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

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Use up as much as I can already in the freezer to make room for Christmas goodies.And put up decorations, as so much time is spent in there.

the freezer is the biggy - we need to clear it by mid-november for the main christmas meal to go in there as well as some other essentials to keep us going over the festive period.

I love my freezer so much that I use it for so many leftovers so I always know it is a big job to eat the food in the run up to november.

It's always great if i find time to have a cupboard sort out too - make sure I know where all the big serving plates are and that everything is as tidy as it can be to make things easier on the big day.

We have our main fridge in the kitchen, but a small (old) drinks fridge in the cellar is usually our drinks fridge. As it's winter, outside is perfectly cold enough for drinks so the week before Chistmas all the drinks move to the back yard and the food fridge extends to the cellar for 3 weeks.

Clean it lots. Use up the freezer food

Clean out the cupboards

I am aiming to repaint the kitchen before Christmas as it's looking tired and tatty
Then we fill it up.

My kitchen is a bit of a strange set-up. There is a ledge over the sink looking into the conservatory. I have kitchen blinds and I hang lights with climbing Santas on it at Christmas. It makes washing up a lot more jolly!

Come December first the deep clean of the kitchen starts! Cleaned top to bottom, cupboards, fridge and freezer cleared out, oven cleaned etc.

The kitchen is then filled with all the seasonal treat foods and a gingerbread room spray sprayed regularly.

The dinnerware and tablecloths are all changed to be Christmas themed, and snowflakes hung up on the wall but that is all we do for decorations.

I love Christmas!

I have just finished my pre-Christmas clear out of the cupboards and I will start stocking up on condiments, chutneys and other long life stuff from now. I try to top up the alcohol supply too. It doesn’t feel like such a big financial hit if I add a few extra things to my trolley each week instead of doing one big dedicated shop.

I try to keep on top of the cleaning from now until Christmas. This usually means stopping the kids dumping their stuff on the worktops and leaving it there until they can’t find it when they need it.

The fridges get cleared out just before the big day since I collect my order from the butcher and the farm shop on Christmas Eve. We enjoy eating quite random dinners from what’s left in the fridge and freezer in the run up to Christmas.

I don’t decorate the kitchen but I’ll put out the Christmas tea towels and I light the lanterns on the window sill. The dog gets some festive food bowls and I have a Christmas doormat that I put at the doorway too. Anything else just gets in the way.

We love Christmas Day but I refuse to cook on Boxing Day so the kitchen is only used to heat up leftovers- the cooker and the cook deserve a break!

My small kitchen will have a net of lights in the window, and the extra Christmas goodies are stacked at the back of the work service next to a fruit bowl stacked high with Clementines, fresh dates and pomegranates. I like to create a different from everyday feeling.

I precook and freeze some of the veg for Christmas dinner. Clear out the spare fridge that we keep in the garage.
I don't decorate the kitchen.

declutter the freezer and fridge in prep :)

We use up everything in the freezer and give it a defrost before Christmas for max storage space. This usually inspires me to empty, defrost and clean out the fridge too.

I declutter so I know everything in there is within date and worth the space it's taking up.
This year I am hoping to have a back board in place again on my main cupboard so I don't have all my pans and trays out on the worktop as they have been for the past month!

I make sure all non essentials are finished so the fridge has plenty of space. I plan what I buy so I don't buy fridge stuff that I don't need

Decorate my Welsh Dresser with lights and stars. Clean and declutter and break out the Christmassy tea towels.

Have a good old deep clean so it's ready for all the Christmas cooking!

I clean the top of the fridge, as that's where the cake and other stuff that won't fit in the cupboards generally ends up!

Clean out and defrost the freezer and fridge. Fill up the chest freezer.

I don't celebrate Xmas, so I, do nothing special.

Defrost fridge and then find all the tupperware

We have some Photo Peg String Lights that usually hold the children's latest art projects but over Christmas we will hang their Christmas drawings and some Christmas cards.

We always spend a week or 2 before in making sure everything is more or less cleared out to make way for more products.

I try to get prepared as much as possible throughout December...use up the end of packets and eat more cupboard and freezer foods to make more room. I also try to make as much as possible for Christmas dinner in advance

We don't decorate the kitchen, as it's just a small place to cook and we don't tend to sit in there.

I have a few decorations that go on the shelves, like small christmas trees and reindeers, and I change the tablecloth and placemats. We spend a lot of time in our kitchen, so it's nice to make it feel as christmassy as possible! I do try to clear out the cupboards and fridge before Christmas to make sure I have enough room for the BIG DAY!

Eat everything in the chest freezer. Defrost freezers, clean oven . Don't decorate the kitchen.