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Christmas is coming – How to prepare for the big day

Posted on December 16th, 2016

It’s that time of year again folks — the decorations are up, the high street is manic and you’ve had the only correspondence of the year from your second cousin in Gloucester, Peter, in the form of a Christmas card. That’s right, it’s Christmas, and that means your life is going to have to transform to accommodate the day.

 

Christmas is not a regular day and Christmas dinner is no regular roast, it requires planning to ensure it doesn’t end up a disaster… because no one wants to be responsible for what will be known as ‘THAT Christmas’.

Fear not, we’re not going to tell you how to decorate your tree or home (we’re hoping you’ve already got that covered!) No, we’re going to give you guidance and tips on how to make your home a Christmas hub of activity on the big day as well as how to make sure everything goes perfectly!

Firstly, the planning of your Christmas day does not begin on the 25th, oh no, you should be thinking about your day’s routine right about now.

Before anything gets planned in too much detail you need to know who’s coming to your new home for dinner. How many people are there? Do you have the space? Who hates brussel sprouts? Which cousin is suddenly vegan? These are all scenarios that should be considered by your Christmas schedule allowing you to plan accordingly.

So, once you know who’s coming, and their specific dietary requirements, start planning what you’re going to eat. Are you having turkey like every other year or are you going to mix it up with a 3-bird roast or even fish? Itemise everything you’re going to need for the day and do not lose that list, this is now your bible.

From now on when you head out to the shops, take your list with you as this will prevent you from impulsively buying and keep you on the straight and narrow. We’re not saying don’t indulge in the festive treats, we’re saying be sensible — this way you’ll save money and won’t feel guilty as you throw away half of the food you bought! We find buying your Christmas essentials in dribs and drabs makes the whole process less overwhelming than one huge shop a few days before!

Now you’ve done all of this there’s probably not too many days left until the 25th, don’t panic.

Christmas breakfast is a great part of the day, not only can you drink before 12 (all hail bucks fizz), but once presents are opened, it’s a great set up for a long day. We personally love a cooked ham for breakfast, which of course you’ve cooked a few days before. A ham is great as it lasts for days and you can pick at it as and when, so it’s well worth considering!

By having breakfast taken care of with days to spare, you free up your Christmas morning (and your oven) to prepare for the best roast dinner of the year. On the day that you choose to cook your Christmas breakfast ham, you might consider making it the day you buy all of your fresh ingredients so that there’s no mad rush in the shop and also so they won’t spoil.

If you opted for turkey for your Christmas dinner, you’ll want to get it out of the freezer a day or two before Christmas to let it defrost. We tend not to suggest doing it in the fridge as this will take forever, why not put it on a tray and leave it covered in the garage? We’ve all seen the Royle Family episode where they try to defrost it in the bath. Please, please don’t do that…

It’s now Christmas Eve. In an ideal world, you’ve wrapped all of your presents and are sitting relatively calmly with a glass of wine in your living room watching a Christmas classic on the tele. However, in reality you’re frantically running from room to room trying to remember where you hid the kid’s presents!

Calm down, the presents are in the top part of the cupboard. Now back to Christmas Day.

A good way to free up your Christmas Day is to peel and prep all of your veg the night before and keep it in the fridge until the following day. Hopefully your turkey is defrosted by now, so remove the giblets and boil them up on Christmas Eve for the perfect Christmas Day gravy!

If you’ve followed our guide, you should be fairly in control at this point, which means “Santa” can be quite chilled out as he distributes presents. On Christmas Day, as long as you have your turkey in the oven by 10am, you’re all set for a banquet at lunch time! We won’t go into how to make your roast dinner, as everyone’s is different, but you will now have enough free time to make the PERFECT Christmas Dinner for all of your guests!

We hope this has helped, and from all of us at Seddon Homes, we wish you a very merry Christmas.

 

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