Getting Ready for Christmas
For the past 14 years or so I have been celebrating and preparing for Christmas in all sorts of ways. There are a multitude of posts published over the years as well as little checklists for things to make. Search by key word, i.e. ingredient name or "Christmas" in the search bar and it should give you quite a lot of posts related to those matters. Now in reality those checklists are just check lists. You cannot possibly make everything on the list, but it is an aide memoire and gives you the option and a reminder of possible things to make, which helps an awful lot in filling the Pantry and giving yourself a Plethora of useful ingredients to choose from. I will re-publish some of the checklists as I go along. These are just the ones I use, but you can create your own. There is a link here to one of my To Do Lists for September 2009. I really have been blogging for a lot of years. Link is here:
September To Do List/Checklist
That C word (Christmas really starts in September here on a lot of counts). It is the time when I start preparing lots of things in advance and start planning and plotting an outline of the food that we would like to have available in advance, re-stocking the Pantry with those items that we do not have and making the most of whatever food storage we have available to us. The whole process is about weaving threads from lots of different projects together as well as practical matters and aesthetics and things that please, and food that you like all within your own budget.
May I remind everyone that Christmas does not have to be expensive, it has to be practical. I often afford more expensive items like Prawns by buying them when they are on offer and being selective about those items that we really like. For every item I buy there are at least a couple of items that I do not buy. This is one of the reasons I try and top up/refresh/re-stock the Pantry from September onwards to give myself as much choice of ingredients as I possibly can and the reason why this month is heavy on home preserving. It staggers time and pennies.
This month I will be concentrating on tinned goods for the Pantry - not just for use at Christmas but moving all the way through to Spring as well. There are some offers on with tinned fruit at the moment that I would like to take advantage of as well as buying in Tuna, Ham, Corned Beef, a couple of Fray Bentos Steak puddings and pies (always useful if you want a quick meal in a hurry). I also need some Coconut Milk and Evaporated Milk and there are a few more items to add to those as well.
In reality for my household, September on the planning front can get extremely confusing as I am planning for Christmas whilst still planning for Autumn and in some households Halloween is also squeezed in. There is therefore an element of backwards and forwards out of sequence between projects. It is what it is. You cannot always do everything in logical sequence and some things you have to do when you can grab a time slot.
The biggest resource that is needed though is time. You need time to get things done and if that means starting in September or indeed January of each new year and doing things month by month in readiness for next Christmas then so be it. Each to our own ways. On a practical level these days I need a lot of time to do stuff. I am just mentioning a few things that I have to do here this year in the hope that the way I approach some things (not all) may help. This may resonate with some of you or give you an idea how to deal with something that you are dealing with in a slightly different way. You then in the process make this your own and your way of dealing with things more efficient tailoring ingredients and what you use to your family's tastes. At the end of the day we all learn from each other.
For me at this time of year, there are a lot of projects ongoing and a lot of threads from all those projects to weave together. In the first instance in this household, preserving is a priority. Therefore the bulk of the preserving needs doing/finishing off, foraging for wild items for home-decorating or accents during the Christmas period the fiddly bits to add a more natural aspect to decorating.
Collecting items as you see them also plays its part. These days I tend to use the Charity Shops first and sometimes Ebay to acquire those items I am after. It is more of a rarity to buy in new items although it does happen. I start looking in January and slowly gather pieces together that will go with what I have and which are useful. I have over the years started collections (some of which I am still adding to) and have also equally completed some collections. All things that I use in celebrations and parties. I also collect Christmas decorations to go with the really big Christmas items and decorations. You cannot always have lots of decorations each year but I try and buy in one at least decoration to add to this collection.
Collecting cosy blankets or making your own to cuddle up under on a cold Winter's day or in the run up to and during Christmas are also necessary as are nice seasonal cushions. Making Christmas Quilts anything to keep you snug and warm. I currently have a beautiful stamped cross stitch quilt panel which is a UFO. I am hoping to work a bit more on this project and get it made up. It is what is called a Lap Quilt, but yet again a modern heirloom in the making. I have a couple of cushions to make using old jumpers in red, cream and green to interspace between those cushions that I already have.
One of the first jobs to be accomplished on traditional preparation is making the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding(s). We like fruit cake and fruit puddings here but it maybe that you prefer a sponge cake for your Christmas cake apart from the the traditional Yule Log or an alternative pudding to the traditional Christmas pudding.
Fruit cake really needs making early to allow the cake to mature and to be fed with spirit a little at a time. Better to be frugal with the spirit as you do not want to drown it. Then the base of Marzipan is added for cakes that will be sporting Royal Icing. Then the Royal Icing needs to be made and the cake decorated. Try and get this done at the beginning of December and that will be another item out of the way with. You do need a little time with the Marzipan and the Royal Icing itself as it needs to be soft and dry. I always add in a little glycerine to Royal Icing so that it does not go too hard. Equally Sponge cakes can be made the day before Christmas or a couple of days before Christmas. Then it will be the Mincemeat. I like to get these out of the way as early as I can, although sometimes it has been a lot later than I would like.
