Share with AO.com how you get your kitchen prepared for Christmas! £300 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[EllieMumsnet]

Christmas can be a time to be with family, indulge in all your favourite foods, share gifts and have some well needed relaxation. However it can also be quite hectic, particularly within the kitchen all that food has to be stored and cooked somewhere! With that being said, AO want you to share how you get your kitchen ready for the Christmas period.

Here’s what AO have to say: “At AO we’ve got Christmas wrapped up, helping take the stress out of the festive season. We know that Christmas is more than the decorations and the presents, your home has to be ready too. Don’t risk a kitchen disaster when you're elbow deep in sprouts and cranberry sauce!

So deck your kitchen out with our fantastic deals. Think large capacity ovens and cookers for the BIGGEST turkey and all the trimmings, fridge freezers for stocking up on all those snacks and drinks and dishwashers to make that post-Christmas clean up a dream. You can even buy now and pay nothing for 12 months on selected appliances, so you can cook, toast and feast to your heart’s content.

When you shop with AO, you can rest assured we'll make it easy for you, with 1000s of appliances to choose from, delivered and installed in time for the big day. So you can concentrate on planning the best Christmas, ever!”

Do you decorate your kitchen to give it a Christmassy feel? Perhaps you have an ‘eat up everything in the fridge’ dinner to clear some space for the Christmas food? Maybe you buy extra kitchen utensils to ensure you’re not short of anything on the big day?

Whatever you do to get your kitchen prepared for Christmas, post it on the thread below and every MNer who posts will be entered into a prize draw, where one lucky winner will randomly selected to receive a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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I get a few Christmas themed kitchen bits either new or out of storage to make the kitchen look a bit more festive, I also put lights up at the back door and windows. I tend to have Christmas tea towels, oven gloves, glasses and mugs out.

I don’t usually do anything in the kitchen but this year we will be in our new home & have a kitchen/diner so I will decorate. We’re buying a dresser so I love the idea of decorating the shelves. And I have just seen a lovely idea in Good Housekeeping to fill hurricane lanterns with baubles. If I win, I will put the money towards a double oven as it’s always tricky to cook everything for Christmas lunch 🍗

We eat everything we can in the freezer at the beginning of December to ma key room for Christmas food. Once empty we deice and clean it. We also clean the oven which in away seems a bit silly as it gets so mucky over Christmas anyway. Mine oven is making squeaking noises at the moment so hoping it last until after Christmas 🎅🎄

I find the Christmas placemats, tablecloth and runner.
Clear out the fridge and give it a clean.

I declutter a bit. I'll move the coffee maker and put other things away that I might usually leave on the work surfaces.
I also give it a good clean when I finish work.
Fairy lights go around the door too!

I sort out the fridge and freezer so that they are clean and ready for all the festive goodies.
We have a kitchen-diner, so I make the table pretty with a sturdy Christmas tablecloth and serviettes and candle centrepieces. And we always have crackers.

Clean and tidy. Clear space in the fridge. That's it.
I'd love to be the kind of person who decorates it and makes it smell all Christmassy (this is my mum) but I just can't be faffed!

I declutter the kitchen, ahead of putting the decorations up down the dining side of the room. I also change the placemats from the boring everyday ones to our lovely festive ones. This year we have a lot of guests, so I've also had to buy a few extra bits of crockery and cutlery.

Currently I'm putting together the meal plan and practising any recipes that I've not made before, so that I'm sure they'll work on the big day! There's then also the terrible job of testing cheeses and wines, in order to choose what'll make the table...

We just have to have a tidy up and clear out all the things that accumulate there like magazines, garden shoes and all those bits that might come in useful one day. Then we have room to seat our Christmas visitors!

clear off the clutter from the kitchen windowsills and then put Christmas clutter on the windowsills instead. Put christmas snowflakes on the windows as these are the windows I see most (when washing up).

Nice and clean with special christmas cups, bowls and plates to add that extra touch to the entire of December!

For Christmas I give the oven it's yearly once over so it's all shiny and doesn't set the smoke alarm off when I open the door. I clean out the kitchen cupboards and we're currently eating our way through the contents of the freezer to free up some space for some festive treats; it does mean that we're having some random meals but it'll be worth it when Christmas arrives.

I deep clean everything, defrost the freezer and reorganise all the pots and pans. I make a list for the big day of what needs to be cooked in which pot and when (yes, over-organised!), and I make sure that everything has its place.

We don't decorate the kitchen, but I always have a poinsettia on the windowsill and Christmas music on the radio.

