What would you do again?

[Justpoppingontosay]

I've seen (and enjoyed) a couple of threads asking what people would do differently next year and it made me wonder... What would you definitely do again next year? I'm thinking about places to visit, foods you've eaten, traditions, rituals etc. Basically anything that was a hit this year that you'd like to repeat!

One big present and a handful of smaller presents for the teens rather than piles of tat they don't need!

Buy less pate - I'm going to be eating it for weeks!

Christmas and Boxing Day desserts - we bought a frozen patisserie selection with 8 individual gateaux slices and tarts and all picked one each day. So much more variety than buying one or two big desserts and they were really tasty.

Getting my wrapping done early rather than leaving it all until Christmas Eve like previous years.

@OnTheRunWithMannyMontana that dessert selection sounds fabulous, where did you get it from please?

For the first time, partky through choice and partly last minute illnesses, we didn't either host or go somewhere every day, we alternated full on family days with chilled days at home and i think the childeen really enjoyed this and have been less overwhelmed. Will definitely build this into our planning for next year. Still didn't cram in a Christmas day walk which i would love to do.

Dropping some of the "trimmings" - did anyone notice the lack of red cabbage, parsnips, cauliflower cheese or Yorkshire puddings? Nope.

(Hell, they didn't even notice the lack of roast potatoes when I cocked them up one year!)

Keeping it simple made for stress-free cooking.

This year's presents for the girls were mainly practical & were very well received (there were some surprises too!). Everything has a place to live already (apart from one thing currently living on dd1's floor but hopefully sort that today & if not I have a plan to sort it) & nothing has been left untouched.

Wrapping earlier - I blocked out a few afternoons in my diary to do most of it, and wrapped the last few as they arrived, while the girls were still in bed, last week. So nice not to be surrounded by wrapping paper & tape on Christmas eve.

Not relevant to most but dd2's birthday (yesterday) presents were all wrapped & decorations put with them too.

Prepare as much as possible on Christmas Eve, food wise. Made my life easier when the promised help vanished to set up their new phones 🙄

Make sure visitors are early - Nanna and Grandad usually come right when I want to cook & she tends to comment her way through until I'm ready to serve...not this year! Much more pleasant for me. My dad opted to visit on Boxing Day, which also suits me better than his usual Christmas Eve while we're prepping food or ready to chill!

I think everything else was about right for us 🎅

Finally picked up the courage to put together my own mincemeat mixture early in November. Years ago another mum had explained how she cooked fresh quince and combined it with jarred commercial mincemeat and the then sealed it all up so that it could mature in the fridge. No need to make it all from scratch.
Turns out it was very easy to do and kept beautifully (I had been worried about it going bad with the long storage). I used a Delia recipe for the shortcrust.
This was the first year I could convince my non-English husband and my DD to eat mince pies (plural) with me.
Nothing gets me in the seasonal mood quite like a cup of tea and a warm mince pie (and sometimes a touch of clotted cream) and being able to share this pleasure has been delightful.

Making chutneys in October (the Nigel Slater green and red tomato chutney recipe is excellent) and sauerkraut in late November is also worthwhile. Toasted sandwiches made with leftovers and sauerkraut are divine! Getting these done in the Autumn has made “cooking” easier and more straightforward this week. Less to do but still feels indulgent.

My DD’s own tradition that she has been keeping up year after year (she’s 13 now) is to spend Boxing Day… in a box.
Challenge now is finding a big enough box. Just about managed it this year.
May have to tape a few together and make a bespoke box in 2023.

@JJJSchmidt it was this one from iceland, 10 in the box actually not 8! And a really good quality selection for the price.

www.iceland.co.uk/p/10-patisserie-selection-800g/77533.html

@GreenAndSpringy could you keep an ear to the ground for anyone replacing a fridge freezer or see if anyone you work with knows someone who works at the likes of Currys? One of my colleagues acquired us two refrigerator boxes to make a fireplace at work & the offucts are still in use as hiding places (breakfast club).

A game changed for us this year was part pre cooking of veg. Par boiled / steamed potatoes , parsnips and carrots . Tossed in oil and out in oven to part roast. Once cooled put in fridge overnight. Finished off in oven next day in half the time .

@lucysmam Good idea!
And DH keeps a storage unit for his business so we’d have somewhere to keep it.

first thing is making sure I put the decorations away neatly eg wrapping the lights so they don’t tangle)

i have bought the dcs Christmas jumpers in the sale for a fiver and like last year will the shopping early (with little bits and pieces )

didn’t buy a Christmas cake or pudding as it’s never tackled for a few weeks

have Christmas in our own house but visit both sets of parents / grandparents

I always do the veg the day before and make the stuffing and roasties and store in the fridge on tin foil trays so less washing up

Had our Christmas celebration on Boxing Box just the 5 of us. The adult kids had a lie in. We went on a family walk in the woods with Ddog. No sit down meal had a running buffet of nice snacks all day and played games.

No outside drama from other relatives, just relaxed it was lovely.

This year I invited my parents for Christmas and ended up hosting both sides out of “fairness”. They both stayed over. So, I’ve been prepping, cleaning, shopping, washing and ironing since about 19th Dec, up until last night. Yesterday I spent all day washing and clearing up after them. Today I return to my FT job.

Everyone got lovely thoughtful gifts, except me. I know that sounds childish, but last night I felt deflated and upset. My Christmas went by in a flash, catering for everyone else.

I didn’t volunteer for the above, in fact I put my foot down and said I wasn’t doing it in Nov, but it ended up this way again.

The main thing for me is the lack of thought, when I am the one shouldering all the work.

Next year I am adamant I am not hosting. Also, I am buying extended family less as they put no thought into anything for me. I even got told “oh, you buy lovely presents, ours are nothing like that”. Well, why not put some effort in??????

One family relative got presents from us, then we went out for a walk in town, they saw some things they liked in the sales, and got upset so I ended up buying for them for their upcoming birthday.

I know a lot of it is me. I’m too f#cking nice. I am writing myself a letter to open next Christmas, reminding myself what I’m not doing.

Our meal out with a group of friends and their kids on Xmas eve. There were 25 of us and we had it at the upstairs of a local restaurant so kids could be noisy! We walked, ate and drank, then walked up to the first mass of Christmas at the church and all walked home together to have our own family Xmas eves.

Preparing loads in advance.

Having the majority of stuff done before the kids broke up so I could enjoy it too.

Not booking too much stuff in.

Having all six kids here on Boxing Day for a buffet, games and catch up. It's rare we are all in the same place at one time

We did a small stocking each but with good quality items (eg I had a pair of walking socks rather which are £20+, rather than generic Christmas socks) then a couple of larger presents instead of the usual heap.

Worked better as we are trying to cut down on tat and the items we had are truly useful / wanted.

No visiting or visitors!!! I'm heavily pregnant so that was my get out of jail free card this year but I'll be carrying it on next year and for the foreseeable. Much nicer and less stressful to be at home, just our nuclear family in jammies for the day rather than blue arse flying it around visiting or having people to stay.