I always start to re-stock the pantry in advance with those items that prices go up on in the month of December. At this time of year traditionally there used to be lots of offers on fruit and baking items as well as on decorative items and if you are able to take advantage of true offers this is often the cheapest way to buy them. I usually focus on items that you will just not find on the shelves by then especially cake making ingredients and also cake decorations such as Marzipan and Fondant Icing. I use a lot of Marzipan as we like Stollen, it can be used to make sweetmeats, we also like Battenburg cake and I have recently acquired a cake pan to make this in one go which is segregated into four strips. Pureed Chestnuts, which I use to make a Chocolate Chestnut Terrine which can be frozen and then served a slice at a time with some cream and then popped back into the Freezer. Whole Chestnuts, Stem Ginger etc. etc. Dried fruit is used all year long here but is well worth looking out for offers on this.
The Freezer needs defrosting and needs restocking with items like prawns, Salmon, pates, butter, flavoured herb butters, making uncooked sausage rolls, uncooked cookie dough, mince pies that sort of thing. Doing a little bit at a time in the run up to Christmas before things get a little hectic helps tick something off the list and get stuff done and out of the way with without causing extra stress or angst.
At the end of the day, all the pieces, the threads come together in a jigsaw to slowly get things ready for Christmas this year.
These are just some of the projects I need to get done in the run up to Christmas:
- Get all my preserving done and make double batches of some items in order that you have extra to pass on as part of a Christmas gift. In reality though because of seasonal ingredients i.e Cranberries I am often preserving up to a few days before Christmas in any event.
- Clean and sort out the Pantry and start stocking up gradually on missing items and add them in where you can. I have found in the past that getting hold of liquid glucose syrup is nigh on impossible in December.
- Buy in cooking chocolate for making sweeties, puddings, decorating cakes and general baking to make your creations that little bit more special.
- Watch sell by dates. A lot of products if you look at the dates you will be able to buy ahead and keep separate. I always had a red box that stored the Christmas bits and bobs in (that met its death recently after many years faithful service). This can potentially save an awful lot of money. Buy it now before Christmas premiums are added on from mid-way November to December. Believe it or not some products already have best before dates for February/March next year. Watch sale items though. If they do not have a lengthy sell by date on, then I do not touch them. For instance the Jaffa cakes that I spoke about recently now have an offer on for the 20 piece box of Jaffa cakes which were £3 now down to £2, which is a further 50p saving on the offer they had on the single boxes before. However the sell by date runs out about the 6 December 2025. That is at the Morrison Extra store around the corner from me.
- Empty the Freezer. We are currently well on track eating up as much as you can and space is gradually being created. It will not be long before I will be able to defrost the freezer completely and then start re-stocking it. Primarily the Freezer will be refilled with a lot of meat at this time of year but also those items such as prawns, joints of meat, sausagemeat (for sausage rolls and stuffing) or any other luxury to bring out for Christmas. I have found from personal experience by dealing with things in this way helps stagger the cost and ease it out a bit rather than it all hitting in the one month. If you have children and presents to buy even more important to try and keep away from credit if you can. I am not being judgmental here, when the kids were small we used to rely on credit a lot, but then we worked out that we were paying for it all year and so we changed this up by staggering the buys and this is when my routine with sorting the food elements out started.
- Make Christmas Cake, Dundee Cake and Christmas Pudding and Mincemeat.
- Making my own Pork Pies and freeze them uncooked and without putting the Gelatine in. If you make the Gelatine up you can also freeze this as well. You can then defrost them, cook them and once cool and the Gelatine. Pork Pie is a big thing for our family at Christmas.
- Start tidying the house a room at a time. Decorate or touch up as necessary. Get the deep cleans done ahead of time say in November in order that you only have to do a thorough refresh in the run up to Christmas. Remember your time will be needed elsewhere either with cooking, shopping, buying presents, wrapping presents, making things, decorating and if there are children in the house they will need to be entertained and involved in whatever you are actually doing and even more time will be needed.
- Buy presents as you go along. Also try and wrap them as you go along as well.
- Buy in stamps a few at a time for those cards and presents to be sent by post.
- Prepare an updated address list.
- Write out the cards you can, even if you do not seal them up. We have always traditionally included a letter to each relative as a mini-catchup at Christmas, they therefore need writing as well.
- Add in some new Christmas decorations if you can. Even when things are tight, I normally manage to buy one item a year. Some of us have bigger budgets and others do not so do whatever suits your household at this particular time. I also try and make some items, especially with beads and vintage pearl buttons, felt and embroidery threads, crochet and knitting.
- Set a target date for when you want most things accomplished. Where the Freezer and Pantry is concerned I aim for the bulk of this to be sorted by the end of November (including being refilled). I also try and get the bulk of the shopping items sorted by this date as well. Then at least I have a few weeks grace just to buy in a few extras or if I unexpectedly run out of something have the capacity to refill it.
- Try and get the front room completely bottomed out for the beginning of December. This is where our Christmas tree goes and if I can get the decorations up at the beginning of December I will do as it gives you more time to concentrate on other items especially on the food front and you get to enjoy the Christmas tree and decorations for a lot longer.
- I then work through the other rooms one at a time getting each one sorted in its own right. I also have the Dining room to do, plus Wreaths for the Front Door and the Back Door.
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