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

My tip is to start drinking fizzy wine after breakfast and then continue to be mildly sloshed until the 27th

My tips for a stress free day is to let everyone have their own space despite the house being very busy otherwise they tend to argue. If one of my sons wants to make lego on his own in the bedroom then that is ok otherwise its a manic stressful time.

Oh I had the most awful disaster with Yorkshire puddings two years ago. I had forgotten to put something in them and they didn't rise! I can only think it was the flower? Stress was the cause now I make them the day before.

I always make the gravy, cranberry sauce and bread sauce two weeks before, then freeze them in ice cube trays (transferring the frozen cubes to freezer bags when they're solid). They can be defrosted quickly and easily on the day then.

My tip is to prepare as much of the food as you can the day before or even earlier if possible! Failing that cheat! Use preprepared vegetables and forget about making your own gravy, buy it! ;)

Organisation and preparation - essential when allergies make buying most pre-prepared party foods impossible. Everything is easier when you know exactly what needs to be done and when.

Always cook with wine. Never put it in your food, as that is a waste.
Nice and calm. Ready to go to mass with a smile on my face, all festive, and huge gammon cooking away nicely.
My best tip for crispy roasties is to cook them in goose fat, turning them regularly.

We had frozen a turkey, got it out Christmas Eve and left it to defrost in the utility room overnight. Come Christmas morning we all peeled potatoes & veg, made stuffing, bread sauce, the lot. Come time to plate up and we realised we'd never brought the turkey in from the utility room... My DF occasionally still 'jokingly' looks in there whenever he comes round for a meal to see what we've forgotten.

I've left entire dishes (with quantities to serve upwards of 20 people) in the fridge before now. Just plain forgotten to serve them

Prep everything in advance.

Make a list of what you intend to serve and tick things off so you don't miss anything.

Don't allow anyone in the kitchen unless they are a) really, genuinely useful at chopping etc or b) going to keep you amused, calm and topped up with wine.

at forgetting to put the turkey in the oven. Surely you'd notice when it was time to put the potatoes in to roast? But by that time you'd be running two hours late.

Forgetting to take the plastic bag of giblets out is a classic, so we always remember to check. However one year we were outwitted by the bloody butcher putting two giblet bags in - one at each end. Obviously once you've taken one out, why would you go on looking? Gave it a slightly plasticky aroma but still edible.

Like a pp we do Christmas dinner on the evening of the 24th (for logistical reasons). It has the major advantage that if you forget anything vital the shops will still be open.

ahhh.... that would be the year we all sat at the beautifully decorated table, crackers pulled, paper hats on, incredulously watching the xmas turkey slowly edging its way to the end of the table and into the jaws of the dog he pulled on the table runner and waited for it to be delivered

top tip... do not overdo the advocaat so much that everyones responses are slowed down, and top tip 2 ... sausages DO make a nice xmas dinner alternative

Top tip: only invite people that you know will be chilled.

best christmas was our first at home rather than the frantic journey 'oop north' with car full of presents and tired kids. Bliss, sooo relaxed, only thing wrong was that I had the romantic notion that wrapping the presents together once the kids were in bed with a glass of sparkly stuff was a nice idea.... changed my mind at 1.00 am when we finished, wrapping getting more and more haphazard as we went along. so tips... do not feel the need to overindulge your children, a few well thought out presents that will keep them busy is a better plan than lots of tat.
pre preparing your veg the night before and bagging up in the fridge makes the day much easier. keeping the wine outside overnight gives you more space in your fridge. buy most of your food in advance so you can do last minute shopping for just a few items reduces the stress, as does having frozen alternatives already in the freezer so if you can't face Lidl on xmas eve or stock is gone or you fall ill etc etc you have the makings of a meal in anyway. It can always be used if you do get fresh. plan in advance for meals over the holidays especially if you are hosting friends / family, if you have a list of what you need for each event then you can get stuff in advance and not have to worry about any shopping over your holiday except for fresh bread and milk ( could even stock UHT and bake in oven bread or bread mix and do your own) unless of course you are like my lovely mum who views a trip to Lidl as a whole event in itself (disclaimer, she is 86 and does not get out very often and her Lidl is not close so she needs someone to take her and I am 350 miles from home )

My worst was when we invited the whole in-law clan around. We told them to arrive before midday as we eat early because of DS's routine. They arrived an hour and a half late by which time the stuffing was burnt, the veg were limp and the roasties were a hollow disaster. Admittedly the weather was ghastly that day. Then they all left about 5pm, just about the same time I finished the clearing-up!