Give everything a very thorough cleaning.

I like to give the kitchen and oven a good clean, we live out of the fridge/freezer for a week or so then I defrost to make room for all the Christmas goodies. I like to decorate the kitchen with Christmas table cloth and napkins, I love it when it looks all festive :D

We usually decorate the kitchen. I've got some lovely vintagey Christmas posters (think they were actually wrapping paper sheets from a Paperchase outlet years ago) that go up on the doors and windows; paper chains get hung across the ceiling and we have a tiny tree (about 1ft) that gets put on the table.

We spend about 3 hours out there depending on how badly organised my timings are, so it's nice to make it look special .

We eat freezer food a few days before our Christmas shop, to make room for all the Christmas food. We also decorate with a Santa who hangs from our lights...

Try to declutter the cupboards with the out of dates! I had the oven professionally cleaned last year might get that done again for this year.

We always have a big "eat up" the month before Christmas to make room in the fridge and freezer for the Christmas food. I also check that all the utensils/serving dishes/crockery I want to use if still in good shape and if it is give it a good clean or replace. As for decorations I always have a Poinsettia in the kitchen and have a few Christmas knick knacks that I put on the window sill and dresser including a funny singing Christmas sprout that a friend bought for me, it always puts a smile on visitors' faces.

A bit of a Christmas nut here. We have Christmas serving dishes that come out to be used. My Christmas apron gets hung up to be used. Small stockings on either side of the window. We start stocking up on goodies for the cupboard over the Christmas/New Year holidays - baking goods, nuts, sweets, alcohol, juice (and a little fizzy pop) for the children. The Christmas cake is made, and the tin put where I will see it so I won't forget to feed it occasionally. I put up a Christmassy plaid diagonally over the fixed curtains on the window plus similar tea towels. I moan over having to clean the oven. We make Christmas treats and then nibble them and end up making more. Any chocolate must be hidden in the cupboard out of sight because once it's opened, it disappears as if by magic. We have a smaller kitchen this year so more challenging, but must be Christmassy!!

Our table is in the living room, so we have a table cloth with decorations and candles on it (as well as decorations and a tree in the living room of course!).

The most important thing is to clean off all the art work and "stuff" on the front of the fridge so that we can put the "magnetic snowman" on it. It's just the parts of the snowman (mouth with pipe, eyes, nose, hat, mittens, buttons) and the children rearrange it and reassemble it constantly throughout December. Sometimes it's a regular looking "fridge snowman" and other times it's more "Picasso-inspired snowman" but it's become a tradition to have the fridge snowman.

I like to defrost the freezer and have a proper clear out of fridge and cupboards and also give the oven a clean as the meat will be in there fro along time. Refresh any big serving and nibble bowls. I always put up fairy lights around the kitchen and my kids love to make their own paper and card decorations to hang up and I like to have some candles on the go. Oh and a constant supply of mince pies!

I like to clear all the worktops of anything that won't be used, utensils, toasters, kettle if not in use, everything goes. Keep the fridge clear until the big shop, prefer as much fresh as possible.

We start to eat up food and make room in the freezer so I can buy things early which can be frozen - such as sausagemeat for the stuffing etc. I also make room (either by tidying up or eating food) in the storage cupboards as things like crisps are on offer in November, so I can buy them and put them away for Christmas. I also give the kitchen a good clean as I know it is going to be busy in there over the Christmas period.

We moved into our new self-build house on Dec 23 last year and just about had enough stuff to get through Christmas so this year will be the first ‘proper’ Christmas in our new House. And I think I might be cooking for 12..

1. Empty chest freezer as much as poss and fill with pigs in blankets, sausage rolls, part-baked bread, croissants
2. Par-boil about a tonne of spuds, toss in semolina and freeze on trays, ready to chuck in hot fat whenever we need roasties. Ditto parsnips.
3. Clean and switch on fridge freezer in shed and fill with prosecco and potatoes from (2)
4. Fill kitchen wine fridge with ‘kitchen’ white wine and posh soft drinks
5. Check stock of baking cupboard for flour, icing sugar and sugar
6. Buy 3 or 4 jars of cranberry sauce for me
7. Find new hiding places for multiple bags of Tyrrells and Maltesers.
8. Buy huge foil trays for roasting veg - saves on washing-up on Christmas Day
9. Spend an hour working out what time the turkey needs to go in the oven and what time I can safely start drinking without burning the dinner

I don't. I go to my mum's