Christmas Food Shopping - where/when/what

[LadyMacbethWasMisunderstood]

I’m mostly just being nosy as I like Christmas and I like entertaining/cooking but I’m also interested to see if there are any suggestions or tips for what to buy/what’s good.

We have the main shop from Tesco being delivered on 23rd. That has all the usual groceries plus champagne, beer, a large gammon and pickles and salad for Boxing Day buffet, ingredients for a trifle and their fantastic mozzarella and pesto croissants for Christmas Day breakfast (just need warming in their packets) and their chocolate Yule log.

I also have a smaller shop coming from Waitrose on 22nd with a panettone, mince meat, cheeses, vegetarian “turkey roast”, white wine and fresh fruit.

My father is buying the turkey from a farmer. And he will get sausage meat and chipolatas from a local indoor market.

DH will go to Lidl to get all the veg, probably on 21st. Plus smoked salmon. If there is veg he can’t get there will be time to add it to the Tesco order.

I have made a cake and a pudding and will make mince pies.

I will probably be tempted by a few things in M and S food hall too. Any suggestions?

No one? Fair enough. I was just hoping for a bit of talk about what we buy and when.

I get ridiculously excited about this and have started my Xmas food box this weekend.

I have bought a gingerbread Xmas tree from M&S to get my nearly adult child to make in December - it's a big box.

I have also added some posh crackers (for cheese) and a chutney from a local company.

Next shop delivery will include posh chips and chocs.

Now all I need to do is keep my family away from the stuff and not let them promise me that they 'will replace it' 😁

I've also made a cake and a pudding. My least favourite job of the whole festive season is decorating the cake but I love making it.

I've got some Buck's Fizz and shortbread from M&S already and I've got an Ocado shop coming mid December so I might add some snacks/party food to that. I like the tapas style selection especially the chicken and chorizo empanadas.

My butcher's order will be collected on 23/12 and I've got a supermarket click and collect booked for 22/12. I may cancel this and do it in person - it depends how much I make ahead and freeze in the next couple of weeks. If it's only a case of buying a bit of salad and some citrus fruit then I'll go into the shop myself.

I'm a full time working single mum, so I do little bits throughout November and December, to spread out the cost.

The duck, smoked salmon, chipolatas and ginger ice cream are already in the freezer. Mincemeat, chocolate, biscuits, crackers, nuts are stashed away. Wine in the fridge. I cook from scratch so things like flour, herbs, spices are already in the cupboard.

I do a lot of the cooking in advance - cakes, bread, savouries, gravy, sauces etc, and freeze it all. Christmas pudding is already made.

Then I go to Tesco at 7am on the 23rd and do a huge greengrocery & dairy shop. Then I can relax, and cook in peace. I love it. 🤗

Oh thank you all for responding.

i shall have to look out for the M and S gingerbread house.

@MintJulia any recipes you would like to share? I am always up for new ideas. I really like to cook.

I'm in Ireland, so the shops are a bit different.

I've bought and frozen the smoked salmon, the ham, turkey breasts, and a fillet of beef (we're having Beef Wellington on the day, cold turkey salad on St Stephen's Day - Kerrigan's butchers had the fillet on special offer a little while ago). I'm putting together a Tesco click 'n collect for the 22nd, with all the veg, nuts, cream, ice cream, biscuits for cheese, paté etc. I'll order the Christmas wine online (O'Briens) in a couple of weeks, and DH will pick up the spirits and beer locally (Supervalu) on Christmas Eve.

There are two tubs of chocolates in the 'Christmas cupboard'.

I've made the cake, we don't like Christmas pud - and I'll probably make some gingerbread closer to the time. I still have homemade mincemeat from last year (St Delia's recipe) so will make some mince pies with that. I'll make soda bread on Christmas morning to go with our smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

I've still got to order the cheese and charcuterie from Sheridan's Cheesemongers, and I'm trying to resist getting some luxury fishy items from Gannet Fishmongers.

