So for Christmas .. what are you 'allowed' to cheat and what must be made from scratch?

[Twiglett]

mince pies
cranberry sauce
bread sauce

(I'm considering buying in a pud too... eek)

ooh Boxing Day I make a shepherd's pie or similar in advance and freeze, then serve with lots of fresh veg.

DH always at football so it's a low-key event chez Clary.

Buffet - depends on how many. Might be tempted to buy good quality pork pie from butcher, trays of hot sausages (from same source), make one hot dish (chili/lasagne) and bung in freezer, then baked potatoes and lots of salads (let's face it all the salad stuff you got in for Christmas and never ate will need scoffing by then). Moondog liking the sound of blood oranges, red onion and olives.

Actually Boxing Day is easy - I always seem to come a cropper on Christmas Eve when I have spent all day peeling spuds etc and cannot bear to make anything but people are still clamouring for dinner damn em - why can't they wait till tomorrow?

I am hosting my first christmas this year so am making everything from scratch. So far have made the cake, mincemet and pudding. Am planning truffles and florentines, gingerbread house for the children then a goose with all the trimmings, plus a buffet for boxing day. We have both sets of parents staying for 4 days so have planned all the meals already and made a fair bit which is in the freezer. Christmas presents are all wrapped and hidden, cards written and stamped ready to send, goose ordered, shopping lists written. DH thinks I am mad

every year we have this in one form or another!

now has anyone mentioned aunt bessie's roast potatoes and roast parsnips yet? always greeted by gasps of horror

quite rightly too!

i make my own mince pies - from bought pasty and bought mincemeat - teehee

i don't make mince pies as nobody likes them. I buy christmas pud but we don't always eat it. I've got last years still in the cupboard. HAVE to make bread sauce from scratch. I buy cranberry sauce. MIGHT make the stuffing if i get the time.

boxing day is buffet at IL house.

ComeOver, your gaffe always sounds great!
Clary,it is great. Oranges need to have all pith removed and be sliced very very thinly. Ditto red onion. Scatter with some parsley.

at the idea of serving moondog's delicious sounding menu to my ILs.

You can 'cheat' with whatever you want it is christmas!! Seriously if you like cooking do it, if you don't buy it is that really an issue??

I enjoy cooking so I make the lot from scratch BUT I choose to do that. Others choose to do it differently

Why Bozza?
Would it not go down well?

don't have bread sauce (its slop)
buy mince pies (tesco finest deep fill), don;t really eat enough of them to be worth making
cranberry sauce (rather like the jam-like suagry Ocean spray one )
crackers (made them once - life is too short)

For Xmas day itself everything else we cook - between us as a group.

Never, ever cheat on bread sauce or gravy.

Cranberry sauce, I guess you could cheat.

Homemade mince pies are lovely but Daddycool currently has a 'mince pie consumer test' thread going so you could happily buy the winner of that!

I've made my cake, thanks UCM - wherever you are. Making the pudding tomorrow. I'll also make pigs in blankets and the stuffing on morning of 24th.

Moondopg - can I come to your house for boxing day?

pmsl at the one-legged christmas cake maker .

I made a christmas pudding one year and it went down very well, but tbh I don't like christmas pudding so tend to buy one. Planning to make own mince pies this year, and mil always makes a christmas cake. planning to make a yule log though. and

tbh I can never see why people make such a big deal out of christmas dinner. it's just a glorified roast at the end of the day.

I love bread sauce.

Personally I'm still reeling from moondog's bought in mince pies. Yet another idol with feet of clay .

I shall be making Gordon Ramsey mincemeat. Recipe from the Times last year. Apricots int he micemeat - very yummy.

Bread sauce not an Irish thing so we have never had it.

Made the cake - last year! It never got iced or eaten so will have it this year.

Cheat on pudding as my Mum is the only one who likes it.

Make mince pies if at my house but will be at parents so will prob cheat.

Cheat cranberry sauce.

Boxing Day - we usually have a baked ham, leftover turkey because I adore it, salads, pickles, my mothers sausage rolls which are the finest in the world, baked or boiled potatoes and bread.

I have cheated on canapes this year and Ocado delivered about 20 boxes of various little delights this morning.

ours is in essense a roast to the stars. but we rarely have roast and I LUUUURRVE it. We don't generally bother with the bits like starters, pigs in blanket (or any other kind of apparel) and we just do a pavlova and a tiramisu which last us all day.

I never had bread sauce growing up either, but it is non-negotiable with DH.

Most welcome Kew.
Weren't you in Kazakhstan last year?
Ah,bet you will have a fabulous time with your ds!

Tellus,I can't make cakes or puddings. No bloody idea. Only good at savoury stuff. Anyway,for years MIL made fab ones and now she is gone so I get them in support small local businesses.

Twig, you're letting the side down - it's really got to you this year hasn't it?

What happened to avoidance of all things Christmassy 'til December?

And how's ds BTW, teeth wasn't it, did it go OK?

As long as you're 'sourcing' them from local suppliers rather than buying them in Tesco moondog, my faith is restored

I am good at puddings. Pastry chef me.

Probably not a good thing...

You can rely on me Tellus.
I only patronize local artisans with gnarled hands and wood fired stoves.

Tesco? Pah! I spit on its threshold and fart in its freezers.

Pastry chef?? Really?
V impressed.