The Christmas Food Shop

The Christmas food shop can be a stressful and expensive experience!

For once, this year, I feel fairly organised for Christmas. That is, 90% of the time anyway! The majority of the presents are bought, wrapped, under the tree or bagged up and hidden in the loft. My daughter’s bike is built, my youngest’s car is put together.

It still feels as though there’s a lot to arrange though!

We’re having family over Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I’m also working Boxing Day morning and evening. So that’s three lots of meals to sort for 8 people on each of the three days with a few hours work to slot in too! Great!

I’m hoping that now the bulk of the presents are sorted, I can start to focus on the food we’re going to need. I think the key with Christmas is being organised. Plan the meals you’ll be preparing in advance and write a list before you go shopping.

Christmas Eve
We’re going to have a casserole I think. The reason for this is that a casserole can bubble away happily all day in the slow cooker, leaving me free to make sure the house is fairly clean and tidy before Christmas Day. My husband will be working in the morning and the in-laws will be round in the afternoon so I’m not sure how practical getting much done will actually be! But at least if the casserole goes in early then that’s one less thing to worry about.

Christmas Day

These days I think people often opt for a unique style of Christmas Dinner. I’ve heard of people having a Chinese on Christmas Day. Some people use chicken instead of turkey or duck or even goose.

We’re a fairly traditional family at Christmas time. For us, Christmas Dinner has to be all about the turkey, the roast potatoes and the pigs in blankets! My eldest son would quite happily just have a plate filled to the brim with pigs in blankets and maybe a bit of stuffing on the side!

I’m planning on buying a frozen turkey crown. I could have bought this before now if I had been more organised. However, I’m going to go out this afternoon and pick one up. Frozen crowns are a lot cheaper than fresh, this is my main reason for choosing frozen. However, it also means that I can buy in advance and not worry about fighting the crowds nearer to the big day.

As well as turkey, we have stuffing, roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, carrot & swede, peas, sprouts, gravy and bread sauce. Now I must say that I personally cannot stand sprouts. I’m doing these for my husband, brother and mum mainly.

Dessert is a choice between Christmas pudding and brandy sauce, mince pie or yule log. It has to be Christmas pud for me, every time.

Boxing Day
I’m a bit stumped for Boxing Day food this year. I’m working until 12. I do work from home so can do a little preparation I guess. I think it’s going to be a mixture of left overs from Christmas Day if I’m honest and a little extra made to add to it.

I absolutely love all the foods we have at Christmas. My mouth waters just thinking about it all. I’m going to get organised this weekend and write a list of all the bits we need. I’m sure I’ll go over the top as usual!