I do as much prep as I can the week/couple of days before, like doing all the vegetables and bagging them up in ziplocks. Write the cooking times on the bags, and as you put each bag in the fridge, write down where you have put it on a list - eg croquette potatoes, top drawer freezer, so there aren't any items which have been accidentally left there uncooked until it's too late or arguments that something isn't where your DH thought you left it...

We do a fair bit of shopping at Lidl as our family is part-German, and it's the only place we can get some traditional things short of driving over there. We do a traditional Christmas Eve meal that is wuerst, sauerkraut and potatoes, and have lots of lebkuechen and dominosteine for nibbles. (Dear Lidl - please sell dominosteine! We have to get them from specialist shops. I'm sure England would love them...)

I forgot to buy a roasting tin for my turkey...queue a mad dash around to the neighbours at half past six on Christmas morning!

ooooh another tip, if you are doing a buffet, lay the table with the mats / plates / serving dishes you need for what you are planning to cook / serve and stick a post it note on each dish saying what is going in it. this way you ensure you get a good layout and the best serving dish / plate for whatever you are prepping, plus you don't end up forgetting something that is left in the fridge or oven

at forgetting to do the turkey! That would be a blessing in my book, I am not a big turkey fan and would be quite happy with pigs in blankets and stuffing for dinner .

We are going to my mum's this year having hosted ourselves for the past few years and done lovely slow roasts of beef. Mum has got a turkey crown. I'm dreading it.

Lists for timing the food, and to plan how much time you can spend in the kitchen away from the dreaded relatives.
Drink. Lots and lots. One year with my ex boyfriend I drank so much I passed out after dinner (most enjoyable Christmas I spent with that tool).
Nod and smile and don't get riled by goady relatives (see drink, above).

Mine have gone fairly smoothly, but my husband's last Christmas with his ex was eventful - they were at his parents' house when her dad turned up in the middle of dinner, having had an argument with her mum and driven 500 miles to them... Somewhat uncomfortable by all accounts, not least because there wasn't enough food for an extra person!

Disaster- the year I left it late to get the Christmas tree. Everywhere had sold out and I ended up going to the woods and propping a stray branch up in a bucket. A lovely branch mind you but it was hard convincingly selling it as my 'alternative ' choice of Christmas treee for that year.

Oh, and top tip- don't try to be both the perfect host and cook all on your own. It's just not possible (for me anyway). Buy in a few choice ready made/prepared bits to help you spent more time with your guests.

I have fond memories of the year the Christmas pudding went up in a fireball with a big WHOOMPH rather than the atmospheric gentle flame I had in mind... thankfully I kept my hair and eyebrows and learned not to over warm the vodka before setting fire to it. The jug of vodka was also flaming beautifully, as was the spillage on the work top. Oh happy days!

Worst Christmas disaster was last year. The stormy weather bought the power cables down in our village and the electric went off at midday on Christmas Eve and didn't come back on until 10pm on Boxing day night.

We decamped to my DMs on Christmas Eve but I got a text from a friend further up in the village at 7pm saying her power had just come back on. Got home to find ours still out as we must be on a different part of the grid to her. DH got home from work at 8pm to find us huddled round the fire in a freezing cold, dark house. Decided to sit it out which was ok until I went to put the DCs to bed but it was so cold you could see your breath, so at 10pm we went back to Mums with all the presents, a bike which needed to be assembled for the morning and a goose to be cooked the next day.

Power still wasn't on next morning so we decided to cook there (DPs coming to us anyway) which was fine, but for the fact the Goose wouldn't fit in my Mums smaller over and DH had to chop it's legs off to fit it all in!

All worked out in the end but was very stressful!

The funniest Christmas disaster was LongDistanceDog getting the raw Turkey, the look of confusion on xp's face looking for the turkey was priceless, we just heard a chomping coming from the landing, the little (well big) sod had pilfered it we had to bribe him to make sure he didn't eat the whole thing bones and all.

We had mini pigs in blankets toad in the hole for Xmas dinner, with all the trimmings. And a very mopey guilty looking dog.

Now I rely on wine, and cheating by getting as much pre prepared stuff as possible, even down to pre cut veg. The only thing I will not cheat on is the gravy and potatoes.

My food tip is to have a fresh fruit starter before the turkey to keep it simple - we still love chopped melon or maybe grapefuit. Refreshing after all those early morning chocolates!

Best christmas memory - unpacking my stocking and finding a mandarin, mini box of milk tray and felp tip pens!

Disaster was when we didn't have a big enough turkey!!!