My wife found a great Christmas Mojito recipe -- with holly and cranberries. Man it's great.

For food, look out for all those vegetarians out there --- find something interesting besides carrots and plain white potatoes :)

They'll spin a good yarn about you later

Here's a tip that I learned for making pan seared lamb chops. Soak the chops in milk over night. Then, rub with rosemary, thyme and garlic. You'll want to sear in a cast iron skillet- using butter. If you do not own a cast iron skillet, you are missing out! Sear, on the fat side edge (this can be a balancing act but it works well using tongs), sear the fat side until crispy, then flip t the broad sides...do not over-cook. 10-12 mins tops should do it for 1 inch chops. Serve with a butter, thyme sauce or the traditional mint sauce (I do not like the latter). I will make this for Christmas day. 

There is only me and my cat so it be a cooked chicken instead of a turkey. 

Really sad if you must say so myself

ahhhhhhhh top thread

ok, for me it's my home made sausage rolls from the bbc good food page, they're bloody delicious

also go for Nigellas roasties (oooeer missus) for xmas day, they're amazing

I'm not cooking for Christmas, I will probably order my food this time and watch a movie or two and relax for both Christmas and New Year's Day.

I was looking at the turucken. The duck inside a chicken in a turkey. Sounds like a great way to add horror to the holiday

A mixture of 75% butter to 25% duck fat for mashed potatoes makes for an amazing upgrade, especially if you’re including freshly chopped herbs. Using an electric mixer is also your friend, provided you don’t overdo it (because nobody likes gummy mashed potatoes)

Mmm that sounds lovely Spaceman. I used to be terrible at making my own mashed potato so always bought store stuff. But for the last couple years now i've been making it regular and getting better and better at it. So much nicer having your own home made stuff imo.

For the Christmas bakers...it's all about starting early! If you want to do a variety of gifting Christmas baked goods, think about what keeps well and spread that baking out over a longer period of time so you can enjoy the process rather than stressing about whether you have all your timings right.

Goose fat for the roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese made from scratch and to start the morning off a cuppa replace milk with baileys instead! 

Christmas has almost never been about the bird for us, that's usually Thanksgiving. Instead we have done many different things including tamales and enchiladas, a traditional (old fashioned) English dinner complete with pudding which my dad delighted in setting on fire with a ladle full of brandy, German inspired food in which the sauerbraten and schnitzel were divine, and my sisters favorite...Ham. I'm glad she likes ham. 

as for baked goods though

We do shortbreads, Mexican wedding cakes, iced sugar cookies, linzers, pressed cookies, jammy dodgers, puddings, stollen with home made marzipan, rum soaked fruitcakes which beat the crap out of any fruitcake you have ever had or hated. If you couldn't tell, we like to bake ;)

The important tip, don't wait until Christmas to have a drink with friends as you never know when they may be gone.

I'll be making my special Banana Pudding that my family, friends, co-workers, and everyone else loves. Not just any ole banana pudding either, but one made from scratch. Not the banana pudding made with cool whip base or whipped cream, but the banana pudding made from custard, fresh wafers and bananas....none of the flavoring bull crap. 

does anyone else have an xmas day fry up in the morning?

presents, then put, then dinner, nap then drink

it's what Jesus would have wanted