What cooking corners do you cut at Christmas?

I will check with the staff below stairs and get back to you. 😁

Nearly everything these days.

I buy a few food items such as pickles, sauces, and pigs in blankets.
Cake, pud, brandy butter, mince pies etc I make myself. Mainly because I love baking although I do think they taste better.

I’m coeliac so I buy a gf Christmas pudding because only two of us like it. Everything else is home made including a gf Christmas cake.

I actually make very little. M& S is my friend. I like to enjoy Christmas with my family not stress about all the cooking like my mum did.

Turkey was cooked on Christmas Eve and sliced. I warmed it up on Christmas Day. But I make my own bread sauce and cranberry sauce, my own Christmas puddings too. Spiced red cabbage was made in the slow cooker and frozen until required. Trifle- I made my own sponge and custard. It was all done with love and I enjoyed it. Now, my daughter does it all

M&S for me.. All ready to go just cook the meat and add the bits from Mark's and Spencer in the oven and serve.

What time do you want us Primrose53?
It’ll be me, my plus three and the dog!

Seriously though, it’ll be turkey and gammon here. Mostly roasted vegetables with steamed broccoli. I’ll get the sprouts on to boil separately soon!

Not really dessert fans, but possibly something defrosted like a cheesecake, if I’m so instructed. Hate Christmas pudding/cake - only fit for birds.
Thinking perhaps of cheese and biscuits this time, so I can ‘pick’ later.

I don’t buy much but I do prepare ahead as I can for the 12 days.
We haven’t hosted Christmas for a few years but do have family and friends visiting throughout so I like to make sure mince pies are in the freezer etc.

The special Christmas foods are often reduced as they reach their sell by dates at the moment. Part of our prep is to take that opportunity to try some out so we can decide which ones we like to get in as standby stock.

In the old days I made everything, including laborious spiced beef. These days when there’s just the two of us and DH is frail and I no longer enjoy cooking, I make practically 0. I buy from Waitrose, M&S and Cook and don’t call it cutting corners but alternative lifestyle.

I like that saying winterwhite!

I outsource it to my daughter. She’s a better cook than me anyway.

To be fair, she isn’t a baker so doesn’t make puds/cakes and only wants my mince pies. Pigs in blankets have to be home made and I only like my own bread sauce so will do those myself.

I have a smaller kitchen now and as it’ll just be the two of us this year (dd2 is working both Xmas and New Year) I’ll probably get some sort of Turkey crown and gammon. We’re likely to eat with dd1 on 25th but we want leftovers - cold meats and bubble & squeak cooked by Dh being the mandatory Boxing Day fare in this house.

Due to stresses beyond our control I can’t see me making cake and puds this year so I will probably buy those. In fact, maybe I’ll start a thread asking for recommendations!

Well, no bread sauce that's certain. It's no better than wallpaper paste. Yuk!

I buy Christmas pudding , Mince pies and Christmas cake to offer to people. We don't eat it ourselves as we don't like it. We will buy cranberry sauce too.

We prefer gingerbread or cheese cake, so we will make those. Maybe even a gingerbread cheesecake! Fresh veg , we make our own pigs in blankets with luxury chipolatas and smoked streaky bacon as then I know they're good. We make our own gravy too and home made stuffing.

In years gone by we've spent a fortune on a fresh turkey but one year it was a real disappointment with an aftertaste and we vowed to buy frozen in future.
Every year now we get a cheap frozen turkey from Aldi or the like and we marinade it for 24 hours in a home made brine like this www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/juniper-brine-355429 Honestly, it takes a cheap frozen turkey to wonderful! We then put butter under the skin and butter baste it, stuff it with lovely home made stuffing and put strips of bacon on the top criss crossed. After all of this you literally cannot tell that it wasn't a fresh free range turkey, it's super tender and tasty.

I used to make gingerbread houses but it depends who's going to be around to eat it.

We buy viennetta, custard, cranberry sauce, mince pies nibbles and granddaughters veggie item.
I make stuffing, pigs and cook everything else for a roast lunch, including gammon for cold and extra veg cooked for a friend (bubble and squeak) as he and wife go out for lunch on the day. I am making a chocolate bread and butter pud this year, I enjoy it, grandchildren prep some veg, daughter mucks in, MrJ washes up

I miss bread sauce. Gf is no substitute.

I buy as much as possible.

My sister cooks it and here it's Christmas dinner not lunch.

I haven't cooked Christmas lunch for 8 years as my son and I go to a restaurant on the day. But I used to buy Christmas pudding, pigs in blankets and cranberry sauce (although I have sometimes made my own). I'd par boil potatoes and parsnips the day before and make the bread sauce. On Christmas morning I'd cook and mash swede and cook the sprouts which would both be microwaved along with the bread sauce just before serving. That meant I could get those pans washed. I always use veg water to make the gravy so I could also get on and do that. Turkey always cooked fresh on the day and left to rest whilst potatoes and parsnips get roasted. We've had some lovely Christmas lunches in restaurants but you really can't beat home cooked.

I make everything from scratch except for cranberry sauce. I enjoy cooking and do a lot of it in advance. Bread sauce for instance can be made and frozen as can rum butter.

None really. I like making mince pies and 🎄puddings, and I make stuffing and pigs in blankets - they don’t take long at all and I know what’s in them.
OTOH I keep the actual dinner pretty simple - not the array of different veg/side dishes that some people seem to do, not to mention mash as well as roast potatoes.
I no longer make or buy a cake - hardly anybody ever ate it!

Well, I'm very appreciative that someone else now does the cooking.
And Mum? Mum makes the gravy trifle.

I buy cranberry sauce

It's very easy to make, Primrose53

Frozen cranberries, brown sugar, orange juice.
Simmer until Cooked.
Keeps well in the fridge.

I see I missed my homemade red cabbage. I use a German recipe my late MIL told me, with the sliced red cabbage Use vinegar, bay leaves, brown sugar, a chopped red onion, salt and pepper and top with sliced cooking apples. Cook it gently and the apples just disintegrate into the cabbage. Last year I added a few dollops of cranberry sauce and it was very nice.

Here in Germany the concept of a roast turkey dinner is not necessarily connected with Christmas so I am not committed to a turkey "and all the trimmings" - even if a whole turkey was available anywhere.

The family have come to get used to it over the years though so I do a roast, but it can be beef or chicken or game. There's nothing simpler than a roast anyway. I serve as many sorts of vegetable as there are guests and that's where I cut corners: sweetcorn, haricot beans, peas, etc, all come out of the freezer and are done in the microwave with some butter and salt.

No one really has time or room for pudding so that is usually just ice cream. Germans don't understand hot puddings.

It's more about eating and chatting together than what the actual food is. So, while I pride myself on my cooking, and my daughters in law and my sister in law have complimented me, I prefer to put work into the choice of wine, decorations, games, ambiance and atmosphere rather than spend time cooking.