Best Christmas Tips - all in one place

[Kirst26]

I thought we could have a tips thread where we could share tips relating to Christmas budget, planning, food, household things etc all in one place that help remove stress and hassle!

Mine would be:

• Parboil the potatoes a day or 2 before Christmas and then keep them uncovered in the fridge, they develop a starchy crust that roasts up beautifully
• Stock up on bin bags, toilet roll, ibuprofen, ketchup etc before December, its an expensive enough month without having to get too many basics in as well
• Sign up for newsletters for places like Clinton Cards and you usually get 10% off your first order
• Start buying things like peanuts etc before the Christmas stuff hits the shops, it'll be cheaper if they aren't in Christmas packaging
• If you start buying non-perishable food early make sure to have a list where it can easily be ticked off so you don't end up duplicating things
• Plan the Christmas dinner out as soon as you know the weight of your turkey with resting time factored in - you'll soon notice if that would mean getting up at 4am and would be able to move eating time to later on in the day with no fuss. I have a full timetable typed up that I just amend the time I need to start putting things in depending on the turkey size - keeps me calm :)
• Check how long the meat will need to defrost as it always takes way longer than I think it will
• if gifting choccies etc, best tell the recipient not to keep it next to the fire/radiator

If anyone has any other top tips please share them here!

My top tip really is to plan early - my OH complains

Easy to complain when all you do buy a present for one person - and that person does absolutely everything else that goes into making Christmas happen.....
Well maybe a bit more but they really don't get it do they?!

I used to leave everything to late November /December because it seemed wrong to start any earlier, but alongside working full time it was quite stressful. Then realising I would just have given birth by Christmas one year, I started in September and it was a revelation.

In our house Santa doesn’t wrap presents but leaves each persons’ gifts on their own seat/sofa. Also make sure the toys have got batteries, charge etc so they can be played with when cooking dinner. Used to spend hours cutting wires of barbies but DD found it so magical she’d just fall into her hands from the box it made it worth it.

I buy Christmas magazines every year, and I keep them so that at Christmas I have ‘new’ magazines to read, (never remember what was in them of course!) I plan to do a couple of Christmas related events during November/December, like a meal or drinks evening, crafts evening like wreath making, or going to a Christmas market. Wrap presents early December. Christmas tree goes up at the end of November so I have more time to enjoy it (it goes down before new year so it’s nice and fresh for the new year). Always get a couple of emergency gifts (nice bottle of wine or posh chocolates for about £7-10) as there’s always someone that you forget.

Have somewhere in your handbag or at home, wherever's best, to put all your receipts in. My sister has an envelope glued into the back of her diary. This is handy for exchanging things if you see something more suitable, swapping something for a different size or replacing something faulty/broken. It can also help you keep track of how much you've spent and perhaps help you budget better next year.

Ooh I love all the Christmas mags too Twilight!

Tell all your family you are going abroad for the holiday and wont be able to communicate, host, visit or afford any gifts or cards. Batten down the hatches, block all calls and out on an out of office reply.

@memberofthewedding

Tell all your family you are going abroad for the holiday and wont be able to communicate, host, visit or afford any gifts or cards. Batten down the hatches, block all calls and out on an out of office reply.

Do you think that would work for the rest of the year too?

I also try to never pay full price for anything - the food on my list I keep an eye on and buy on offer, I just snapped up 3 tubes of Pringles today as they were half price. They will be hidden from my other half....

Tell everyone now that you are only buying for DC from now on. We do a family secret Santa instead.

We do the individual wrapping paper thing. I like wrapping it the weekend before Christmas with Bailey's.

I save boxes and wraps them beautifully under the tree. There is feck all in them but they look lovely. One of my closest friends and I buy each other a present and buy a lovely gift box. I have a collection I use every year.

Oh does a different cocktail every boxing day. We have an open house. Turkey, ham, pibs sandwiches, I have mine with mango chutney and mayo. Leftover desserts, usually individual trifle, macarons etc. Celebrations, Heroes and nuts. Crap films, perfect.

Wrap the turkey in an old bathsheet towel. It will keep hot for hours. Rest it for at least half the time you cook it for.

I make Christmas dinner pie on Shrove Tuesday. Turkey, ham, pigs in blankets, stuffing, leeks and white sauce. I buy pastry, shortcrust on the bottom, puff pastry in the top. It's has become a real tradition here and I love it.

When I worked out of the home I used to buy wrapping paper that I kept in the office and was ONLY for the Dcs christmas presents from Santa. No risk then of using the same paper for something else / other gifts and the Dcs twigging.

Don't try and cook anything else till the turkey is done. Put it in a tinfoil tent, cover with dishcloths, oven gloves or whatever insulating fabric you have handy, and it'll sit happily for two hours, giving you loads of oven space to get everything else cooked.

Yeah great tip Utterly, also prepare as much as you can in advance so some things are just being reheated.