I've made and frozen the red cabbage (another Delia recipe), and have a few jars of various homemade pickles to go with the salad.

Think that's about it!

Sorry OP, This year I'm cooking duck in a port and orange gravy. New to me so no idea whether to recommend it.

I make little cheese and black olive scones each year and freeze them in batches. They are good for visitors, only 4 mins in an oven from frozen. I'm trying a new recipe for nibbles, little pastry cases filled with chopped buttered mushrooms with thyme, each topped with a quails egg.

And I'll make a yule log (ds' favourite) so I'll be faffing with damp tea towels and rolling/filling chocolate sponge. 🙂

We love a Christmas Eve M&S shop. It sounds mental as it's always so busy but it adds to the buzz of it all!

I’ve done it differently on different years. When my DC were little, I got an Ocado delivery on the 23rd and if there was anything missing (usually not) I’d dash out for it on Christmas Eve.

The last 5 years or so I’ve done the food shop myself at the crack of dawn on the 23rd and it’s been weirdly quite fun .
The pandemic years maybe less so .

One year me & DH held our nerve and did our main shop on Christmas Eve morning at M&S and got absolutely everything we needed. Stressful, though!

Not cooking this year, or entertaining at all, so little stress. I’ll pick up some goodies on the 23rd.

Cheese and black olive scones @MintJulia sound wonderful.

yes yes@Inextremis I also do Delia’s red cabbage.

@SecreHallmarkXmasAddict do you miss cooking the dinner? I’m not sure if I would or not! Lots of emotional things I’m hanging onto. Maybe a clean sweep and doing something else entirely would be good. But that’s for another year.

I am hosting this year for 9 of us. Slightly worried about it as doing it on my own. I have started buying bits each week with my shop so then on the 23rd my shop will be the turkey and other fresh bits.

We get a meat pack from the butcher that contains all the meat items we need for Christmas Dinner.
I need to order my vegetable box from the local farm shop and will perhaps order my cheeses from there too and then I will collect on the 23rd.
Will start buying the cupboard things in the next few weeks and then all I will need is to decide what to make for dessert and buy ingredients for that.

I've ordered my turkey and trimmings from Sainsbury's this year for collection on Christmas eve. I usually go for M&S but didn't see the value this year, as they didn't have the whole bird with stuffing, bacon etc already done.

Wine will be from whichever supermarket has the 25% off when I get paid. Fizz from M&S (I really like the rose English sparkling wine they have - Balfour's I think).

I'll get everything else from Morrisons and Sainsbury's on 23rd. Plus I'll probably swing by M&S after collecting the turkey to see if there's any nice extras that would go to waste!

I've also bought the M&S gingerbread tree already - wondering how long I can hide it from the kids!

M&S do a fantastic pofitarole piramid which makes a lovely desert. My DS's favourite. A selection of cheeses and crackers?

I've ordered a cupcake bouquet.

Hand made to order. A very good price.

This will be the first year that we celebrating Christmas with family (we used to live in London with no family around and working in retail), so I should have probably started shopping already 😅
We will celebrate Christmas Eve at my parents, tradicional Portuguese way but Christmas Day will be at my place. I used to do Christmas shop at Sainsbury’s but it’s far from me now so will be getting bits from Aldi and Asda which are closer and turkey my partner wants from M&S. I’m Portuguese so we are all about Christmas homemade desserts, so I’ll be busy the days before Christmas!!

I used to love doing the food shop weirdly , I couldn't understand people who dreaded it. Now at 40 I do . The shops are more packed than ever before !! So I've got a Tesco slot for the 21st! Only booked it today so all that was left . I'll get all the bulky things ordered there, wines , potatoes , veg etc , all the main things. I'll then pop into Aldi / Lidl etc to pick up some treats and other things I prob don't need but I always seem to have the fridge heading with food ! We don't go out much over the Xmas , a couple of friend gatherings but we live in the countryside so don't get much visitors off chance . I'll have plenty of baileys if anyone does feel like calling