Your Christmas Timeline

Our Christmas Timeline starts with a day by day to-do list and ends with a printable time guide to the big day, meaning that you will be able to relax and enjoy the day with your family.

17th December
Make Your Master List
Today is a day of list making. Identify all the meals you will be cooking over Christmas, including Christmas dinner, and make a conclusive shopping list, divided into vegetables, meats, store cupboard ingredients and fridge items. Take stock of your fridge and freezer, as well as your store cupboard, and make sure that you are not doubling up on ingredients that you already have.

18th December
Start Using Up The Food
From now until the 22nd try to use up food you have in your fridge and freezer for family meals. This will free up space for the big Christmas items like turkey and ham, and will ensure that you have less waste over the Christmas period.

19th December
Make Some Freezer Meals
This is a good day to make up a few lasagnes or cottage pies for over the festive period. We often have unexpected guests, and don’t want to cook when the turkey sandwiches run out, so this is a great opportunity to have something to pull out of the freezer at a moment’s notice.

20th December
Get Your Bake On
Time to create some nibbles that can be whipped out of the freezer to be enjoyed with drinks. We love sausage rolls and camembert and cranberry parcels. Rope the kids in to make some Christmas cookies that will keep well in a tin over the festive period.

21st December
Get Ahead For The Big Day
Par boil your potatoes for roasting, cool and freeze. You can also make your cranberry sauce and freeze today also. Use today to take stock of your drinks cabinet and stock up on wine, beer and mixed drinks. Fill ice trays and slide them into the freezer for later.

22nd December
Start The Christmas Shop
Double check your list and pick up anything that will stay fresh today. Load up on herbs, vegetables and any store cupboard ingredients you need. Tomorrow should be your last shopping day, so try to get as much as possible today.

23rd December
Sweets For Your Sweets
If you are making a trifle, you can make this today. Also, a yule log will keep if you want to make it today to get ahead of yourself. Finish all your shopping and pick up your turkey and ham from the butchers. Keep this as late as possible so that your meat will stay in the super refrigerated environment of the butchers as long as it can.

24th December – Christmas Eve
Time To Get Cooking
Today is the day to get ahead on everything you possibly can. Make your Brussels sprout gratin today up until its final baking stage and make up your sausage meat stuffing mix and leave to rest and gather flavour in the fridge. You can make any mashed vegetables you will be serving tomorrow today. Today is also the day to set the dinner table for tomorrow. Christmas Eve is the perfect evening for a dinner on the lap; we serve sausages in hot dog rolls for the ultimate handheld supper. Print out your plan for tomorrow and have all your timings ready to go, so you know exactly what has to be done, when.

Download your Christmas Timeline Here

 

25th December – The Big Day
Firstly, stay calm. Stick your plan up on a cupboard or fridge, where you can see it and stick to it regimentally. Make sure to take the turkey out of the fridge at least two hours before you intend to start cooking, and preheat the oven in good time. Remember to delegate and also that the turkey will rest happily for up to an hour and half under it’s foil tent, so forgive yourself if you need some wiggle room on timings at the end. Check out Adrian Martin’s Top Tips For Turkey here. You will need to boil honey roast ham  and then glaze make sure to check out our top tips for cooking your ham here.