It’s official. Jack Frost swiftly visited campus this morning, the grass was silver and it was cold enough to see my foggy breath.
We can finally start getting excited… Christmas is coming! And what better way to kickstart the month of advent than with some top tips on how to host the most festive yet affordable (and easy) Christmas dinner. We want charades, we want pigs in blankets (or Linda McCartney in blankets!) and we want them now (but at a reasonable price!).
In terms of Christmas Dinner, it is all about prep, so get it done in the morning; by the time you need to start getting things in the oven, you can do it with a glass of mulled wine in your hand and Christmas hat on!
Quick Christmas Dinner Tips
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Turkey. Get it in in the morning, and slow roast! Blend butter with loads of herbs, I’m talking rosemary, thyme, sage, anything you fancy, and get loads of it between the skin. You gotta get your hands dirty with this one. Shove some oranges and lemons inside the turkey and cover the breast in streaky bacon. Cross two long sheets of foil across a deep roasting tin, top with onions, garlic, carrots, celery, with a load of the herbs, and pour in a bottle of white wine. Place turkey on top of the veg and cover with foil. Pop it in the oven at 130 and leave for 6 hours. Bish Bash Bosh.
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In terms of your veg, it’s no different to any other roast! But I’d recommend doing the chopping in the morning to save yourself some time. For example, peel and half the potatoes and you can even parboil them, leave in the pan and finish off when you need to. Peel carrots, chop broccoli, and you know what, you can even do your cauliflower cheese already. Boil the cauliflower and get in a roasting tin, make the cheese sauce shove it all on top – voila! All you need to do later is get it in the oven for 30 mins to brown.
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To make things cheaper, easier and less faffy, buy your pigs in blankets, your Yorkshire puds, your bread sauce and cranberry sauce all ready made, it saves you a lot of time! Also you cannot go wrong with some Bisto gravy.
Decorations and Drinks
Of course, we need the mulled wine and we need the Christmas decs, and here is a fantastically easy and affordable way of doing it!
- Buy a bottle from Aldi, the best place for cheap yet delicious wine.
- Pop it in the saucepan with a cinnamon stick and orange segments, serve up when warmed through. How. Simple.
A lovely trick to make these even more special is to decorate your own wine glasses!
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Nip to Wilkos, only a quid for 4 wine glasses. What a bargain.
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Grab your nail varnish kit from your room and get painting, the varnish sticks so well on the glass and the brushes are so easy to use, even the least artistic in the room (always me) will make something beautiful!
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A tip: Write the names of all the guests on the wine glasses, they work excellently as name tags on the table, so you can get the seating plan sorted too!
The best place for Christmas decor is by far Primark. So reasonable. So stunning. All you need is some fairy lights and tinsel and you’re done. You can decorate the table too, something so simple can make your meal more special! Just a pack of snowman confetti sprinkled down the middle and you’re away.