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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Not much space for decorations in my kitchen but I do buy Christmas kitchen roll and get out the Christmas tea towels!

Bit of tinsel, a festive candle and a tower of Quality Street boxes in the corner - Christmas kitchen? Done!

We have Christmas tea towel's :)

Matching kitchen roll and tea towel and apron and oven mitts. My own special Christmas mug ever ready. Perfect!!

I spend a day cleaning/decluttering cupboards in November, noting anything that needs replacing for the Christmas dinner eg Foil, stuffing mix etc. I then take another day cleaning appliances, paintwork etc. I don't put any decorations up as I love to have a clean, clear uncluttered look which makes me feel very organised to cope with the extra demand made on both my kitchen and I at a very special time of year.

Have a good kitchen clean out of the cupboards and have a designated cupboard for the Christmas goodies

We prep everything the day before as a family and make sure that everyone knows what will be ready and when. We also make sure that our plates and cutlery are ready to go.

We always spend November trying to use up what we have left in the cupboards and do a big clean up!

I empty out all my food cupboards, clean them, then try and use up as much as I can before Christmas so that we have room for all the nice food.
I also sort out the freezer and use up what we can.
I put my Christmas t-towels out and my Christmas magnets on the fridge.

I have a kitchen diner which is also used for doing homework, listening to the radio, the dc sometimes chatting to their friends etc.

I buy an Advent candle and place it on the kitchen table which is lit each evening when we have dinner. I also put an Advent calendar on the bookcase (or stick it to the tall fridge).

Dd and I decorate an Ikea gingerbread house, make pomanders and sometimes a small wreath.

I get out the Spode Christmas tree mugs and we drink out of those. I've also got some Christmas themed tins for mince pies etc, a couple of fridge magnets and Christmas cookery books.

On the day itself we don't have any special crockery, glasses, tablecloths etc. Just replace the Advent candle with a small arrangement of pillar candles with ivy from the garden.

And try to remember where I have hidden all the goodies from the rest of the family.

We usually bung a bit of tinsel around the kitchen clock. That's about it. The kitchen is a working room. It's always 'ready for Christmas'.

We're lucky that the kitchen is open plan so the festiveness just flows in. In regards to preparing we generally try and clear both the fridge and freezer ready for the christmas load to go in!

I usually give everything a really good clean and then manage to "decorate" nearly every available surface with icing sugar and silver balls while icing the Christmas cake.

I make as much space on the surfaces as I can for preparitons space

I hang up my glittery reindeers on the wall, get out the festive tea-towels, and I have some lovely Christmas glassware from my Grandmother that has been in use since the 1960's. I then relish making a massive Christmas cake, which takes up the whole of a cupboard shelf! Love it!

Clean clean clean, sort the fridge, clear freezer space and then save some time in Christmas Day by prepping and freezing some bits in advance :)

I give it a really good clean about a week before then I put up Christmas decorations on my kitchen door handles. Christmas day I lay the table with christmas placemats, candles, linen and napkins.

I make a special effort with the kitchen because its where i spend a lot of time over christmas with the family. Decoration. Twinkling lights around the room. Even has its own xmas tree.

Find all new hiding places for the Christmas chocolate (kids have sussed all my old ones, they are like secret agents), crack out the Christmas tea towels and try and squeeze some decorations in so I can be a bit festive when stuck in there on Christmas day!

Get it all cleaned up

I have a range cooker which, following a break-down just before Christmas one year, I always clean and check out the oven by using all the parts at the beginning of December. I also like to book my home delivery shopping orders well in advance, so that I can have all the food delivered to home. Finally, a couple of weeks before Christmas, we have a week where I keep the shopping down to the bare minimum and we work through food in the freezer and cupboards as much as possible, to create room for Christmas treats and left-overs.

don't really do anything to the kitchen for xmas

I buy turkey foil and disposable roasting tins to save on washing up! I also use up all the "proper" food to make way for the christmas stuff. This year will be interesting as we are currently having a new kitchen put in.

Well. I sometimes move the piles and piles of snacks to make way for more snacks.

I get someone in to clean the oven & service the dishwasher