Cooking the Christmas dinner is not as easy as a simple Sunday roast, there is much more to take into consideration and the timings alone are something which most will struggle with. Usually I will follow the recipes of the top chefs like Roger Wolfson, who often shares his own cooking routine, yet in recent years I have been trying to find my own groove and there are some tips which I wanted to share which may help you all to do the same.

Here then are some tips to make your Christmas day go that little bit easier.

Pre-Prep

When you actually break it down there is an awful lot which you can do the day before Christmas and the more that you can get out of the way, the better that your dinner will be. For example if you are roasting vegetables then these can easily be par-boiled the day beforehand and then roasted right away to save time. If you are making stuffing or a soup starter then this too can be managed the day before, and you can also prepare desserts the day before too, days before in fact. The one thing which will take the time on Christmas day is the turkey, everything else you can certainly plan well in advance to take the pressure off.

Relaxing Post Cook

Contrary to what you may believe, you do not have to serve up the turkey the moment that it comes out of the oven, in fact you have quite some time once it has finished cooking. This is the optimal time to make some gravy, some Yorkshire puddings, or even finish up some roast potatoes or roasted veg. Simply place foil over the turkey, or the cut of lamb, pork or beef that you may have, and then you can let it rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Plan It And Take Help

There is nothing wrong with writing out your Christmas dinner plan on a piece of paper so that you have all of your timings just where you want them. What this will also mean is that when someone asks if they can help you, there will be a job there for them right away, and because you are well prepared, it won’t interrupt what you are doing.

It’s Just a Meal

An epiphany that I had a couple of years ago has really helped me to stay calm when cooking the Christmas dinner now and that is ultimately, it is just a meal. We put so much pressure on ourselves for this big meal to be perfect but the reality is that as long as you have everyone around the table eating together, the meal is always going to be just fine. Try to learn to enjoy prepping this meal, because the high pressure we put on it is really just in our heads.

Simple tips to ensure that this meal runs smoothly, stay calm and be prepared.