankets and hot carved turkey crown. Serve yourself. Job done. Gorgeous cheese board and homemade sausage rolls for supper. I will care not one bit about healthy eating just for a couple of days. It's been a shit year and we intend to kick back and have a great family Christmas without all the usual ceremony and nonsense.

Hmm. I do wonder about needing a hot meal. It could be a bit stodgy food and a nice couple of days rather than celebration days if I pare it down too much.

I'm a reasonably good cook but tend to go way overboard on special ocassions. Its appreciated by the family but this year with it just being us and so different to normal years I thought why not down tools.

I usually do platters of canapes, multicourse lunch, buffet/ evening spread. Chistmas Eve is my posh meal usually I have a sort of theme.

I do a lot of homemade goods - which would work fine for the buffet bit of the day as all done in advance. But as suggested there are lots of premade goodies around worth investigating too.

A one pot type meal could work well. Bourginion always makes me laugh. The first time my mum cooked it when we were children trying to impress, she called it boo gin oi knee That was going on fourty years ago and the names always stuck. I guess I could do a sort of Christmas flavoured one pot dish a chicken, bacon, sausages and carrots in a red wine and cranberry gravy with herby dumplings.

List of in advance chores like emptying the bin is also well worth doing. Thats the sort of eleventh hour thing I find myself doing and then rather than looking preened and graceful I look slightly harassed, flushed and not quite prepared when people arrive. Its quite nice not to be having people arrive.

Cheese board. Yes. Thats an absolute must. I usually buy some but we're all too full to enjoy it and it gets used up over New Years. This year its going to be eaten.

I absolutely don't think you need platters of canapes and multicourse meals. One delicious home made meal plus lots of easy to grab and eat delicious other things would work well for me.

At my mums we usually have
-Buffet Christmas Eve (nothing homemade just m and s and Costco stuff)
-Proper christmas dinner with all the trimmings, with as much prepped in advance as possible
-Fend for yourself/cheese and crackers for a later meal/snack on Christmas night
-Boxing day lunch- all the leftovers of Christmas dinner with just potatoes and gravy made fresh (and sometimes an extra veg if there’s not enough leftover)

So there’s cooking involved but not on your multi course level, then obviously everyone else cleans up.

We usually spend christmas just the four of us and its lovely and chilled. We usually do similar to you @riotlady except we usually have a nice long walk out in the lakes christmas eve and meal out or takeaway then the rest is the same as you its quite chilled and works quite well. Ours is a laid back christmas plenty of telly, board games, walks in the countryside, phone calls and face time calls to family, lazying around etc.

Interesting thread. I am also really looking forward to not having guests this year and want the days to be as relaxing and enjoyable as possible without loads of time devoted to prepping. I also usually look harassed and flushed when hosting tbh so looking forward to being less stressed this time around.

I do think one hot element in a main meal is nice, especially if the weather is cold and miserable. So you could opt to cook a small turkey and/or gammon ham in advance and then combine cold cuts with tray bakes of stuffing prepared in advance and frozen. Maybe serve with big green winter salads of chicory and watercress. Or trays of pre-piped home made mash and home made gravy. I'm certainly planning to do all the extra dishes of the traditional Christmas dinner in advance this year, so the day itself is very leisurely.

Then you could have a spread of ham, chutney, cold stuffing, maybe a cheese platter and salad the next day? With a home made seasonal soup prepped and frozen in advance to start, like chestnut and cauliflower, spiced parsnip and butternut squash soup or a good beef broth?

Equally, as you say, big casserole dishes like beef carbonnade slowly reheated in the oven would work well.

Nigella's Christmas book is really good and full of ideas for dishes that feed a crowd that don't require lots of stressful prep.

Alternatively, Diana Henry 'From Oven to Table' has lots of ideas for simple tasty dishes that look after themselves. Not cooking in advance exactly but very time efficient.

I usually have a pretty light level of chores over Christmas Eve - Boxing Day. I don't think I'd enjoy it if I had to do much, tbh.

