How to not spend all Christmas day in the kitchen?

[MerryLilac]

I'm cooking my first ever Christmas dinner this year. 15 people. I'm nervous. I'm unorganised. I'm not a confident cook.

Can you share any tips on how to make the day less stressful? What do you prepare in advance to make it easier on the day?

If you can afford it, buy a turkey crown which is MUCH easier to deal with.

Make ahead and freeze:
Parboiled potatoes for the roasties
Red cabbage
Gravy

Buy ready made:
Stuffing
Cauliflower cheese (although I wouldn't bother with it )
Pigs in blankets

On the day:
Cook the turkey crown, remove from oven and allow to rest for AT LEAST 90 minutes. I usually cover mine in foil and a towel to keep warm.

Then, whilst it's resting, you can do the roast potatoes and parsnips in the oven. Bung in the pigs in blankets and stuffing for the last 30 minutes. Cook the carrots and any other fresh veg on the hob having prepped them the day before. Reheat the red cabbage on the hob.

Assuming your kitchen is big enough, get 3 people in to help you:
You: carves turkey and puts on plate
Person A: puts roasties, stuffing and parsnips on plate
Person B: puts all other veg on plate
Person C: takes plates to table

Gravy, cranberry sauce etc can be on table for people to help themselves.

If you decant the veg into serving dishes and put them on the table it will be chaos. And all the food will be cold by the time people actually eat.

Don't do starters. And have a long gap between main course and pudding.

Good luck!

Wow you're brave!
My suggestions.

• Cold puddings (trifle, cheesecake, mince pies, a cheese board, Christmas cake etc)
• A slow cooker and do a joint of beef or gammon in it. It can be cooked overnight.
• Veg prep the night before, peel/chop all can be left in pans/bowls on the side until morning.
• Gravy - buy shop bought fresh or granules.
• Pigs in blankets - again shop bought frozen etc.
• Frozen Yorkshire's
• No starters.

Timings are the hardest, I prep everything the night before. Cook meat as soon as I wake up and have it resting while I cook the veg. If you have the bowls I'd put everything out on the table for people to help themselves, dishing up 15 plates takes awhile and while people are helping themselves you can make gravy/finish Yorkshires etc and nobody gets too ansty because the food is being served.

Why is it all incumbent on you? I never understand these threads where dozens of women leap in with ‘helpful suggestions’ to keep perpetrating the idea that only women can cook a Christmas dinner. Is there not one male partner or husband here that lifts a finger? It’s so depressing that women still live in the 1950s for this.

I doubt the fattest turkey in the land wouldn’t have a crown to decently feed 15, would it? an extra large would serve about 10. So you would need two.

I cooked for 11 last year and it was the first time we had hosted. Honestly, make life easy for yourself and ensure you enjoy the day too! M&S ready made turkey gravy is lovely (buy it
early as it sells out) and we also did some trays of M&S roast veg and roast potatoes, job done! I’m sure MIL wasn’t overly impressed as she’s the sort to make her own cranberry sauce etc, but I didn’t care, the food was tasty and I got to enjoy the day with everyone, including our dc (which is what Christmas is all about to me) without being tied to the kitchen.

I leave the cooking of Christmas dinner to DH. We get most of it from M&S anyway so not much to actually prepare, it’s more just getting the timings right.
I’m responsible for the desert and then we both clear up together at the end. If any guests offer to help we gratefully accept!
It’s definitely a case of sharing things out and not one person trying to do it all.

It seems like the OP has hit and run.

I cook for this number every year. The difficult bit is timings as you'll want everything served hot.

A couple of years ago I bought an old hostess trolley from facebook market place. I think I paid £20 for it. Its been brilliant, all the veg goes into it whenever and people can just help themselves. Its definately reduced the stress of it all

Wow, you are ambitious! I remember the very first Christmas dinner I ever cooked and I was really nervous, I'd never done a turkey before but I did have help, and I wasn't cooking for 15.

There are some excellent suggestions here, from "have your guests each bring something" (so it's more of a potluck), to "buy prepared foods as much as possible" (so it's less cooking from scratch for you... But you will have to juggle how to keep everything warm and ready at the same time and that's really tricky), and there's some great suggestions as to easier foods that you should consider and ones that are considered to be more difficult. Turkey is difficult. It's not difficult, really but if you've never cooked before and you've got 15 people you're expecting? Then yeah. Everything should be as simple as possible.

In the future, when you gain more skill and confidence in the kitchen, you can have a few friends over for something that's a little more intricate or more cooked from scratch or something that's completely out of your comfort zone, but for now, simplify. And good luck cuz I'll be thinking about you!!

