Preparing for Christmas - Updated Timetable Amendment 1

 UPDATED TIME PLAN FOR PREPARING THINGS FOR CHRISTMAS UPDATE 1

Month	Things to do
August	Start to add items to the shopping trolley.  Items with a long stop date.  Even if you do one thing a week it will soon build up and be less to fork out for later on. Take advantage of offers on baking consumables and especially dried fruit.  Especially if you are going to make your own Christmas cake and Christmas pudding.  The more you get your pantry and Christmas items sorted before Christmas (if you can) the more cash you will have to hand to pay for Christmas presents (if not already bought). These days we pay cash for Christmas and do not utilise credit cards.  I appreciate that it is each to their own here but it can get out of hand if you are not careful.
	Make your own flavoured sugars.  I make vanilla sugar and use it when I bake in cakes and also decorating the top of and in home-made custard.  It costs about £3 for two vanilla pods and all I do is find a big jar put the sugar in and then push one of the vanilla pods into the sugar it is well covered and then put the lid on and leave it for a few weeks.  Lavender sugar can be made the same way.  To buy it costs an absolute arm and a leg.  You can use caster or granulated.  As the pod is whole you can then use in its own right for egg custard etc.
	Buy tinned goods with a long stop date.  Having tinned fruit and beans, tomatoes etc in the pantry gives you a lot more scope,  when it comes to making meals and baking as well.
	Don’t forget the freezer stock up there too.
	Bottle peaches in syrup.
	Bottle pears in syrup.
	Spiced Pickled Pears.
	Mulled Pears.
	Mixed white fruits in syrup.
	Mixed red fruits in syrup.
	Make home-made pasta sauce.
	More Apricot Jam and Apricot Chutney.
	Make Five spiced peaches.
	Make Chutneys from seasonal ingredients.  Especially peach chutney, use the fruit whilst it is available and does not cost the earth.  Carry forward to September if not available to you at this time.
	Make piccalilli.
	Take advantage of Victoria plums and bottle some for later use in puddings but also to make some Victorian Sugar Plums for Christmas.
	Do pickled onions and shallots. Carry forward to September if not available to you at this time.
	Make home-made wines and beers and ciders either from fresh ingredients or kits.
September	Look out for wild mushrooms especially puffballs they are delicious and can be preserved.
	Make Mincemeat from dried fruit that needs using up
	Make vanilla caster sugar
	Make vanilla granulated sugar
	Make cinnamon granulated sugar
	Make Cider and Perry
	Pickle onions
	Pickle Shallots
	Pickle Red Cabbage
	Pickle Spiced Eggs
	Pickle Chillis
	Chinese Five Spice Sauce
	Ketchup
	Brown sauce
	Chilli Jam
	Chilli Jelly
	Sweet Chilli Sauce
	Dried Chiilis
	Dried Herbs
	Make Christmas cakes.
	Make Christmas Puddings.
	Make Dundee Cake
	Bread and Butter Pickles
	Various Chutneys
	Vanilla Vodka
	Spiced Orange Slices and Clementine Slices
	Ginger Beer and Apple Pop
	Make ginger ice cream topping
	Make rum n raisin ice cream topping
	Make honey and golden sultana ice cream topping
	Hazlenut/Filbert in honey ice cream dressing
	Toasted Pecan and honey ice cream dressing
	Raspberry fruit Coulis
	Strawberry fruit Coulis
	Mixed fruit Coulis
	Blueberry Coulis
	Blackberry Coulis
	Passionfruit Coulis
	Lemon Syrup
	Orange Syrup
	St Clement’s Syrup
	Lemon and Ginger Syrup
	Grapefruit Syrup
	Start gathering twigs, larch cones, acorn husks, beech mast, and teasel heads for use in Christmas decorations.  Also honesty.  I always buy nuts at Christmas and if any are left over I keep them and use them in decorations also.  With the aid of a glue gun you can make some very different home made decorations.  I have this year also sourced long sticks of cinnamon which will be turned into Christmas stars.  I also have lots of small cinnamon sticks which are to be turned into some garlands with the addition of bay leaves, dried orange and lemon slices, and nuts.  Also buy star anise in bulk as you can make Christmas table balls by painting a polystyrene ball with gold paint and then sticking whole star anise to the bauble with a glue gun.
	Start gathering a few extra items a week and try and take advantage of offers such as two tubs of sweets (i.e. Celebrations, Roses and Quality Street for £9 or £5 each. The Co-Op have said offer on at the moment but there are no guarantees that this offer will stay on until Christmas.  Therefore seize the day. Take advantage if you can or other goodies.  I also use the Pound shop in this respect.  Always check the long stop date.  Often this will go into the New Year say to February or March if not later.
	Trial Nan’s fruit bread between 2 recipes
	Start collating suitable recipes for Christmas
	Start making home-made cards and presents
	As you buy presents - if you have the wrapping get them wrapped up one at a time.  Will save time at a future date.
	Start looking at Lidl and Aldi and other supermarket sites and start looking for a few bottles of wine here and there.  The reason I mention this is that things notoriously go up in the run up to Christmas, I know there are offers on as well but if you get some of it out the way at a cheaper price then all well and done.  Same with bulky bottles of pop whatever variant.  I notice that Lidl would appear to have some very good offers on sweet ines at the moment.
Sunday 24 September	Start Christmas Cakes and Christmas Puddings 2 for Brother and 2 for us
October	If you have an open fire and young children in the house.  Make a song and dance about them writing a letter to Santa Claus and sending the messages up the chimney with their wish lists for what they would like or hope for.
	Start the kidlets making Christmas decorations from items gathered on walks, from fabric, felt from paper etc.  Start them early as it will take a little time but also keep them occupied and involved.
November	Make home-made sausage rolls and open freeze them without cooking.  Pack into a suitable number say 12 and bag them.  Then when you want some take out of the freezer and straight into the oven to cook.  This will save time when you have so much else to do.  Same with mince pies and coconut cheesecakes.  Also make some plain pastry cases large for things like Bakewell tart or some smaller cases to be filled with fruit or custard or the like.
	Make home-made Pork Pies and freeze uncooked.
	Make Home-made feasting pie and freeze uncooked.
	Make mince pies and do the same as well as coconut cheesecakes and pastry tart bases for jam tarts filled with your home-made jam.
	Make fruit curds.
Sunday 19 November 2017	Make Nan’s Plum Bread Loaves 2 for my brother and 2 for myself
Sunday 26 November 2017	STIR UP SUNDAY – CHRISTMAS PUDDING AND CHRISTMAS CAKE DAY
December	Beginning of December: Post out the Christmas cards and get them out of the way to family and friends.  Get this out of the way together with a personal letter to family members
	The week before Christmas say a couple of days make the pork pies, feasting pie, and cook the ham.
The night before Christmas Eve Saturday 23 December 2017	Go to the market and do final shop in town.  Getting the fresh vegetables and other bits from town and any other last minute bits and bobs.
	Make up a batch of Hazlenut Liqueur.  This is not a long keeping liqueur a bit along the lines of Egg Nogg.  The recipe for this first appeared in the Land Love Magazine for October 2017.  Which recipe have popped on the blog.  Then sit and enjoy a glass or two.  You are allowed to have fun too.
	Make local deliveries of presents to family members near.
Christmas Eve Sunday 24 December 2017	For us mostly a day of preparation.  Traditionally my family or the ladies of the family have always done the big bake for Christmas on Christmas Eve.