Friday, November 30th, 2018
A stress free Christmas dinner might seem unrealistic rn, but I’m here to tell you that this is totally possible. Well, I’m totally hoping so anyway! If you’re hosting Christmas dinner this year, like me, and you want to make sure you don’t have a melt down in the kitchen when faced with the sprouts, check out these tips!
1. Get Your Kitchen Organised
Make sure your kitchen is organised well in advance of your Christmas dinner. Make sure you have enough oil, salt and pepper, parchment sheets, foil, pots, and pans, etc! Go through a list in your head and visualise preparing the food to make sure you have enough. Ensure everything is in working order, too – how’s your oven doing? If you’ve had it a long time, it could be worth servicing it or even speaking to an Aga conversion specialist. You could even pre-make a few dishes to heat up in the days leading up to Christmas. The vegetables are a particularly handy thing to have prepped in advance.
2. Work Out Your Timings In Advance
Make sure you know how long everything takes to cook by working out your timings in advance. Set timers and alarms so you don’t lose track of anything. Hello, spreadsheet!
3. Clean And Wash As You Go
Do what you can as you go along so you don’t have to do one huge tidy up mission after you’ve eaten. Who can be bothered with that? If you’re having family over, enlist some help to make sure that everything is put away so you can eat with peace of mind.
4. Do You Have Enough Chairs?
Something that you need to think about before it’s too late – chairs. Do you definitely have enough for the amount of guests you’re having over? And a big enough table? It shouldn’t be hard to get guests to bring a spare chair if you really need one, but you should know in advance so you can all eat dinner together.
5. Remember, Some Things Are Perfectly Fine To Buy Pre-made
You don’t have to be a hero and prepare absolutely everything from scratch. Nobody is going to be able to tell the difference between your hand rolled pigs in blankets and ones you bought from the shop. Make a list of things you’re going to buy so that you can save valuable time and stress. Spending a little more money is nearly always worth it.
6. Be Mindful Of People’s Dietary Needs
Make sure you’re mindful of any guests dietary needs. Know if somebody is gluten free, or vegetarian/vegan. You don’t have to do something completely fancy and Michelin star for them. Ask them to bring their own replacement if you want to. They probably won’t mind, and you can heat it up and plate it up for them.
Don’t stress about creating the most perfect Christmas dinner ever. Be smart, plan in advance, and let go of the idea of perfect. Go with the flow and have a wonderful time with the people you love!
Leave a Reply