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

Tip for a stress-free day is keep out of the kitchen whilst the other half is preparing dinner

Had a big family get together one Christmas, the first time all the family had got together in years. The meal went great until the pudding, when I served the custard! I made the pudding with Salt and not sugar!!!!

relax! It is just one day

Put a ban on the drinking until after dinner. One year my mum was asleep by 11am...

I love reading everyone's tales! Can't have Christmas without some festive catastrophe - isn't that what it's all about?! We are hosting this year & I weirdly don't feel stressed at all! We are planning the day round little one so our Christmas dinner will be around 16.30. Nothing set in stone apart from that, PJs on for as long as possible - a long walk in the afternoon to burn off some energy. Relax & enjoy it & if it all goes wrong, at least it'll make a good anecdote for future years!

Catastrophes include the year my Dad set fire to the kitchen because he left the kettle on the cooker to boil dry while he watched us open presents.

The year my Mum accidentally threw away all the money and vouchers we had been given as presents, after gathering them all carefully to one envelope in her handbag to keep them safe, she then promptly dropped them in the nearest bin as he bag was ''full of rubbish".

The year the dog stole the turkey so we had a can of corned beef with all the trimmings for Christmas dinner.

The year my cousin and I set fire to the kitchen while making Angel Delight in a power cut.

And the year DH decided that the top of the fitted wall cupboards was the best place to keep a four pack of fancy Christmas beers he'd been given as a present, only for them to fall down the back and smash on the floor at the bottom. The cupboard had a false back so we had to dismantle half the kitchen to get to the mess. We cooked dinner that year in a flood of beer, the house stank like a brewery, half the kitchen was removed, and there was broken glass all over the place.

Top tips include not leaving the kettle on the cooker, keeping your own vouchers safe, not having a dog, don't put candles under kitchen units and keep your beer in the fridge like normal people.

My tip would be to keep it small, say no to hosting big groups if that stresses you out and have the day you want! It works for me.

On a sillier note, when I was a kid our gluttonous dog ate an entire, massive turkey one year (it was my dads bright idea to leave it in the next room to cool down and make some space).

She'd jumped up on a tabletop and dragged it to her bed, and was quietly munching away while we had our Xmas lunch.

Fortunately we all got one serving before the dog got to it, but we gave dad grief about it for years

Tip, If the Church invites you to bring your DC in fancy dress to the nativity, they probably mean dressed as a shepherd, angel etc.....not a power ranger, and a pirate.....

I remember my husbands first Christmas with my family we were all having a great day and the next door neighbour invited us for a drink. We all went round and suddenly my Mum jumped up remembering she had left veg etc. on. Her and I went back and could smell the burning. She had put the veg in a steamer which had boiled dry. All the veg looked fine but the burnt taste had permeated through so we ended up with turkey pigs in blankets stuffing and roast potatoes for lunch.

This year has been incredibly hectic. After a living room disaster, we have had to get a new carpet and new sofas. So decided to give the room a complete makeover.
This is stressful as I have no tree or decorations up, lots of presents to buy and wrap, also food still to buy .
I'm hoping that I get everything done and then can enjoy a stress free Christmas .

The best advice is to be prepared. Wrap a couple of spare boxes of chocolates or a couple of bottles of wine as someone is bound to call round with a present that you have forgotten all about.

My tip is dont leave a turkey in the same room as a dog even if it seems beyond reach. Believe me it will not be there when you want it. The year this happened to me was one disaster after another. my son decided that his new bike from Santa needed to be warm by the fire while he was upstairs getting dressed and hen he came down the seat had melted. Still great memories, I still love Christmas.

My tip would be to really stop worrying and getting stressed - it is only Christmas, remember?

There's been a lot of arguments and stress in the kitchen on Christmas Day in the past so to prevent this I'm going to prepare as much as possible the day before and stay away from the kitchen on Christmas Day. If my sisters want to stress and argue, the can but I'm not joining them! :)

Preparation is the key to have an enjoyable Christmas without stress. Do the shopping, cooking and present wrapping in time so that you can relax and enjoy Christmas!

Tips for a stress-free day - don't invite people who cause stress.

Eek, burnt turkey? Must have happened to everyone at least once unless everyone else is better prepared than I am lol.

Worst mistake, not realising the number of people going to a Christmas dinner, and not having presents for everyone there..

Tip - it's not important if something isn't perfect, Christmas is best when you relax and enjoy it - any mistakes can become traditions for following years.
Also don't let people drink too much before eating - recipe for disaster...

My mum's Xmas story - one year, she may have been having a few drinks whilst preparing the turkey on Xmas eve. On Christmas Day she couldn't find her watch anywhere bit of a mystery until Boxing Day when the (still ticking) watch was glimpsed in the middle of the left over Turkey carcass.

I had a disastrous Christmas a few years ago, when staying with my sister and her DH. The fridge broke down and all the food went a bit manky before anyone noticed. To console ourselves we had some rather large gin and tonics and to this day we ask "Christmas strength?" When offering each other a G and T.

My worst was one where ds1 came down with a tummy bug on Christmas Day. He was old enough to tell the time, and we had told him he was in charge of making sure they came in at 7.30am, no earlier. He came in, wished us both happy Christmas - and informed us he had been sick three times - I had forgotten how literal small children could be.

Anyhow, he carried on being ill all day, and between looking after him, and cooking roast goose with all the trimmings, I took my eye off ds2 and ds3, who spent the whole day eating as much chocolate as they could get their hands on.

So, at 6pm, I dished up the full Christmas dinner. Ds1 was still sick, and was asleep in the front room. Ds2 and ds3 were stuffed to the gills with chocolate and didn't want to eat anything, and dh was coming down with whatever ds1 had, and was too queasy to eat.

So basically, I sat there and dished up a plateful for myself, and no-one else ate much at all - I remarked, somewhat bitterly, that I could,just have made myself a Goose McNugget, and saved myself a whole lot of work!

As we wrap the presents we keep a tally chart of what batteries we need and get them the week before christmas.

Top tip for stress free Christmas Lunch? Simple! Sit in the living room with a nice glass of something whilst Hubby does the cooking ??

It was my first time making Christmas dinner for the whole family (9 of us). I tried really hard to make sure everything was perfect and was very pleased with myself when everything was finally served up. Sat down and only managed to take a couple of bites of my own dinner before my toddler projectile vomited all over the table!

Bless my mum and her cooking efforts - one year she remembered half way through the meal that the 'pigs in blankets' were still in the oven! She still tried to serve them even though they were as black as coal and burnt to a crisp!
Then another year we all got food poisoning! We think from an unde-cooked turkey (thanks mum!).

It still makes me laugh to this day that I had to leave a can of John Smiths and a pork pie out for Santa!!

Biggest Christmas disaster, was being so ill one Christmas Day that I couldn't get out of bed to make bacon for the guests we had invited specifically for bacon sandwiches. Then, DH carried me to the car to go to my mum's for lunch, during which time, I spent the entire day in bed asleep

Best tip, is prepare as much as possible in advance e.g. trimming fat off bacon / par-boiling veg on Christmas Eve so that it is all ready to go without too much effort on Christmas Day.