Simple Tips For A Stress-Free Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner is arguably the best meal of the year – a huge succulent turkey, crisp yet fluffy roast potatoes, rich gravy, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets! Our mouths are watering just thinking about it. To many, however, the thought of having to cook Christmas dinner for the family is a daunting task.

22 December 2020

That is why we have put together a list of simple tips and tricks that can make cooking Christmas dinner a breeze, and allow you to relax and enjoy the festivities.

Ultimate Christmas Dinner Guide:

Organised woman cooking Christmas dinner

Stay Organised!

This might seem like an obvious one but it’s so important. Make sure you have absolutely everything you need in the days leading up to Christmas. Make a checklist of everything you need from the meat and vegetables to little things like seasoning and oil. Try and get everything before the 22nd December, that way you can avoid a last-minute dash around the supermarket and fighting crowds of people particularly if you’re worried about social distancing.

Photograph of cutlery inside a christmas over glove

Make Sure You’ve Got All The Equipment For The Job

You’ll need plenty of oven trays, pots, pans, serving dishes, plates, knives and cutlery. Christmas dinner is a big job and takes a lot of different pots and pans to cook things in, especially if you’re cooking for a big family. You don’t want to be caught short on Christmas morning when you don’t have enough pans to cook the veg or plates to serve the food!

Photograph of prepared food in clear bowls

Prep As Much As You Can The Day Before

Peel your potatoes, carrots, parsnips and other vegetables the night before and pre-cook them. Even things like stuffing, pigs in blankets and gravy can be made and cooked the day before too. Then you can store them in the fridge overnight and reheat them on the day in the microwave or oven. They’ll taste just as delicious, but it’ll save you a ton of time on Christmas morning.

Try our festive slow cooker stuffing to take all the hassle out of cooking and free up some space in the oven – it’s ideal for preparing the night before and cooking slowly overnight too so it’s ready by the time you wake up!

Image of a roast Christmas turkey with chestnuts and salt

Roast Your Meat In The Slow Cooker

Instead of spending hours stressing out on Christmas day trying to roast your turkey, beef, ham, chicken or nut roast cook it slowly overnight on a low heat in the slow cooker. It’ll save you so much time on the day and is incredibly simple to do. It also leaves your meat juicy and tender and saves a lot of cleaning up! Chop up some vegetables and throw them in there too under the meat, so they soak up all the delicious juices, which saves you another job.

Image of a novelty chicken christmas timer on a work surface

Get Your Timings Sorted

Plan exactly how long each thing will take to cook and create a little plan beforehand. Set timers if you need to when you put things in to cook. This way you’ll know exactly when things are ready, so you won’t forget about them and accidentally burn something – which is always a disaster. This will save you running around like a headless chicken on Christmas Day trying to remember when to put the roasties in and take the stuffing out, or possibly forgetting about the pigs in blankets (ultimate disaster)!

Red Swan Dishwasher in a fully fitted kitchen

Wash Up As You Go

Christmas dinner always involves using every pot, pan, tray, plate and utensil in sight, and if you’re anything like us, your kitchen is piled up with dirty dishes at the end of the night. Try and wash things you no longer need as you go, this way you’ll get to relax with your family after enjoying your meal instead tackling the mountain of dirty dishes that have you chained to the sink for hours on end. Having a dishwasher will already save you a good chunk of time, (if you haven’t got one, consider treating yourself this Christmas – you won’t regret it) even if you simply load it up before you sit down for Christmas Dinner and switch it on, so you can re-load it with plates afterwards.

Do you have any useful tips to save time and stress on Christmas day? Share them with us on social media!

Merry Christmas from Swan!