Chance to win one of three £100 Lidl vouchers by sharing your Christmas catastrophes and/or tips for a stress-free day...NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

Have you ever had a Christmas catastrophe? Have you burnt the brussels and gift-wrapped the Christmas cake? Or are you in fact a Festive Fairy Godmother, brimming with hints and tips and always on hand to help at this time of year? Please share your worst and best Christmas related moments and festive tips - you could win a Lidl voucher.

Lidl say "With fantastic recipes and tips galore, we want to help you breeze through the festive season, and avoid any disasters along the way. We’d like to know your best festive chaos stories, along with any hints and tips to make things more manageable. We have everything you need to help you get Christmas right; from turkeys and all the trimmings, to sweet treats that are too good to resist, so that you can pull off a flawless Christmas with Lidl without having to blow your budget!"

Everyone who comments below sharing how they got Christmas right (or wrong!) with stories, hints or tips, will be entered into a prize draw where three Mumsnetters will each win £100 worth of Lidl vouchers.

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Lidl in further marketing material (anonymously, of course)

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

I can't remember any disasters, but we don't really get too stressed about it all. We make a fuss at Christmas and have lots of presents and games and family fun, but the dinner is really just a Sunday roast with a couple of extra frills. These days we cheat with lots of things, such as frozen mash and packet bread sauce etc. I just don't see the point in spending hours in the kitchen, when I can be relaxign and enjoying Christmas Day with my family.

I would suggest taking in turn for cooking me and my sister take it in turns for xmas day. All the family come over we share cooking, food, drinks and makes the whole day less stressful.

I don't recall having a full on Christmas catastrophe. Other than the usual... not enough batteries etc. etc. But hey, it's all relative a suppose!

Haven't had a catastrophe yet thankfully and my advice is probably to keep it simple.

I, too, spent time one Christmas pulling a long strand of tinsel out of my cat's bum. He looked very surprised...

Well, the best and the worst was when I tried cooking on the BBQ INDOORS. Don't try it. Ended up eating beans on toast !!

to make my Christmas day easier I prepare all my veggies on Christmas eve, I normally have to cater for 10 family members on xmas day so this makes xmas day a bit easier and I can watch my grandchildren unwrap their pressies instead of peeling spuds ect

write down all the times the food needs preparing and what time it needs to go in the oven

The year we went away with my family and DF promised to sort the wine and then on Christmas eve at 9pm says to DH "I probably should have done something about some wine for tomorrow" we weren't at home so didn't have a stash, DH went to the local pub the next day and purchased some at great expenses.

Several years before children we were at the in laws and BIL dropped the whole turkey on the dining room floor, FIL had one too many and was topping up his glass with red wine but was missing his glass entirely and pouring the wine on the table which was leaking through it onto the carpet under the table and BIL threw a dice at SIL while were playing a game it hit her wine glass full of red wine which broke the stem cue red wine all over the living room carpet. Luckily due to the volume of wine consumed by MIL she found it all hilarious.

So my tip is - make sure you have enough wine....!!!!

I may have one this year! I just haven't been able to get into it at all after a late family holiday and am now rushing around like a mad woman! Normally I start my shopping in September!

Don't put pressure on yourself - it doesn't have to be perfect. Take shortcuts and accept help. I also find that a glass or two of bubbly makes everything feel much less stressful!

one year i was all organised and so ordered my turkey from the local butcher as i normally get frozen but thought we would try a fresh one so upto the butchers i went asked for said turkey paid and went home the next morning turkey was cleaned and popped in the oven for right amount of time for size i ordered unfortunately the butcher had given me 6-8 kg instead of 6-8 lb (shock) needless to say when i took it out only the outer edges was even cooked so we decided to cut off the cooked bits and then put it back in to cook for boxing day and in all the confusion i forgot to cook the roast potatoes and mini sausages (blush) so we had quite a small christmas dinner but a great boxing day dinner so all ended well as we all had room for christmas pudding and cream on the big day

Keep the food simple and if at any event you are hosting guests would like to bring part of the meal, let them. It will be less work for you and you'll enjoy it more.

My dad was once poked in the eye with the Christmas Tree while putting it in the car. He had to drive us home before being taken to hospital, and had an eye patch for the rest of the Christmas period. Luckily his eye sight was unaffected so we can joke about it (and we do, every Christmas!)

We always try to make sure we have everything done that can be done a week before Christmas. Cards sent, all gifts wrapped, everything placed in stockings ready for Christmas Morning.

Christmas eve we prepare everything that can be prepared for Christmas dinner the next day, so on the day all we have to do is make breakfast, open presents and cook our Christmas meal without too much stress or pressure.

It works very well, kind of have it down to a fine art now.

Sometimes things come up that are not expected but by being completely prepared it's not such a bad thing.

Prepare all veg the night before, and spring clean the house before the big day. Make sure on christmas day you clean as you go on. But dont stress :)

prep veg ect the night before and dont forget to turn on the oven - i forgot one year and ended up with cooked veg and no meat or roast pots.

cooking the food in it's packaging when not supposed it... plasticky food! yuck!

I cook the meat the day before. It's much easier to carve when cold, plus it frees up all that space in the oven for other goodies!

Try and plan ahead as much as possible if you are hosting Christmas Day. I make Jamie Oliver's make ahead gravy the week before and put in the freezer. Also ask guests to bring along something maybe a pudding, starter or drinks for the day. This will mean that all the pressure is not on the host.

Prepare everything as far in advance as possible!

As soon as my birthday is finished I start preparations for Christmas (I should mention my birthday is in October!). I make lists and lists of things I need to buy, to do and when to do them by.

Then December rolls in and the lists get lost in the scraps of un-usable wrapping paper. I go shopping more than one time but always find my self sitting on Christmas Day thinking - I cant believe I forgot that.

So in short. Don't stress to much, no one will remember next year.

I always bake and cook some things in advance and freeze them until the day before i need them

Just keep it low key foodwise. It'll beround next year too.

A few years back on Xmas eve we had a bad freeze. Turning the oven on the pipe behind had frozen. It pushed out of its connector as it heated up and started flooding the kitchen. We had to rip the oven out and part of the wall to find the stop cock and turn it off. Turned the lights out as electrics were soaked and had to sweep the water out the kitchen! Needless to say Xmas day was a wash out and we had to go to the neighbours!!!