What cooking corners do you cut at Christmas?

Guess what? After reading all these comments, I'm going to unwrap my Aldi Christmas pudding and have a big slice with custard for my afters tonight.

Guess what? After reading all of the above, I'm going to have a big slice of my Christmas pudding with custard tonight.

We’ve received and accepted invitations for both Christmas and Boxing Days so no cooking for me. If we were at home everything would come from M & S.

I don't regard myself as a good cook though I can manage most of the Christmas food. However, my mince pies are prize-winners. At my posh secondary school for girls we had one term of Domestic Science. I learned to iron a shirt, make bread and pastry and embroider - and have remembered every bit of it!!

I'm sorry to say that I don't cut corners because I love cooking, hope that this doesn't offend anybody?!

My DS enjoys cooking and the last time I hosted Christmas he did the cooking, but I no longer host Christmas a he is married to a vicar so she can't be away for Christmas. Last year I visited my DD in Dubai so no cooking - we had a roast dinner in the nearby pub. This year I'l be with DS and family and DD will fly in on Christmas morning as she has to work on Christmas eve. I don't have the stamina for major cooking events these days so I'm glad I won't have to worry about it.

We’re going out for lunch this year.

I’ve shopped for and cooked that meal far too many times. It’s exhausting and I sit down to the meal feeling hot and bothered. It’s eaten in about 30minutes.
No more!

I used to make everything myself. People enjoy M and S stuff just as much and it is less stressful
I used to think there were some things that everyone would miss if I didn't do them, one year I broke my arm just before Christmas and couldn't do them. They didn't notice! What I do do is ask what would you miss if it wasn't there at Christmas, and make sure that I had plenty of that
( Cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets and nice butter for turkey sandwiches was the answer!)

I have stopped making my own mincemeat, it used to be fun to do with the children before they went back to school in September, likewise the Christmas cake and puddings, but now there's just the two of us I buy the best I can but don't bother with the cake. I always make my own mince pies, because I like the almond pastry. I make cake all year and my usual recipes are nice enough. I haven't bought a whole bird for a few years but thinking I might this year, we are well into risottos and curries so there won't be any waste.

Before my husband became ill and then sadly died I would cook and bake to my hearts content and even after about three years, I would still do a little baking but found I was freezing more and giving it to our family than eating it myself, it wasn't the same without my husband. Now, after all these years on my own, I have totally lost the art of cooking, I am a microwave, slow cooker, air fryer and toaster person, anything quick suits me.

This is so useful. Any suggestions for a yummy dairy free Christmas meal dessert please? My DIL always brings her fabulous pavlova but this year she is dairy free because of DGS's allergies. I can't think of anything special enough - and I'm more a savoury cook than a pudding one!

Jackaranda

This is so useful. Any suggestions for a yummy dairy free Christmas meal dessert please? My DIL always brings her fabulous pavlova but this year she is dairy free because of DGS's allergies. I can't think of anything special enough - and I'm more a savoury cook than a pudding one!

Would coconut milk count as dairy free? I saw a nice easy recipe for panacotta made with that and passion fruit drizzled over.

Primrose53 yes, coconut milk is non dairy so I'll check that one out, thank you!

Primrose53, one year when we were living in Oman, we invited my in laws to come for Christmas - perfect weather at that time of year, lots of parents used to come.

Every year for around 40 years my poor old MiL had been cooking Christmas dinner for about 12 in her tiny kitchen. So naturally enough she jumped at the chance to get away. FiL, OTOH, grumped and grumbled and said they couldn’t possibly leave the house in December - what if the pipes froze, etc. They lived in Wimbledon - not the frozen north!

Good old Mil said, ‘Well, you can do what you like - I’m going!’
Of course they both came in the end, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

I cut all corners by cooking nothing at all. I go to one daughter for Christmas lunch and on Boxing Day we all get together and all bring contributions. My usual is a huge trifle.
Thank heavens the days are long gone when I made everything for a family of six.

My usual is a huge trifle.
Me too!

That takes cooking skills, watermeadow