Christmas Dinner tips and tricks: share them with Aunt Bessie's - chance to win £300

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Aunt Bessie's would love to know all about your Christmas Dinner tips and tricks - what makes your festive roast dinner go down well with your family? Do you prepare in advance? What really makes it special in your household? What's the main dish - do you have a turkey or goose? Or something else? What about vegetarian dishes? What about accompaniments like bread sauce, cranberry sauce and stuffing - do you make your own following family recipes, buy it in or something else?

Aunt Bessie's say "Christmas Dinner is about more than just great food – it’s about gathering the family around the table and enjoying the moments that we have together. So we’d love to hear how you make the most of this time by telling us your quick tips and tricks that make room for the important things."

Add your tips for the best Christmas Dinner below and you will be entered into a prize draw where one person will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions Apply

Generally Christmas dinner is done by other half’s family, and any offer of help is answered by ‘No that’s fine dear, have another glass of wine.’ OK then! If we do eat at home, I always try and do a couple of unusual veggie dishes to keep it interesting, such as red cabbage with garlic and bacon, or stir fried broccoli.

I don't mind doing the prep on the day - open a bottle of red, Xmas tunes on the radio and get DH to join in makes it fun and shares the burden

I tend to prepare a lot the day before, vegetables cut and pop in water, make stuffing, cauliflower cheese (yummy!) and collect meat from local butchers already rolled and more stuffing added!

Chill prosecco is a must! That will be required as an accompaniment to the chef!!!

Remember that the supermarket will be quiet by lunchtime on Christmas Eve, it really will. So don't panic. I like to chuck everyone out so I can sing along to Christmas music that day, so shops are a good place to send them. I try to leave anything more than normal cleaning until the New Year, as the place will be a bloody tip come Christmas morning anyway.

We make a quick gravy in the roasting tin the turkey has come out of when we move it to rest - just adding flour and a splosh of red wine to the meat juices.

Go to someone elses! Or failing that book a supermarket delivery slot with ready made party food and buy a load of cheese and crackers plus some fruit for platter. Lots of wine and no one notices the food too much.

Plenty of pigs in blankets and (controversially) Yorkshire puddings all make the Christmas dinner - sure the day is about eating what you love!

I thread my pigs in blankets on to long wooden bbq skewers before cooking. Makes it easier to turn them to get them evenly brown on all sides.

Brine the turkey the day before.
Get some help on board.
Have some fizz to hand.
If you're the cook, you Do Not do the clearing away / dives etc
Enjoy. Have plenty leftovers. But not obscene amounts that it would go to waste. If you do have disgraceful leftovers, take to someone who would appreciate it or package up and give to a homeless person with a knife and fork and a hug!

We always have chicken not turkey - there's only 5 meat eaters at our Christmas lunch and we prefer it.

I used to do a veggie Wellington for the veggies ( rose Elliot recipe with a pate made of a tinof chestnut purée - was delicious!). However we now do homemade stuffing balls in a couple of flavours with lots of nuts and the veggies have those as their protein with all the delicious accompaniments you get at xmas.

Keep your cheese in the boot of the car to save fridge space. Just bring in when you need to bring up to serving temperature.

Write a schedule down with generous prep times.

Peel potatoes in front of the telly with a bowl of water and a bag for the peel.

Bash the potatoes after parboiled.

Always do the veg the day before and leave in water. get things like stuffing out on the side so I don't forget to do it! Otherwise just treat it like a roast and not get too worried , its Christmas!

Get the best quality turkey you can afford. Roast it upside down for the first couple of hours so the skin on the bottom gets brown and the fat soaks through into the breastmeat, then flip it over and cover with bacon weave for the last hour or whatever of roasting.

Prep the veg the night before and leave in cold water on the hob. Delegate specific items for family members to contribute when they ask 'what can I bring'. So MiL brings cheese and DM brings xmas pudding. It takes the burden off and spreads the work nicely without laying a huge chore on anyone.

Unfortunately I can only really recommend what not to do as I'm not the world's best cook tbh. For example I once tried prepping the roasties by par boiling and freezing them the day before but this was a disaster as the frozen potatoes brought down the oven temp so the turkey didn't cook!!

If I won the £300 I would pay to have Christmas dinner out

As much done in advance as possible. Christmas day is literally putting things in and taking things out of the oven.

Also, accepting that it doesn't need to be The Best Christmas Dinner Ever each and every year.

I have a large sheet with details of what has to be done by when ahead of Christmas - this includes preparation of beds etc. and not just cooking. I have allergen free baking to do so all the family can eat the same Stollen/Lebkuchen etc. That is frozen ahead of time. We have our first full Christmas meal by candlelight on Christmas Eve (and another full meal on Christmas Day which is easy because the turkey is already cooked). I like the potatoes and most of the veg to be freshly prepared but it doesn't take that long - DH helps. I use some frozen veg as well to offer a good variety - this saves a lot of time.

"Normal" Christmas pudding is bought - allergen free pudding baked on Christmas Eve morning. Apart from the bought Christmas pudding the whole meal is gluten/milk/egg free to avoid worries about cross-contamination or concerns about who can eat what. It is very much simpler that way!

prep early, dont stress and do everything with some christmas tunes in the background.

Use your slow cooker. Ham is delicious done on slow overnight.

Anyone know if you can fry pigs in blankets? If they are from chilled not frozen should be ok? Save on the oven space!

For perfect crackling, I use packets of pork scratchings & add them to the roast potatoes for the last 10 mins ;0)

I'm a bit of a Monica when it comes to Christmas, everything is organised in advance. Every part of the dinner is planned carefully, then as much as possible is done before hand to maximise enjoyment and minimise stress. I cook and freeze as much as possible, lay the table the night before and have as little to do on the big day as possible :)

I shamelessly take as many shortcuts as I can. Happily use ready made stuff, even roasties sometimes. Frozen veg all the way, as it saves on prep time and avoids waste.

My idea of a great Christmas Day involves spending it with my kids, not slaving away in a hot kitchen making everything from scratch.

I've made gravy (from chicken thighs and lots of veg) simmered for hours, strained and now in the freezer - I find gravy always takes loads of pans, utensils and makes loads of mess so this is hopefully going to make things a little easier on the big day!