Planning ahead for Christmas

[rhubarbhandsoap]

I love this Christmas board!

Fellow Christmas lovers - this is my first year of super-early organisation and I am loving it!

Please share, other than gift buying, what else do you do / buy / plan / organise ahead, and when do you do it?

Hi 👋 I’ve never done one before but it’s basically just a Christmas themed breakfast.
im going to get some Christmas plates and cups, will have their advent calendars out on the table, pastries, fruit and juices.
i reallly like the idea of the melting Santa fondue 😂You could chop up croissants and fruit to dip in. Again, I wouldn’t normally do it but it might be quite nice this year because the 1st is a Sunday 😊

@BiddyPop thanks so much for the wise words - so appreciated!! If I’m not careful I could fill all the extra time I’m creating by organising Christmas early with cleaning / household stuff instead of the intended relaxing and festive stuff!

And thanks so much for the limoncello recipe!! Amazing! I’ve bought two Kilner bottles and can’t wait to do it!! 🥳🎄🎉🙌

@70isaLimitNotaTarget I Love the idea of a Christmas jotter I wish I had done that.

Oooo I love this thread!
Planning wise:

• I have a christmas note book and during/just after christmas I write down things that did/didn't go well and any ideas i have for the next year, or just generally add notes of any thing i see or think of during the year
• I get the boring things out the way before December so start deep cleaning a room at a time from October. Plan your meal, order food to collect etc
• Plan days out early, look up ones you want to go to and put a reminder of when tickets go on sale
• Start cooking and freezing from October. Things for the actual day but also for the weeks leading up to christmas and the christmas holidays when you're always really busy with everything else at least you can still eat decent homecooked meals without the stress and the planning.

@middleagedandinarage hellloooo!
Love all this, thanks for sharing!

@rhubarbhandsoap thank you!

My husband is Spanish so he has brought some Spanish Christmas traditions into our house for example, he bakes Spanish Christmas biscuits called "Mantedcados", we have a few Christmas flamenco CDs on our christmassy decorated Christmas cd shelf! And we also blow up Christmas themed balloons for Christmas day and throw them around the presents as this is what they do in Spain for the three kings on 6th January. We also throw a box of celebrations onto the presents for Christmas day. And we celebrate the three kings day on 6th January! (Expensive yes but we split the presents) Sorry I had to type this fast as my toddler was nagging me for my dinner

Booked the panto and bought the advent calander/PJs other than that its just gift buying so far.

Waiting for them to open the letters from santa to order that.

What kind of meals do you cook and freeze in advance? I'm rubbish at this part although did do some of the batch lady last year.

*@PumpkinSpicedTea A few mince meals, bolognese, chilli con carne, cottage pie. Sweet & Sour chicken. Chicken pie. Soups.

@PumpkinSpicedTea anything with a bit of sauce is good to freeze. Bolognaise, chilli, Coq au vin, curry, shepherds pie base. Hidden veg pasta sauce freezes well too. I make double - eat one, freeze one.

You lot just reminded me to book the panto. Got good seats! Thank you

Choose stuff you like - nice chocolate? Wine?

I was in TKMaxx/HomeSense today , they had a few food items ( Pannatonne ) but no Christmas stock.....yet

I will wait a couple of weeks and make a trip to Costco (for the usual bin bags , frozen food , soya milk , Ribena , catfood ) they tend to get their Christmas stock in mid Sept . Wrapping paper , tags and chicken is on the website .

Meals in the freezer -
lasagne ,
vegetables for soup ( I roast a load of onions, carrots , butternut squash , leftover roast potatoes ) which can go in the SoupMaker .
Quiche
Things like vegetarian chilli are easy in the slow cooker , I use roasted onions that I freeze in small pots and Linda McCartney mince with chilli (fresh) and good tinned tomatoes and red kidney beans

Ooh lovely thread.

