Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Planning ahead for Christmas

140 replies

rhubarbhandsoap · 20/08/2024 20:08

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?

OP posts:
HannahDefoesTrenchcoat · 13/09/2024 08:06

@HelpMeDrRanj if you don't need the table for breakfast, we used to lay it on Christmas Eve. We'd get some greenery from the garden or a walk and make a little centre piece or just put some little bits in some charity shop tiny glass vases, lay out crackers, kids would make place name cards and decide where people would sit, fold some paper napkins...

PumpkinSpicedTea · 13/09/2024 20:48

Been up in my attic today and I've got loads of wrapping paper including my santa paper from last year 🎅 so can tick that off my list and going to aim to wrap as I go this year..

rhubarbhandsoap · 13/09/2024 22:30

🥳🙌

@PumpkinSpicedTea sounds like we are wrapping in matching paper 😂 When you wrap as you go this early how do you stop buying more stuff? I’ve already wrapped a lot of stuff for my DDs’ stockings and as soon as it’s wrapped my brain seems to think it needs to buy more!

OP posts:
PumpkinSpicedTea · 14/09/2024 07:38

I am not sure @rhubarbhandsoap as I haven't wrapped this early before. We can hand hold through it and tell each other not to buy more? 😂 Which admittedly is hard when following the bargain thread.

letmego24 · 14/09/2024 09:21

rhubarbhandsoap · 13/09/2024 22:30

🥳🙌

@PumpkinSpicedTea sounds like we are wrapping in matching paper 😂 When you wrap as you go this early how do you stop buying more stuff? I’ve already wrapped a lot of stuff for my DDs’ stockings and as soon as it’s wrapped my brain seems to think it needs to buy more!

I was thinking about this - one year I was super organised and bought/ wrapped up early - with lists but e fed up with quite a little more than usual as I kept buying the odd thing:)
Am going to start though think it is a big help
Anyone got good ideas for hampers?

HannahDefoesTrenchcoat · 14/09/2024 09:26

@rhubarbhandsoap The only way is a list of what's bought and wrapped and iron discipline 😁

Otherwise there will be a small pile of stocking fillers with no room at the stocking. 🎄

You can put them with the other presents, on the tree or on the table at dinner time. Obviously, this has never happened to me 😳 🤶

BiddyPop · 14/09/2024 09:35

Santa never wrapped presents in our house, they were just left in or beside your stocking. And all presents wrapped under the tree came from the various relatives - DH had the same except that we also had something small from "Mum and Dad" for the DCs under the tree. We did the same in our house with DD.

When I think about freezer meals, I've learned a couple of things over the years.
Mash potato freezes ok but can get wet and soggy when defrosting so leave it quite dry initially, and if you have powdered milk, use that instead of fresh milk when mashing (for freezer). Comes out lovely and creamy but not slushy when defrosted - but even just reduce liquid milk by half, it even a (small) dollop of cream instead is good.

If you are doing "bake in the oven" dishes - sheep pie, lasagna, etc), and don't have loads of freezer to oven dishes, start by lining dish with tin foil (with a lot around the outside edges, including a long "handle" each side to lift later), then a couple of layers of cling film, before you start building the pie. Freeze, then you can pull it out of the dish, wrap nice and air tight, and store frozen. When defrosting, pull off the wrappings and place into the ovenproof dish while still solid and reheat when fully defrosted.

And if freezer space is an issue, think about making the sauce part of a shep pie/chicken and mushroom/ smoked fish and broccoli/steak and kidney etc. Freeze that. When using, either plan a dinner with mashed potatoes the day before and do extra (yes small bit of assembly but the bulk of work is done) or buy ready made and rolled pastry to put on top.

If you like curries, it can be useful o do a large batch of the onion/garlic/ginger that is the start of almost all curries - and takes a long time to cook down well. Freeze in small batches that are the right amount for your normal family curries as it saves a lot of time when you are short of it. I tend to freeze is in 1 cup portions, flattened in ziplocs, and they take up hardly any room stacked up. Or you could leave out the ginger as onion and garlic is a base for so many things.

But if loads of freezer space, a few pastry tart shells for fruit pies, chocolate tarts, quiches, savoury pies etc are great to have frozen. And I like a bag of crumble mix in freezer to put on top of any mix of fruit I have from the freezer or found on special in supermarket for a fast dessert.

And don't underestimate the power of excess veg from summer gardens blanched off or bags of supermarket veg to speed up dinners in December or other busy times and still get the goodness into the family.

rhubarbhandsoap · 14/09/2024 13:35

PumpkinSpicedTea · 14/09/2024 07:38

I am not sure @rhubarbhandsoap as I haven't wrapped this early before. We can hand hold through it and tell each other not to buy more? 😂 Which admittedly is hard when following the bargain thread.

