How far ahead can I prepare Christmas dinner?

The stress of a large meal comes from doing everything at once under a deadline. Very little of it actually has to happen on the day, and moving the flexible work earlier is what turns a frantic morning into a manageable one.

Safety

What you'll need

• Fridge and freezer space
• Containers
• A written schedule (optional)

Step by step

1. Weeks ahead: freeze what freezes.Stock, gravy base, bread sauce, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, pastry. All freeze well and all are jobs removed from the final week.
2. Days ahead: shop and check the oven plan.Work out what needs the oven and at what temperature. Discovering on the day that three dishes need different temperatures at once is the classic failure.
3. Two days ahead: defrost the turkey if frozen.Roughly 24 hours per 2kg in the fridge, so a large bird needs several days. This is the item with the least flexibility.
4. Day before: peel and parboil the potatoes.Parboil, drain, shake to roughen and leave covered in the fridge. They roast straight from cold and it removes a fiddly job from the day.
5. Day before: prepare all the vegetables.Peeled, trimmed and in cold water or bags in the fridge. Sprouts trimmed, carrots cut, parsnips peeled.
6. Day before: make the gravy base and sauces.A gravy base from stock and roasted vegetables, finished with the roasting juices on the day. Bread and cranberry sauces are better made ahead.
7. Day before: lay the table and sort the drinks.It takes twenty minutes and it is twenty minutes you will not have on the day.
8. On the day: the meat, the roasting and the green vegetables.That is genuinely all that has to happen. The meat's resting period covers the potatoes finishing and the gravy being made.

Tips

• Write the schedule backwards from the serving time and stick it on a cupboard. It is the single most useful thing you can do and it makes it possible for someone else to help.
• Cooking the turkey the day before, slicing it and reheating it in stock is a legitimate approach that many caterers use. It is far less stressful and the result is good.
• Do not try a new dish for the first time. This is the meal for things you already know how to make.

Common mistakes

• Leaving the turkey to defrost too late — A large bird needs several days in the fridge. It is the one item with no flexibility, and a partly frozen bird cannot be cooked safely.
• Part-cooking meat in advance to finish later — It is not safe. Cook it fully, or cook it on the day. Vegetables and sauces can be part-prepared; meat cannot.
• Planning without checking oven temperatures — Several dishes needing different temperatures at the same time is discovered too late. Work it out days ahead.

Questions people ask