How much of Christmas dinner do you prepare in advance?

[NoelRocks]

By advance, I mean anything up to and including Christmas eve. I need ideas on how to do as much as poss before the big day!!

How do you reheat your stuffing if you make it in advance. And is just a normal sage and onion stuffing you make?

alarmbells - I don;t cook the stuffing - I only make it iyswim (though that might involve frying a few onions or bits of bacon). I tend to make two types - one a very basic sage and onion as per my mum's life long recipe (except it isn;t a recipe coz it's only in her head) and then something a bit fancier with chestnuts or similar. I like my stuffing in balls - so they roast nice and crispy - but sometimes cook it in a small bowl (I never stuff the bird). I either freeze it in balls or in a tupperware reading to be transferred into a bowl.

So I could assemble the stuffing balls, freeze them and then defrost overnight christmas eve and cook them christmas eve hatwoman?

Could I assemble them christmas eve and then just leave them in the frisdge overnight to cook christmas day do you think?

I have already made the spiced red cabbage and put it in the freezer.

Day before, I will prep all the veg. Will cook the carrots and sprouts till al dente and put in the turine with clingfilm over - just need to be reheated on the day. Will also do the mashed potato too and put in the serving bowl. Will do roast on the day.

Stuffing and saugages with bacon come courtesy of M&S so not a lot to do on that front, although I like GetOrf's idea of making it, eating it and then doing some more... Christmas pud comes from M&S too, although I will make a desert of my own for those non-pudding eaters.

I am cooking for 12 of us.

alarmbells - to your first question - yes - if you're eating them christmas eve. and to your second question - yes. my mum makes stuffing in batches (she lives on her own) and freezes them and takes a couple of balls out when she wants some. if you're using sausagemeat you can;t use stuff that's been previously frozen, and then freeze it again still uncooked

Not a lot - dh will do most of the boring prep Christmas morning whilst dcs are showering/breakfasting/engrossed in their stocking and I'm pootling.

Will make whisky mince-pies, cola ham, pigs in blankets beforehand.

Am liking the idea of mince-pies for breakfast!

Peel and prep all veg day before (yes keep in water)

Make stuffing and stuff chicken

Prep sausage and bacon

Make giblet stock

Make Christmas Day dessert (not pud as no-one eats it!)

Don't have a starter as it's just a pain we have found.

Ice chocolate log

(LOL @ getorfmoiland eating stuffing. Does anyone else find themselves reading the old crappy newspaper they are peeling the spuds into?)

I'm a bit odd I don't like all that veg in water rather do veg on the day especially if other people are doing it. People what I don't quite understand is why some.... women (okay, I've said it) feel that they have to do all the work... I don't get that bit. Christmas Eve I don't want to be peeling veg. On Christmas Day nobody is in the front room having fun leaving one person to it. Some are in the front room tearing their hair out fixing toys others are with me having a tipple as we cook. We put the turkey in the oven and go to the park.

Here is my Cranberry Sauce Recipie for Bendybob and anyone else who may want to try it.

200g Cranberries
6 tbsp. Port
1 orange (or 2 small oranges/clemtines)
100g brown sugar

One year I had no oranges in the house on Xmas Eve so used a guesstimate amount of orange juice from a carton instead - it still worked well.

Method:

Basically whack it all in the pan - port and sugar and cranberries and squeezing the juice from the orange,
Cook gently over a medium heat until the cranberries pop and begin to soften. Should take about 5 minutes.

Cool and chill in fridge. I keep mine in a dish coverd in foil. Not sure how long it will last for because mine is gone by the end of boxing day.

I am loving the idea of mince pies for brekkie!! Oooh yum! Another thing I do is when I make my mince pies I have a huge pastry making session. I then will keep some pastry balls in the fridge wrapped in foil until I need it. I also freeze some pastry as well.

Just remember to get it out of the fridge about an hour before you want to roll it. I find having the pastry already made means I can make fresh mince pies without too much hassle quickly if I know I have people popping in or we fancy indulging oursleves in a mince pie feast. I have this years batch of mincemeat in the oven as I type and its beginning to smell yummy!!

StAnne, I don´t think it´s a question of everyone else having fun and leaving me slaving away in the kitchen in our house. It´s just that I love to cook and am happy to do it all.

We have an open plan kitchen and living room so we´re all chatting away as I cook and I don´t feel left out of the fun.