Brave OP
Brave guests

I prepare everything in advance over several ddays

buy silver foil trays to roast everything, then t

red cabbage braised and ready to go in microwave
cauliflower cheese in dish ready to go in oven

peeled carrots, potatoes and parsnips all par boiled and ready to go in oven to roast

prep sprouts ready to roast

pigs in blankets ready to roast

make Jamie Oliver’s gravy or but ready made gravy

make the Yorkshire pudding batter ready and cook first, then reheat them for 5 minutes before dishing up - or but frozen and heat up

cook/roast meat and remember it will stay hot for 90 minutes out of the oven - whilst you roast everything else in the oven before dishing up. Wrap the meat in foil and towels

two green vegetables boiled

now in the day it’s all about timings, the meat roasts until the last 90 minutes and everything else goes in the oven for the last 90 minutes at different times - but as you’ve prepared it all the day before, you only. Have at most 90 minutes in the kitchen popping things in the oven

I was just coming to say this but noticed that Allseeingallknowing had already done so. Keep the faffers at bay, you don’t want them under your feet. Or, in our case, under DH’s feet.

If you spot a ‘hostess trolley’ for sale locally or even being given away, snap it up. Totally game-changing at Christmas and a place for the ‘best’ china at other times. My Mum gave us ours and after initially looking down our noses we are eternally grateful. It lives happily in the utility room and keeps things hot.

Nobody on the thread has mentioned Bread Sauce. There would be ructions here if it did not appear along with the cranberry sauce. Keeps warm in the trolley.

Yes. I usually make it one or two days before and then reheat. I don't do anything to stop it splitting so assume it's dumb luck 😂

I am obviously doing something wrong!

I'm sure some of your guests can cook and help. I once spent Christmas at my boyfriend's sister's house. Although she could cook things like curries and stews she'd never done a roast. I ended up doing it. Basically its a normal roast except turkeys can be dry if not done with care. I put butter under the skin on the breast and then bacon over it. Roast over the contents of a bottle of white wine. Use the liquid to make the gravy.
The rest of the dinner just rely on cooking times. Prepped veg can be done in front the telly Christmas eve ,for if you have the money buy it pre-done.

My tips would be-

Definitely don't ask people to help or, even worse, contribute a dish. You will end up with 8 people trying to use the oven at once, insisting on different temperatures, wanting to use the hob for pancetta for the sprouts so you can't heat up the gravy... There will be enough going on without all that. They can all do the washing up (AFTER the meal, not while you are cooking, cough DH).

Most things can be made well ahead and frozen or bought if you prefer.

Decide on your own "must haves" and don't be swayed. I'm always amazed by the number of people on here cooking four different meats or three sorts of potato and they would probably be amazed by the number of sauces I do... you can't do it all. So decide what you want and stick to it.

The more people are eating, the less of each thing they eat. Strange but true.

Do a recce early on for whether you have enough pans, serving dishes, plates etc etc. Glasses and knives and forks? Chairs? You don't want to have to start washing pans as you go.

Write all your timings down.

Turkey needs an hour to rest so you can do that early then have the oven free for everything else.

A lot of turkey cooking times are far too long. Nigella is reliable.

Share the load, get people to volunteer for jobs. Be very clear you will not be cooking everything and stick to that.

Or they are busy prepping the sprouts @Bestluck

I wonder if the 15 guests are aware the Op has never cooked Christmas lunch before, very nervous and very disorganised! I’m curious why the op pulled the short straw!

One of those fake posts taken off Reddit perhaps?

Honestly, I’m not arsed if the OP doesn’t come back, I reckon there is a lot of helpful advice for anyone in a similar situation.

Ok, i cook for 22. Full christmas dinner with all the trimmings including starters.

The thing that probably saves my life is a 30 year old hostess trolley as it means my timings dont need to be absolutly perfect.

Starter is prawn cocktail with smoked salmon and side salad all of which are made in bowls the night before so just plate it all out when its ready to serve.

My mum also brings soup as an additional starter, my best friend does the desserts

All veg prepped and in pots ready to go.

All potatoes peeled and ready to go

The only pre prepared item i buy is marks and spencers mashed potato.

All the stuffing is made into balls night before ad put into fridge

Ham is boiled in coke the night before then covered, roast in the morning with honey and mustard.

I have a 9KG turkey so it needs cooked the night before and then when its ready i cover it in loads of tin foil and then loads of tea towels. My borther carves the turkey and ham about midday and its still hot.

I make the gravy with all the turkey juices but thats just a case of flinging it in with bisto best.

Your roast potatoes ( if your doing them) will take waaayyyyyy longer than you imagine and you cant use your oven whilst they are in so really everything else needs to be done so account for that.

I absolutly love xmas day and remeber it doesnt need to go perfectly, as long as you have plenty of food and drink it will be fine.

I have a half hostesss trolley - just the top half with 4 draws/sections for vegetables and potatoes

I also boil the kettle and heat the plates up in the sink - dry the plates and dish up or place on table - as this way the food stays hot way longer.

Normally I would put plates in oven but the oven is full and sometimes it makes them too hot to handle

OP big issue - oven space. You are cooking the equivalent of 4 normal family Sunday roasts, you need to think about just how many potatoes that is!

agree pre done from Marks might be the best. Work out timings, do the maths back from meal on table at whatever time you want. Have as much prepped in advance so you just heat the oven as you get up and start getting things in.