LinsFood | by Azlin Bloor

In-Depth Recipes, Food Culture & Food Stories

MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Categories
      • Amuse-Bouches, Canapés and Starters
      • Cookies
      • Desserts
      • Dips, Sauces and Gravy Recipes
      • Eggless Recipes (Desserts & Baking)
      • Birthday and Occasion Cakes and Cupcakes
      • Cheese (Types and Recipes)
      • Gluten Free
      • Healthy Recipes
      • Meat Recipes
      • Noodle Recipes from around the World
      • Rice Recipes from around the World
      • Salad Recipes
      • Soups and Stews from around the World
      • Seafood
      • Vegan
      • Vegetarian
    • Seasonal Recipes
      • Winter Recipes
      • Spring Recipes
      • Summer Recipes
      • What's in Season Now?
      • Autumn (Fall) Recipes
    • Festive Recipes
      • Chinese New Year Recipes
      • Valentine's Day Recipes
      • Nowruz Recipes (Persian New Year)
      • Easter Recipes
      • Ramadan Recipes from around the World
      • Eid Recipes from around the World
      • Thanksgiving Recipes
      • Christmas Recipes from around the World
    • Collections
      • Alcoholic Drinks
      • Alcohol Free Drinks
      • Breakfast & Brunch Recipes
      • Cake Decorating 101
      • Fine Dining
      • Gin Recipes
      • Pantry Recipes
      • The Chilli Pepper Page
      • Top 12 Chicken Recipes
  • World Cuisines
    • American
    • British Recipes
    • Burmese Recipes
    • Chinese Recipes
    • East and West African Recipes
    • Eastern and Central European Recipes
    • French Recipes
    • South Asian Recipes (India, Pakistan & Sri Lanka)
      • Kashmiri Recipes
    • Indonesian Recipes
    • Italian Recipes
      • Risotto Masterclass
    • Japanese Recipes
    • Korean Recipes
    • Latin American Recipes
    • Middle Eastern and North African Recipes
      • Persian Recipes
      • Tagine Masterclass
    • What is Singapore and Malaysian Food?
    • Spanish Recipes
    • Thai Recipes
    • Turkish Recipes
    • Vietnamese Recipes
  • Reference
    • Ingredients

      Ingredients
    • The Edible Garden

      The Edible Garden
    • What’s In Season?

      What's In Season?
    • Oven/Cooking Conversions

      Oven/Cooking Conversions
  • Travel
  • Media
  • About
    • About Me

      About Me
    • Online Cooking Courses

      How to cook noodles
    • My Cookbooks

      Singapore Recipes

Stress Free Christmas Secret #1 (Stress Free Thanksgiving too!)

stress free christmas image
stress free christmas secrets
Fancy a Stress Free Christmas? Stick with me!

Table of contents

  • Stress Free Christmas Anyone?
  • Stress Free Christmas Secret #1
  • Make a Guest List
    • Plan Seating Arrangement
  • Plan your Menu
  • A Simple Christmas Day Menu
    • Main
    • Sides, Sauces and Gravy
    • Dessert
  • Don’t Forget your Drinks!
  • Make a Schedule
    • Stress Free Christmas Day Schedule
  • And that’s it for Day #1!
  • All my Christmas Secrets!

Stress Free Christmas Anyone?

How do you have a stress free Christmas, and similarly, a stress Thanksgiving? I’ve been hosting Christmas lunches (I refuse to call it dinner, like many in the UK do) since before I got married.

First, as a single girl in London with so many other fellow expatriates, then when I got married, because my mother-in-law hates the kitchen and is very proud of it.

Over the years, we’ve had the odd year when the Christmas meal has been cooked by my father-in-law, brother-in-law and my sister-in-law.

The former two get so stressed out, one can’t go into the kitchen in the last hour for a drink! My sister-in-law is perfectly fine; as she says, it’s only a grander version of the usual Sunday roast.

Stress Free Christmas Secret #1

PLAN. EVERYTHING.

And I mean EVERYTHING. From the guests, to the menu, to the tools and equipment you’ll need, everything wants to be accounted for before the big day.

Way before the big day. Even if it’s just the 2 of you.

Christmas meal on the table
Christmas lunch with the family, an eclectic mix

Make a Guest List

Besides the menu, this is always a favourite task when I’m entertaining. For Christmas, it’s always with the in-laws, some years, there would be 12 of us, on others, 8, when my brother-in-law is with his in-laws.

Before you can even think about the food, you need to know who, and how many are coming.

Don’t forget to find out if anyone has allergies or just plain doesn’t eat something. My family has an eclectic taste, for want of a better word, so there is always something.

For eg, some years ago, after watching a documentary on poultry welfare, my father-in-law decided that he wasn’t going to eat any poultry ever again. That means, no turkey.

So, I always make some lamb shanks for him, that’s enjoyed by the other non vegetarians too. The lamb shanks are easy, because they’re a one-pot recipe and just go on the stove. And can even be made the day before.

Plan Seating Arrangement

Even if there are only 4 of you, it pays to work it out before hand. And what’s more, once you know who’s sitting where, you can assign little place cards. That just ups your game, don’t you think?

I’ve always done that, and as soon as my kids were old enough and could write, I passed this job on to them, and let them design the cards too.

A great way to keep the kids occupied!

Slow Braised Lamb Shanks
Slow Braised Lamb Shanks

Plan your Menu

Keep it real. Keep it doable.

This is especially if it’s going to be your first time cooking the Christmas meal. Or Thanksgiving.

While Christmas is meant to be extravagant, one has to draw the line somewhere. Be honest with yourself with what you can and can’t do, for a stress free Christmas. You do have some leeway here, because there are many things that can be done the day before. (That’s secret #3 😉).

Look at this image of an old menu I have below, you can see that there is so much on there. But I’m comfortable with making all that, and with a timetable, it’s a breeze. And remember secret #3, make ahead, which I totally do.

Crazy right? Non poultry eater and vegetarians!

By the way, a BIG stress free Christmas rule? Never cook anything for the first time on Christmas Day!

That goes for any special occasion or when you are entertaining. If you want to try something new, you have to do a test run. That way, any second guessing or fails are dealt with in your own time and comfort.

A Simple Christmas Day Menu

Main

Amazingly, I don’t have a turkey recipe on this site. But look out for 2 in the next few weeks. Both with alternative flavours; one’s Chinese, the other Indian.

But I’ve got the following in the meantime:

  • Persian Roast Lamb
  • Roast Pheasant Masala
    Roast Pheasant Masala
  • Crown Roast of Lamb
    Crown Roast of Lamb
  • Yemeni Chicken Mandi, smoky roast chicken on a bed of rice
    Yemeni Chicken

Sides, Sauces and Gravy

This will include all the usual suspects and trimmings. For a stress free Christmas, you want to be a little conservative, with maybe just potatoes, 2 vegetables and stuffing. Because everybody loves a good stuffing! 🤣

Here are some ideas. We’ll look at how to get ahead on Day 3.

  • Easy Make Ahead Gravy
    Easy Make Ahead Gravy
  • Spicy Sage, Onion and Chorizo Stuffing
    Spicy Chorizo Stuffing
  • Traditional Sage and Onion Stuffing
    Traditional Sage and Onion Stuffing
  • Cranberry sauce with Ginger Wine
    Cranberry sauce with Ginger Wine

Dessert

In the UK, the traditional Christmas dessert will be Christmas pudding. My husband hated it and we’d always have something chocolate for him. Very fussy family we have!

Don’t forget any sauces or ice cream that you will need.

  • Christmas Pudding
    Christmas Pudding
  • bokeh christmas pudding and lights
    Alcohol Free Christmas Pudding
  • topping cheesecake with glazed oranges
    Eggless Christmas Pudding Cheesecake
  • Baileys Tiramisu
    Baileys Tiramisu

Don’t Forget your Drinks!

So when the guests arrive, there are no headless chickens going: what do we have, where are the drinks, where’s the bottle opener? We’ll get to this in Secret #4.

As chef of the day, that’s the last thing you want to be worried about, when you are adding the finishing touches to the Christmas meal.

Drinks are an important part of the entertaining menu, especially if you are aiming for a stress free Christmas.

You need to think about pre (apéritif), during and after. More often than not though, on Christmas day, many people start with a drink that’s going to be taken through to the dinner table. And that’s perfectly fine.

So all you need to think about is the digestifs (after dinner drinks), whether that’s:

  • port
  • sherry
  • brandy
  • Baileys
  • or anything else that’s popular in your household or where you live

We tend to start with a little warmed up ginger wine, mulled wine or sherry, then move on to red wine for the meal. After dinner is usually a lovely, old port and coffee.

Some recipes and ideas for you below.

  • adding tonic water to christmas mocktail
    Cranberry & Ginger Tonic
    (alcohol free)
  • Christmas Alexander, a Christmas Cocktail with Baileys
    Christmas Alexander – makes a great digestif, if a little rich
  • mulled wine
    Mulled Wine
  • Mulled Cider
    Mulled Cider

Make a Schedule

This is extremely important for a stress free Christmas, and we’re talking about both a Christmas Eve schedule (or list of things to do) and more importantly, a Christmas Day schedule.

So write down:

  • what time you need to be up
  • when the turkey needs to go in
  • same with the potatoes, carrots, sprouts, etc.
  • gravy
  • puddings
  • even what time to get dressed, if necessary!

Start from the time you intend to sit down for your meal, then work backwards. I’ll give you a sample below that you can download and print.

When my kids were little, to ensure a stress free Christmas, I used to even add the times they’d have to get dressed to the planner! And baby feed times. I was always hosting Christmas, even with a 1-year old baby and later on, 4 young kids.

My husband was a very hands on dad, but as all mums will tell you, dads never seem to be able to find anything! Nor get instructions right. (Sorry dads!) Only mums have an answer to, “Mummy, where’s my …?”. So get those changing times in the schedule!

Stress Free Christmas Day Schedule

I’m giving you my Christmas schedule, one that’s been used again and again, and perfected over 20+ years. Change it to suit your needs, as you see fit.

Click here to download my Christmas Schedule and print it, so you can check it off as you go.

Christmas Eve Planner? That’s in our Make Ahead, Get Ahead post, which is Secret #3.

There are a couple of things you have to bear in mind when making your Christmas planner.

The first is to allow for some extra time here and there, especially in the last hour. Because you are going to, inevitably, run over in some places. That means when you are making a schedule, don’t make it too tight, be generous.

Stress Free Christmas means there’s plenty of time for a photo shoot before the meal

For eg, if you take 10 minutes to prep something, right down 15. That sort of stuff.

Second thing to bear in mind is the fact that in the last half an hour, a lot will need doing, practically all at once. This is because you will be finishing with all the sides and they will need taking out to the table. Get help (Secret #4).

As much as you can, use oven-to-table cookware, so you don’t need to spend time transferring, and there is less washing up (Secret #5).

I haven’t written down what time you need to be up, as that’s personal and will depend on whether you have kids, as well as the size of your turkey!

And that’s it for Day #1!

Phew, that’s it for our Stress Free Christmas Secret #1. I know you are going to find it useful if you are usually close to tears when entertaining, but especially, if this is your first time hosting a Christmas meal.

Let me know with a comment below what it’s like for you, and of course, if you have anything you’d like to add.

This is just Secret #1. Look out for Secret #2 tomorrow!

But if you are too impatient,

All my Christmas Secrets!

  • Stress Free Secret #2
  • Stress Free Secret #3
  • Stress Free Secret #4
  • Stress Free Secrets #5

Lin xx

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




LinsFood | by Azlin Bloor

Hey folks, I’m Azlin Bloor; former chef, culinary instructor and mum of 4.
Click here to read more about me!

Language

ArabicMalayFrenchSpanishHindiChinese (Simplified)ItalianRussianEnglishGerman

My Latest Posts!

  • Marmalade Duck with Sichuan PeppercornsMarmalade Roast Duck with Sichuan Peppercorns (perfect Chinese New Year Recipe)
  • Vegan Mapo Tofu on white rice, in a bowlVegan Mapo Tofu (perfect Vegan Chinese New Year Recipe)
  • Kashmiri chilli powderWhat is Kashmiri Chilli? (Essential Ingredient in the South Asian Kitchen)
  • sage, onion and chorizo stuffingSage, Onion and Chorizo Stuffing
my foodgawker gallery
Tasty Query - recipes search engine
Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

Cook with me on Udemy!

Cook With Me

LinsFood contains affiliate links. This means that we earn a commission off any purchases that you might make by clicking on some of the product links.

Contact Me     Privacy Policy     Cookie Policy
Copyright Azlin Bloor | LinsFood.com 2011-2021
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.