Christmas Eve we have shop-bought soup that just needs heating in microwave with crusty bread and cheese and a shop-bought dessert. So very little preparing/cleaning up needs doing. Christmas day we eat pastries for breakfast so again little prep/cleaning up. On CE afternoon I will have peeled the potatoes and par-boiled as well as peeling carrots and parsnips. I don't make a starter - we just have some nibbles out before lunch. All I have to do is put the chicken/nut roast (made in advance) in the oven along with potatoes and parsnips. I will have shop-bought cauliflower cheese and red cabbage, pre-prepped brussel sprouts and frozen peas. I use a stuffing mix and pre-prepped pigs in blankets. So very easy to prepare and not a lot of washing up to be done. My DP and DC will do all the clean up afterwards, anyway! We have a break before pudding and coffee which (you've guessed it!) is shop-bought pudding. In the evening we have Christmas cake and mince pies. Once the DC are in bed on Christmas day I will do a clean up of the living room. Tidy toys/games, clean any wrapping paper still around, clean and tidy coffee table, sweep floor etc.

Then Boxing day we will have a buffet of cheese and crackers, sausage rolls, crisps, salad, stollen, lebkuchen and more Christmas cake. So again little work required and just a short clean up of living room at the end of the day. Obviously you may prefer to make more of the food yourself but this can be done in advance. Hope you have a relaxing Christmas!

I'm planning on doing all my veg prep, pigs in blankets etc the day before so all I have to do Christmas Day is shove it in the oven. Boxing Day will then be a huge cheese board and leftovers - planning on doing as little as possible this year!

Christmas Eve will be a homemade curry or lasagne which I will pop in the freezer and get out to cook

I take the continuous improvement philosophy to an extreme. Each year I've added a bit to the previous. Reading about all the lovely Christmas' here I think a forced routine change Christmas is needed. My over prep and trying to outdo previous years is a bit OTT.

I need to think breakfast too but maybe croissants and pain o chocolat could work. But I'm thinking if i do hot Christmas main, tea could just be prelaid out cheese and meat boards with a few mince pies/ christmas cakes/ stollen type things.

I think the key is to have a fuss free sit down bit. Really good chowder and excellent bread is luxurious and can be bought in. Same with lasagne and salad.

Do you have a decent deli nearby?

I think it depends to a degree on the respective ages of the members of your immediate family tbh. Young DC and the elderly need smaller regular meals. We're adults and older teens so can get away with one main meal a day with a hot element and an easier cold collation for the other smaller meal and breakfast is "help yourself" except on Christmas day and Boxing Day when it's more formal/special.

For the rest of the holidays, the joy of teens is that you can just have lots of dishes in the fridge and freezer, things like home made lasagne and tropical fruit salad, and they will serve themselves. I usually stick a note on the fridge saying what is "available" for self service in normal times when everyone is in and out but that won't be needed so much this year.

This year is a perfect opportunity to change things around a bit in fact. Why do you put so much pressure on yourself to improve (in ordinary circumstances) do you think op? (I mean this kindly as I have a tendency to do the same myself.) I usually get very stressed when guests come and they say they would prefer it if I had fewer dishes on the table and could be more "present" with them and not so stressed. Same with DC. On the other hand those same people have fairly high expectations about lovely fresh bed linen, clean bathrooms, lovely decorations, and the quality and quantity of food that is going to be available!

We are looking at how to change things up a bit this year too.

We usually eat out with another family on Christmas Eve and hop to be able to do so this year.

Christmas Day it will be the five of us, we are thinking bacon sandwiches in the morning then a long walk on the costal path. Home and dressed up a bit for a traditional roast but more a la M&S than my usual homemade fanfare. Dessert ordered from local deli. Supper is mince pies, sweets and access to the toaster for anyone wanting more .

Boxing Day is leftover toasted sandwiches, crisps, cheeseboard etc.

House foully cleaned on 23rd. Hoover ran over 24th/26th in hallway and family room, bleach down toilets and sinks wiped. Other than that dishwasher on and bins emptied!

We do the prep together as a family on the afternoon of 24th, it’s part of our annual slowdown. DH and I peel and chop ptatoes and veg, make stuffing etc with radio or music going and chatting. Dd makes cookies and then either helps us or wanders off phone in hand to play Xbox (teen!).

We like a traditional roast turkey on 25th, but we rarely have full roasts these days (teen hates them but Christmas is ok as long as there is mashed potatoes as well). There’s very little to do on 25th except put things in and out of oven at intervals, while drinking wine and eatingM&S party food (our starter while we open presents as turkey cooks) or crisps (if turkey takes longer than expected).

Boxing Day is busier - a nice walk early on but then we have an open house afternoon for neighbours and family. But that is simple too - take out glasses from cupboard, full with mulled wine, hand around M&S party food from oven, sit by fire and chat. Load dishwasher at the end.