Christmas dinner; a time when friends and family gather around the table to enjoy a fine meal and share stories of love and life to their heart’s content.
A tasty Christmas roast isn’t created at the drop of a hat, though – a lot of time and effort goes into ensuring the meal is as perfect as it can possibly be. But how do you cook the perfect Christmas dinner? How do you prepare everything so that the whole event runs smoothly? Well, that’s where we come in, with our Christmas dinner timeline.
Whether you need a hand making sure you’re doing everything when it needs doing, you're after a couple of tips to change up your veg this year or are wondering whether you’ve got everything under control – we’ve created a concise step-by-step guide to help you when it comes to cooking Christmas dinner.
Of course, if you don't feel like cooking and would rather let someone else do all the hard work, we've found some of the best country pubs for Christmas dinner too.
Browse our cottages for Christmas
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Two weeks to go before Christmas Day
Prepare your menu, shopping list and schedule as soon as you can¸ preferably at the start of December but at least with two weeks in hand. If you know what you’re cooking, you’ll know what you need to buy.
For this blog, we will show you how to cook Christmas dinner with three classic veg: parsnips, sprouts and red cabbage. Let's see what else will be on the menu...
Christmas Day menu
- Turkey
- Roast potatoes
- Parsnips
- Sprouts
- Red cabbage
- Pigs in blankets
- Stuffing balls
- Gravy
One week to go before Christmas Day
Spare a couple of minutes to save you a few hours. One week before cooking Christmas dinner, make room in the fridge and freezer for festive goodies – no one likes a messy fridge and, when it comes to the crux, you want to be able to find everything as soon as you need it.
You don’t want to spend the days leading up to Christmas in a crowded shop either, so get all your non-perishable goods – your drinks, snacks, tin foil etc. – in advance. And thank us later.
23rd December
Next on our Christmas cooking timeline is the 23rd of December – this is a good day to buy the fresh groceries that you need. If you’ve got a frozen turkey, now’s the time to get it out as they take a couple of days to defrost.
If you will be having soup or pate for a starter, you could make it now to save time on the big day. Both dishes will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.
A good place to look for fresh produce would be a local deli or greengrocer, some might even offer local deliveries to save you even more time!
Christmas Eve
Morning
Final check of the shopping list – the shops shut early today (usually 4pm) and won’t be open on Christmas Day!
Afternoon
Prepare the veg: trim the sprouts and put them in the fridge, peel the parsnips and potatoes, cut them to size, and then roast both of them until they are a pale golden brown – you’ll finish them off tomorrow. Once at room temperature, cover with foil and put in a cool, dry place.
Now for the red cabbage, because you can’t have Christmas dinner without red cabbage.
How to make red cabbage:
- Fry 2 white onions until they start to sweat, then add a cinnamon stick
- Pour in 150ml of red wine and let it reduce slightly
- Add 1 whole shredded red cabbage, 2 peeled and chopped Bramley apples, and 2 tablespoons of Demerara sugar
- Leave this to cook for 3 hours, giving it an occasional stir
- Once the cabbage is tender, leave it to cool and put it in the fridge to return to tomorrow
Night
Pop the drinks that need chilling in the fridge, prepare your pigs in blankets by wrapping bacon around the sausages, and defrost any frozen ingredients or dishes you’ll need for the big day.
Oh, and this is very important: make sure you know the cooking time for your turkey!
Christmas Day
4 hours to go
Turkey time. Take it out of the fridge so it can be brought up to room temperature – a cold turkey takes longer to cook. Do this 2 hours before you need to start cooking, or 1 hour if you’ve got a smaller bird.
If you have a vegetarian coming for dinner, now’s the time to get your veggie dish prepared – but bear in mind that nut roasts dry out, so should be cooked through when the turkey is resting.
Make your stuffing.
How to make veggie-friendly stuffing balls:
- Fry up 2 white onions and 8 chopped sage leaves in butter until soft
- Add 130g of breadcrumbs, the softened onions and sage into a bowl, before adding an egg to combine the mixture
- Season with sea salt and cracked black pepper
- Form the mixture into ping pong-sized balls, ready to go back in the oven later on
3 hours to go
Preheat the oven to 210C, and get to work on that turkey. We recommend a simple method – smear the bird in butter, season with sea salt and cracked black pepper, and sprinkle with mixed herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage and garlic).
A rule of thumb is to cook it for 40 minutes per kilogram. Roast in the middle of the oven at 210°C for 45 minutes, then turn the oven down to 140°C until cooked.
2 hours to go
Lay the table. You don’t want to be rushing around come dinner time, so get the easy job done now.
1 hour to go
Get some help – it’s time to take that beautiful bird out of the oven! Remove the turkey, check it’s cooked and, if done, lift it out of the tray onto a warm serving plate, covering it with foil and tea towels to rest. Pour any excess fat into a pan to make the gravy later.
45 minutes to go
Turn the oven temperature up to 200°C and add the pigs in blankets and the roasties to finish off. Drizzle honey over your parsnips and put them in, too.
Boil the Brussel sprouts for 5 minutes then, after draining them, plunge them into ice-cold water. Once cool, drain them and set them aside for frying closer to dishing up time.
30 minutes to go
Pop your stuffing balls into the oven while you put together your starter. Put your red cabbage on the hob at medium-low heat to warm back through, stirring every now and then.
20 minutes to go
Now for the gravy. Pour in 600ml of turkey stock and a splash of port to the turkey fat and bring to a boil. If too thin for your liking, add flour to thicken it. Sieve into a warmed gravy boat and put on the table ready.
10 minutes to go
Stuffing, parsnips, potatoes and pigs in blankets should now all be cooked. Turn the oven off, but keep everything in to ensure it stays hot. Now would also be a good time, if room permits, to add dinner plates to the oven to take that ceramic chill off before dinner.
Serve your starter.
Christmas dinner o’clock
Finish the sprouts off in a frying pan with a little butter, and then recruit a member of your Christmas dinner party to get to work carving the turkey.
Then the hard part – pour yourself a glass of whatever-takes-the-edge-off, sit back and relax with friends and family.
Do you want to try something new this Christmas? Why not check out our suggestions for an alternative Christmas Day?!
Escape to a festive cottage this Christmas
For the ultimate treat, why not cook and serve your festive feast in one of our holiday cottages for Christmas? Across the UK, we have a wide variety of cosy cottages where you can gather your nearest and dearest, and celebrate this special time of year. Including romantic retreats for two and large houses for all your friends and family, click the button below to browse our full collection of Christmas cottages.
Christmas cottages in the UK