First year, I did a Christmas lunch I did split out the jobs and roped people in to help but it was a nightmare. Everyone was getting under my feet and the meal was a disaster as everyone stumbled around the kitchen half cut. Me and DH had an arguement about the veg that he´d left on too long and had turned to mush. I had to rescue everything that had gone wrong.

The next year, it just seemed easiest to do as much ahead as possible and do the Xmas day stuff myself. And it was. It was so much less stress and took much less time to cook. Obviously I still ask DH to help with the advance prep but if I´m honest, his most useful contribution is to get everyone out the house on Xmas eve. I just love the piece and quiet for a few hours when the the rest of the holidays are so busy and chaotic.

the dyanamics of it all - including the gender dynamics are quite interesting aren;t they. dh and i normally share cooking 50/50. when it comes to dinner for friends dh is more likely to do it all - and I might do pudding, but when it comes to Christmas I steam in and completely take the helm. It dates back to about 10 years ago when dh confessed that, although he's quite a foodie - and loves cooking (has been to Prue Leith's for a course, reasonably regularly cooks stupidly complex things that take all day from a Raymond Blanc book) roasts just don't do it for him. he loves roast meat, but is not that much of a fan of the trimmings. he doesn;t think they're worth the extra effort. so if dh did it it would be roast turkey and boiled veg. and he can't do roast potatoes like I do. I quite enojy the planning of it all. but maybe one year I'll leave it to him. (but it would be so hard to keep my mouth shut when we'd got to the 23rd and he still didn;t know what he was going to cook...)

It's not a gender thing in our house. At least I don't think it is.

If DH had his way, he would make no fuss with Christmas dinner and get it cooked as fast as possible. He is very frustrated by the time and energy I spend on it - he keeps telling me we could order it in from M&S, so left to his own devices this is what he would choose.

I, however, want to make it extra special and do it properly. And although he moans about me wasting my time, he does do all the rubbish boring prep work for me and I do all the organising (which I love) and all the main cooking.

And then funnily enough he doesn't moan when he's tucking in

Slummymummy thank you!

That sounds so much nicer than bought cranberry from a jar. I'm def going to have a go as it sounds quite straightforward. Thanks again!

I use frozen roasties, and just cook them in the deep fat fryer.

I ordered it all from COOK! Brilliant

I make my stuffing, gravy and red cabbage ahead and freeze them. Gravy does need finishing on the day though. All other veg and pigs in blankets prepped on Christmas Eve and ham cooked on Christmas Eve too. Turkey prepared and left in fridge so just needs taking out and putting in oven. We serve canapés rather than a starter so easy on the day. We also have shop bought puddings.

DH, DD and I are vegetarian, DS eats chicken.If we have family visiting DBro brings a turkey crown.

I peel the sprouts and carrots on Christmas Eve (the guinea pigs have veg trimmings for supper )
Turnip is peeled, cooked, pureed then put in the fridge to reheat
Parsnips peeled, steamed and cooled

I do the potatoes on the day but steam them and let them go cold.

Measure out everything for steamed pudding and mix when needed

Yorkshire puddings are Aunt Bessies (for shame )

I just prepare the veg night before. I do a roast every Sunday anyway so Christmas dinner is nothing different. Apart from a cracker on the table.

Never fret over a roast!

I have to do a veggie option as well as turkey. I have tried several but always come back to doing a mushroom Wellington. The recipe is quite fiddly and makes enough for 2 and a half welling tons (bizarrely) so I always make it in late November, we have a traditional fake Christmas with 1 and freeze the other 1 and a half. I also make and freeze 2 types of stuffing, as they can be time consuming on the day. I do most of the veg prep on Christmas Eve, my DDs help, we have carols playing and a glass of mulled wine - it is one of my favourite parts of the season. The one thing I will never do in advance is the veg mornay, tried freezing it one year and it turned watery, tried making it on Christmas Eve one year and the veg went rancid, thankfully the guests were too polite to say so.

Don't understand the big deal about making gravy. Ive always made turkey gravy with all the bits in the roasting tin, and giblet stock boiled up the day before. Takes ten minutes max after Ive taken the turkey out and wrapped up to keep it warm.

I make stuffing, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce on Chr. Eve. Veg usually get done on Chr. morning by guests. But then we don't have lots of different veg, just carrots and sprouts, plus roast spuds and parsnips.

I make brandy butter a couple of days before, v quick and easy with the trusty old Kenwood, and usually make Chr Puds in early December. Mince pies are made and eaten all through all through December, first batch usually on the 1st.

I stick the champagne in the fridge the night before. Job done.