@PumpkinSpicedTea yes please 🙌 I’m thinking of taking some photos of it before it’s wrapped and putting them in the ‘hidden’ folder in the photos app 😂

OP posts:
rhubarbhandsoap · 14/09/2024 13:38

HannahDefoesTrenchcoat · 14/09/2024 09:26

@rhubarbhandsoap The only way is a list of what's bought and wrapped and iron discipline 😁

Otherwise there will be a small pile of stocking fillers with no room at the stocking. 🎄

You can put them with the other presents, on the tree or on the table at dinner time. Obviously, this has never happened to me 😳 🤶

It’s the iron discipline I seem to be lacking in 😂😂

This suggestion of extra stocking fillers at other times during the day is really helpful though! I won’t ask how you know 😂

OP posts:
rhubarbhandsoap · 14/09/2024 13:40

@BiddyPop I want to join the earlier poster who asked you to be their life coach / mentor! 🙏🎄💖

OP posts:
rhubarbhandsoap · 14/09/2024 13:42

@letmego24 I’ve seen people on YouTube doing hampers on a theme with some really good ideas, who are they for, any specific interests? 🎄🙌

OP posts:
letmego24 · 14/09/2024 15:53

BiddyPop · 14/09/2024 09:35

Santa never wrapped presents in our house, they were just left in or beside your stocking. And all presents wrapped under the tree came from the various relatives - DH had the same except that we also had something small from "Mum and Dad" for the DCs under the tree. We did the same in our house with DD.

When I think about freezer meals, I've learned a couple of things over the years.
Mash potato freezes ok but can get wet and soggy when defrosting so leave it quite dry initially, and if you have powdered milk, use that instead of fresh milk when mashing (for freezer). Comes out lovely and creamy but not slushy when defrosted - but even just reduce liquid milk by half, it even a (small) dollop of cream instead is good.

If you are doing "bake in the oven" dishes - sheep pie, lasagna, etc), and don't have loads of freezer to oven dishes, start by lining dish with tin foil (with a lot around the outside edges, including a long "handle" each side to lift later), then a couple of layers of cling film, before you start building the pie. Freeze, then you can pull it out of the dish, wrap nice and air tight, and store frozen. When defrosting, pull off the wrappings and place into the ovenproof dish while still solid and reheat when fully defrosted.

And if freezer space is an issue, think about making the sauce part of a shep pie/chicken and mushroom/ smoked fish and broccoli/steak and kidney etc. Freeze that. When using, either plan a dinner with mashed potatoes the day before and do extra (yes small bit of assembly but the bulk of work is done) or buy ready made and rolled pastry to put on top.

If you like curries, it can be useful o do a large batch of the onion/garlic/ginger that is the start of almost all curries - and takes a long time to cook down well. Freeze in small batches that are the right amount for your normal family curries as it saves a lot of time when you are short of it. I tend to freeze is in 1 cup portions, flattened in ziplocs, and they take up hardly any room stacked up. Or you could leave out the ginger as onion and garlic is a base for so many things.

But if loads of freezer space, a few pastry tart shells for fruit pies, chocolate tarts, quiches, savoury pies etc are great to have frozen. And I like a bag of crumble mix in freezer to put on top of any mix of fruit I have from the freezer or found on special in supermarket for a fast dessert.

And don't underestimate the power of excess veg from summer gardens blanched off or bags of supermarket veg to speed up dinners in December or other busy times and still get the goodness into the family.

Great tips thank you!!

letmego24 · 14/09/2024 15:56

rhubarbhandsoap · 14/09/2024 13:42

@letmego24 I’ve seen people on YouTube doing hampers on a theme with some really good ideas, who are they for, any specific interests? 🎄🙌

Ah ok, not really special interests but dh likes pates/ fish type stuff, everyone likes coffee/ alcohol, they like cheeses etc. sometimes I make my own up but especially for not close family was thinking of maybe a brand - could look in to JL?? Fortnum & Mason though might be expensive, even Harrods - guessing you can get them online ..

letmego24 · 14/09/2024 15:57

But theme sounds interesting, actually !!

OMGitsnotgood · 16/09/2024 16:45

I had to stay in today waiting (still) for a builder to call. Intended to blitz the house but dug out the Christmas cards and wrapping paper I bought in the sales to check I had enough, and went through my Christmas cook books to make a list of some different things I might make. Much more fun but house is still a tip.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread