As everyone is well aware, Christmas should be a time of celebration, happiness and family bonding. However, the people responsible for preparing the Christmas meal often do not get a chance to feel the festive joy and sometimes stress levels can go through the roof. Having to make sure portions are correct, everything finishes cooking at exactly the same time, and keeping it all warm are just some of the challenges. Here are three tips then that you can use to help your Christmas meal go smoothly.

Pre-Prepare Food. Believe it or not, a great deal of the Christmas meal can be prepared earlier than day or even the day before. Cooked vegetables wont go bad or dry out if you place them into cold water and reheat them before serving. Add to hot water for 3 minutes and its ready to serve. All the sauces can be made early and just reheated with a bit of extra water when you need them. Unfortunately its very difficult to pre-cook the turkey as it tends to dry out and tastes better fresh, but you should now have time to cook this.

Get Table Sorted. This can be done at the very beginning of the day and saves a lot of hassle. You can lay all the place settings, cutlery and champagne flutes as long as you know how many people you are expecting. You can even place the crackers in position and add decorations such as poinsettias in glass vases.  Doing it early means you don’t have to panic setting it all up just before serving.


Self Serve. By having dishes in the kitchen that people can serve themselves from, you can spare everyone (including yourself) a lot of hassle. This way you don’t have to lug heavy bowls and serving dishes back and forth, the dining table doesn’t get cluttered up, and people can have exactly what they want. It’s advisable to keep the wine glasses on the table however as trying to juggle food and drink never ends well.

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