I need to buy a whole Christmas - help please!

Andypandyboy

I would just M & S it.

You can't go wrong there. If you want it to look more home made, decant it onto platters, or your own dishes. As you say, if you throw money, or M & S;) at it, it will go well.

I love the idea of saying grace, pointedly, to difuse the dissatisfied, genius!:rotfl:

elsien

Boxing Day has to be turkey and chips or leftover ham and chips.
It's the law.
Plus chucking all the leftovers on the table with salad, pickles etc for the other meal and letting them get on with it.
You can always jazz up a baked ham by studding with cloves and basting with a homemade glaze of some sort, cooking in advance and eating it cold.

Nargleblast

Just thinking, to add to the Boxing Day cold cuts and salad and pickles, why not get some of those part baked baguettes or rolls? Stick them in the oven while you prepare the rest of the meal and hey presto! Freshly baked bread to go with it! Now that I am sure would go down well!

lisa110rry

Do you live in the North? Or is the party to be held in the North of England? If so, you can't do better than throwing money at it at a Booths supermarket. I'm having a 'do it the easy way' Christmas this year, ordered a ready boned, rolled and stuffed turkey, bought frozen sprouts and ready-hulled chestnuts and even bought ready made condensed turkey gravy! Bostin! They also sell ready made pigs in blankets and stuffing balls. Although I'll be making those myself.

Also, a 'dry' Christmasisn't such a bad thing, we will have a little wine, but certainly not a lot of alcohol.

TBagpuss

I hope you got some done over the weekend. Regarding the cake, i would not add extra liquid of booze is out - if you want a more home made feel then consider gettign a plain cake and adding your own decorations.

For the turkey hater, maybe see if you can get an individual beef wellington / salmon en croute? Or evenfancy fishcakes? They mostly don't need very long so could probably be popped into the oven when you take the turkey out to rest.

Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs makes a nce, festive breakfast and is dead easy to do.

Buy a selection of cold meats and some tubs og fancy dips and premade rice /pasta salds to jazz up the buffet on boxing day - the part bakes bread is a good idea, too