Your step-by-step Christmas dinner time plan

Early December

If you haven’t already, make sure you’ve ordered your turkey or any large, specialist meat items, to be collected or delivered later in the month. If you leave it too late, availability can become scarce, leaving you with a sad, misshapen frozen turkey that no one else wanted.

Start buying any shelf-stable ingredients as part of your regular grocery shop – you’ll generally find better deals on things the further away you are from Christmas itself. Stock up on wine, beer, soft drinks, crackers and chutneys for cheese, and even mince pies – anything you’re buying ready-made that doesn’t need to live in the fridge or freezer. The final ‘big shop’ will then be a lot more manageable.

21-22 December

Do your ‘big shop’, stocking up on all the fresh items: veg, herbs, dairy and meat. From this point on your fridge is going to be heaving, so it’s worth doing a clearout beforehand. Check you have enough oil, salt and pepper and the right amount of crockery and cutlery.

23 December

Start preparing the elements of the dinner that can happily sit in the fridge for a few days. This usually means the likes of stuffing, bread sauce and cranberry sauce. You may also be able to prepare (or semi-prepare) your chosen starters and extra pudding.

Browse our favourite make-ahead starters and desserts →

If you’re making a base stock for your gravy, make it today – it’s a nice little hands-off project and will fill your house with the most delicious aromas.

It’s a good idea to get your presents all wrapped today rather than tomorrow too, so you’re not in a last-minute rush to get them sorted and you can actually enjoy your Christmas Eve (browse our foodie gift guides for ideas!).

Christmas Eve

If you’re brining the turkey as in our best-ever turkey recipe, you’ll need to start that today. Now’s the time to put on the festive tunes and start preparing the vegetables (enlisting as much help as you can – try to get a team of helpers peeling potatoes or removing discoloured or tough outer leaves from the sprouts as these are simple yet time-consuming tasks that free you up for other more important jobs).

Any vegetables that can discolour once peeled (potatoes or parsnips are the most common) can be boiled today and chilled until tomorrow, or stored in water with a little squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar.

Prepare your turkey, halve the sprouts, peel and chop your carrots and wrap your pigs in blankets – they’ll all happily sit in the fridge until tomorrow.
Enjoy your evening!

Christmas Day

If you’re following our turkey recipe, you don’t need to do anything until 3 hours before you plan to serve – so if you’re planning to dish up at 2pm, you can enjoy Christmas morning with the family before heading into the kitchen at 10.45am and donning your apron, fortified with a glass of champagne or Christmas cocktail.

10.45am

Turn on the oven and get the turkey in a roasting dish or tray. As soon as it goes in the preheated oven, the countdown begins! Start prepping and cooking the red cabbage – it’s easy to reheat so once it’s ready, just take it off the heat for later.

11.45am

You now have roughly 90 minutes until the turkey comes out of the oven and everything else can go in. This is the time to set the table (or get others to do it), make sure you have all your ingredients prepped, pick out the right roasting tins and saucepans you want to use and make sure everything is ready to be cooked. If you’re steaming a Christmas pudding, you may as well get it steaming away now (it won’t overcook).

12.45pm

Take the turkey out, carve off the legs and put them back in the oven, then set the crown aside to rest. Don’t worry about the turkey going cold – it will stay nice and hot for at least an hour. This is now the busiest part of cooking Christmas dinner: you need to get your various side dishes in the oven and get your serving platters and bowls out, ready to be filled. At this stage, recruit a guest to pour you a drink!

1.15pm

Get the gravy on and keep it gently simmering away – as long as your gravy is served hot, it doesn’t matter too much if everything else has cooled a little. If you’re having a starter, get everyone seated at the table and open the wine. Make sure you have a glass yourself.

1.30pm

Start very gently reheating anything that needs it (bread sauce, red cabbage) and serve the starter. Sit down and enjoy it – the food in the kitchen will be totally fine.

1.55pm

Ask someone else to clear the starters while you begin decanting foods into their appropriate serving bowls and platters. Ask that same person to take filled bowls and platters to the table. Carve the turkey, either at the table or in the kitchen (we prefer to carve in the kitchen as there’s less pressure, but if you’re a fan of a bit of tableside theatrics, go for it!).

2pm

Sit down with your family/friends and enjoy Christmas dinner. Bask in the joy of everyone telling you what a good job you’ve done. Allow them to raise a glass to you.

3pm

Ensure – and this is crucial – that someone else clears everything away, making sure leftovers are properly covered and refrigerated. You’re in this for the glory, not the grunt work! Serve the Christmas pudding and/or your chosen dessert, and try to find some room for it yourself.

Bright ideas for Christmas leftovers →

4pm

Roll onto the sofa. Double check someone else has done the washing up. Start nibbling on a cheeseboard and mince pies, and work your way through the Christmas chocs while playing charades, watching Die Hard – or until the afternoon nap becomes too much to resist. Merry Christmas!

Our 2024 festive menu has definitive recipes for the Christmas dinner classics, including crisp, buttery sprouts strewn with chestnuts and bacon and failsafe, foolproof rosemary roast potatoes…