I have never wet brined a turkey but I have dry brined before - it was a tip i read in a Good Food magazine a few years ago and it works a treat. I use just plain salt but you can use herbs, spices etc as well. Basically 24 hours before you roast the turkey you rub it generously all over with the salt rub before covering and refrigerating as normal. When you come to roast it, I just wipe it down with some paper towels, dont rinse it but dont add any more salt to it. I just then butter the skin and roast as normal. It does some kind of chemical reaction by pulling all the juices to the skin, reacting with the salt and then seeping back down. The meat is deeply flavoured (but not salty) and doesnt go dry. I always do it with chicken too if I buy it far enough in advance.

I know a few people have mentioned stocking up in the weekly shop - very useful to do. I also do this, but on weeks where I don't see what I wanted, I buy extra supermarket savings stamps instead. With the idea that come the "big" shopping weeks for perishables etc, and when all the BOGOFs and 50% extra free deals are on for "Christmas season staples" (eg. Hellman's Mayo, Uncle Ben's sauces for leftover turkey curry, ....) - that are things I would use anyway into the spring, I don't blow the budget stocking up on those also because I have my stamps. (And the supermarket I save for has a card that you fill €98 but they add the final stamp to €100, so a bonus €2 extra if you fill it).

I try and have a range of meals in the freezer for the busy weeks of December - when we are racing in from work and back out to school events etc. And I try to keep them in either 1 person portions or decently large family sizes. So I use plastic takeaway tubs for sauces (can write the contents/date in sharpie on lid and it easily washes off again). And I have a few pyrex glass dishes for lasagnas etc. The Pyrex dishes can be reused by emptying the contents once frozen and wrapping in cling film/tin foil and labelling, and just unwrapping to pop back into a clean pyrex to defrost and cook - so I don't need loads spare. And the 1 person portions mean that it's easy to multiply a meal if more people are home for dinner, or we get visitors, by just taking out however many more we need. And 1 person portions defrost quicker (especially useful if you've forgotten to take out of the freezer the night before...).

I have to send a lot of cards, and quite a few abroad. In normal times, I tend to have a lot of travel, so I bring a pack or 2 with me to write on the plane (within EU so not long enough for a movie and I give enough time to work on those trips so don't want to work on the flight). And if not, I try and do a batch of 10 each week for a few weeks, which only takes a few minutes each - so reduces the panic when final posting dates loom (especially for far flung places).

I also keep a box (small shoebox cunningly disguised by both box and lid being separately wrapped in christmas paper) under the tree - with emergency tools - a roll of tape, a few cable ties, spare bulbs for lights, screwdriver, small swiss army knife, 2 bin bags folded neatly etc - useful for if something needs fixing quickly, but also when opening presents, putting away paper, cutting zip ties or opening tricky packaging, putting together something etc.

For a nice breakfast on Christmas morning, I put a pack of M&S pastries in the freezer in advance, to bake when we wake. (I sometimes remember to set the oven to heat up on the timer in advance, but not always).

DD has always made cookies on 24th for Santa's snack. We use the same recipe every year and we always make at least 1 batch earlier in December (they are nice to eat generally). I freeze half of the earlier batch. So on 24th, while we are all working together on peeling veg and making stuffing etc, preparing for next day, DD will make the cookies from scratch if we have the time/energy to do that. But if things go pear-shaped for any reason (run out of a vital ingredient, too busy, people calling so we need to stop early, DD having a meltdown for any reason (ADHD/ASD), there can be 101 reasons why things go pear-shaped....), we have a half batch that we can just slice and bake straight from the freezer, and still have the correct snack.

I know not everyone likes them, but we do a Christmas Eve Hamper after dinner, to start to signal downtime and bedtime (important as routines are very important in our house, and sleep!). Youngest lights the Christmas Candle and we have a family prayer. Then the hamper emerges, including DD's stocking, her plastic plate and glass from toddlerhood, her snowman covered HWB, new winter PJs for everyone, hot choc for everyone (and a Christmas craft beer for DH), festive bath bombs for DD and I, and the family copy of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". DD lays out the snack for Santa and her stocking, and then goes up for a warm relaxing bath and gets into new PJs. She comes down to check the Santa tracker, enjoy her hot choc snuggled up on the couch, then goes up to bed with her HWB for the annual bedtime story and a good sleep. Which means it is a gentle unwinding and she is relaxed going to bed, so likely to sleep.

Sorry, I meant to add that the only part of the CEH that we wouldn't necessarily do/use anyway is a festive bath bomb - but we do have an occasional one for a treat. Most items are used every year (and some are used all winter long, like HWB, or all over Christmas season like the plate/glass), and the consumable ones are ones we would get anyway. But putting them all together in the box makes it work better in our case at least.

I also agree with using a spreadsheet (mine is rolled over in January each year, and is 20 years old this year (although there is a 1 year gap the year I was doing a Masters...oops). So useful to look back and see when did I last give DM her favourite perfume, or DF golf balls, so is it safe to repeat those again or not...as well as keep track of ideas, purchases and spending.