For a Christmassybreakfast my kids love this. I make the dough in the bread maker using the hotcross bun recipe (leaving out spices and fruit).
Then make it up as per instructions.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a553240/chocolate-star-bread/

My kids are big teens now so get up after me so I can potter in peace. Might not be so relaxing if you have young early risers...

@middleagedandinarage and @TheWoollybacksWife thank you. I do tend to freeze just bolognese or chilli so other suggestions have been good!

Quite a few Santas near me have opened up so always good to check and book if you can!

Last year I was gutted as the one I wanted to book sold out within an hour or so! BUT I went with another one and my DD still claims that's the real santa and the one I'd preferred she said it wasn't. Just shows you!!

The Organised Mum Christmas starts tomorrow! I love this
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Cx8NFw2xnsLPEhPe/

@BiddyPop please be my life coach and mentor 😁

I'll have to be careful what I say because if I say exactly how much I love Christmas, I could out myself very quickly! 😂 I make mincemeat on a 3 year rotation and we eat mince pies all year if we fancy them. I make limoncello, slow gin, flavoured vodkas. Gingerbread reindeer with red smarties for noses are very popular. Gingerbread snowflakes with lemon icing are nice. Snowman hot chocolate - make hot chocolate and use icing pens to make a snowman face on large marshmallows. Hot chocolate into a mug, add squirt cream, top with a marshmallow snowman face and if you are really pushing the sugar boat out, a candy cane to stir. I have a 5 year Christmas planner that I update all the time. I prep all my Christmas Day veg in advance and freeze and make the gravy in advance - the amount of time and stress that saves on cooking times on Christmas day is unreal! I start around now having a good clear out for the charity shops or for selling but am being particularly ruthless this year as moving home next year.

That sounds amazing! Would love your sloe gin and flavoured vodka recipes!

I did Dishwasher Vodka one year ( used Skittles , one lot red, one lot purple _ half a bottle of basic vodka, add as many of the Skittles as you can then let it dissolve . They will dissolve themselves or you can use the dishwasher on a hot cycle , wrap the bottle in clingfilm and leave a space in the bottle to expand .
I filtered it through a coffee filter then chilled in small bottles it goes into a beautiful jewel like syrup .

Mars Bar Werthers , candy canes, sherbet lemons.........list is endless
Christmas Pudding Vodka - cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, raisins, bit of sugar , mature and strain.

Which veg do you freeze please?
Like frozen mashed swede and braised red cabbage or actually roast potatoes / sprouts etc?

I freeze part cooked roasties. You can either freeze after parboiling them but I prefer to parboil and then roast them for about 20 minutes before cooling them and freezing. They go straight into hot oil/duck fat from frozen on Christmas Day and take about 30 minutes to cook fully.

I cook sprouts for a couple of minutes, cool by running under the cold tap to stop them cooking, shred and freeze. Then defrost them on Christmas morning and finish in a frying pan with butter and pancetta.

Carrots and parsnips are peeled, chopped into chunks and frozen. They go straight into a little bit of hot oil from frozen and roasted. Then tossed in a bit of honey to finish.

Carrot and swede mash can be frozen fully made, defrosted and heated in the microwave. The same with red cabbage.

I make my gravy on the day because I like to use the potato water from the mashed potatoes.

I would freeze swede puree ( steamed then pureed in the food processor with butter and black pepper /salt ) I don't like butter but I think this needs it .
Parsnips par boiled and in long chunks frozen.

I did freeze par boiled roast potatoes during Lockdown when there were shortages . The recipe said par boil for X minutes and no more but really they needed more as the outer edge was too raw to go fluffy which you need for crispy roasties .

I do the vegetables prep on Christmas Eve then put them in the fridge (carrots , sprouts ) , potatoes on the day . DD likes new potatoes as well ( I did new potatoes one year when we had family and not everyone wanted loads of roasties , and it has just become part of the sides )

We don't have bread sauce or red cabbage , but we do have Yorkshire Puddings

Thank you so much for this!