Tape dispenser for wrapping is something else I wholeheartedly agree with. I tend to wrap 1 night that DH is on a work night out, so it's quiet in the kitchen.
And once I wrap, I put the presents into large bags - 1 for each household/group I am giving to - ILs, my immediate family, our various extended family household groups, neighbours, school etc. Some of these can go under the tree once that's up, but some will stay in bags to be delivered at various points - but it means all presents for 1 household/group are all gathered together.

Any crafts I am making, I want to be finished before 1st December. I also want cards finished and stacked for posting dates (far flung (if not already posted), EU, UK, Ireland, local area) by then. Most of the non perishables shopping done and my online shopping slots booked for each week in December to avoid the shops as much as possible in the madness but still feed the family. House relatively deep cleaned (I do 1 room a week from back to school to end November), so I only need to keep on top of bathrooms, hoovering and bins etc.

So then I can enjoy the social events and gatherings with friends/family, while dealing with year end madness at work and organising the year end for my Cub pack (we operate to the calendar year as a Sea Scout Group), without everything descending into utter chaos. And still having the energy to enjoy the season. (Extra vitamins and lots of fresh fruit/veg also helps!).

Also, make sure you have checked your first aid and medicines supplies, chucking anything out of date and replacing as needed. I also check my smoke and CO (Carbon monoxide) alarms, and get the chimney cleaned as part of my autumn cleaning list.

Book hairdresser and beautician appointments early, to get the times you want. Especially if you do anything different for Christmas (I sometimes get red streaks put in for fun! ).

Fabulous tips Biddy thank you!

From Halloween onwards we use up food and leftovers from the freezer to make space in the freezer for Christmas food.

Don’t drink too much while doing your Christmas wrapping. Two years ago DP and my dad opened each other’s presents. Luckily I hadn’t chosen anything rude

@BiddyPop, every year I read your contributions to Christmas threads and think that I want to be you when I grow up. You are my Christmas inspiration

Car boots are good to store drinks if it's cold to save fridge space, although I can't be on with having to go out front to get a drink so I often store them in a bucket filled with cold water by the back door.

Yes, we have a big plastic trug that we use for drinks. In summer we fill it with ice, in winter it doesn't need it! It's so handy.

We do the full big Christmas Day here and regularly have 20+ people for dinner. My main tip is to own it and enjoy it - visitors won’t care or appreciate perfect gravy and decorations if the whole time the hostess looks like she’ll kill someone or die of stress.

Don’t do lunch early - consider doing it around 5pm at children’s tea. People prefer not to feel harried to get to the meal and it means people can stay in pjs for longer.

Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs at noon is a very acceptable and quick meal if you are doing the above late lunch.

Don’t think of Christmas as one day. Plan to ditch the drudgery as far as possible from 22nd to 27th at least. Make/plan/freeze family meals for the week ahead and after so you can enjoy the time. Get as much cleaning and sorting done well ahead of time as possible.

Ask visitors to bring an element of the meal (cheese, cooked veg, whatever). IME people love doing this and you can tailor it. So the easy things like cheese crackers can be requested from students driving some distance, while the red cabbage might come from someone coming locally who loves to cook etc.

Give thought to using paper plates and napkins for meals in the run up to Christmas or afterwards. I like using proper china on the day but through the festive period we use paper plates a lot and compost them after use.

Clean and clear your fridge. Pickles, ketchup etc will be fine left out of the fridge for a few days. Try to get this done by 20th or if you’re like me it’ll get overtaken by more urgent tasks and just won’t happen.

Get into a really good audiobook and wrap your presents while listening. Yes, yes to the tape dispenser. And wrapped presents are so much nicer than bags.

Don’t badger people to find out what they want. If you ask and they don’t reply, buy chocolates/wine/candles. Most people aren’t hanging on for a nice gift from you and they’d rather you didn’t stress.

For me;

• 2 stockings for each child. Easy to swap the empty one for the full one.
• wrap stocking gifts in tissue paper
• children only need one Santa visit per year
• write your list for your children and dribble out 25% off it
• You don’t need to have Christmas dinner on Christmas! Last years Christmas was much more chilled and I spent more time with the children
• young kids new PJs and new book at bed time on Christmas Eve. I might add a bath bomb this year

For young kids have a late night film night. Have dinner and bath early, watch ceebies panto with popcorn and put them to bed 30 mins later and they think it’s the best thing ever.

It’s not very green but if I’m tempted to get extra crisps and snacks in, choose ones that individually wrapped. Same with drink cans or cartons. Then if you don’t use them they can be used up for packed lunches. If you have cheese leftover, grate it all, if suitable, and freeze it to use for cooking.
My family are moving on to gift bags and using them many times. No wrapping at all.
Bake from scratch if you can. Cheaper, nicer, and you can freeze in advance. I remember serving my family homemade scones with jam and cream before a carol service when dinner would be late. Very simple to do.
But above all, do what’s easiest for you, don’t feel guilty about anything.

Another one I remembered : plan your outfits - and ask everyone else in the house to do theirs. Yeah they will moan but if you have everything separated and washed/ironed/ready for Christmas Eve-Boxing Day you can avoid laundry for the key Christmas period and have ironing board/laundry basket tucked away.