As Christmas starts to get closer and closer, you might be starting to think about the main event – Christmas dinner. If you’re the one in charge of it, there are lots of things you’ll need to think about, and it’s best not to leave everything to the last minute if you want things to go smoothly and for everyone to enjoy what you’re making for them. With that in mind, here are some of the things to think about when you want to make the perfect Christmas dinner. 

Plan Ahead

As we mentioned above, the key to a stress-free (and perfect!) Christmas dinner is planning, so start by making a detailed menu of all the things you want to cook and the dishes you’re going to prepare. Once you’ve got the menu, you’ll know what you need to buy, and you can make sure you’ve got all your ingredients so you don’t have a last-minute panic. 

Make sure you check whether any of your guests have specific dietary requirements too; you don’t want to make a lot of food that at least one person around the table can’t eat, as that’s not fun for anyone. 

Don’t Forget Side Dishes 

You’ll automatically think about the main meal, which could include all the traditional elements like turkey, potatoes, and stuffing, but what about everything else? If you want to make a fantastic Christmas dinner, you’ll need to include plenty of sides too – the more, the merrier, in fact, because everyone can put what they want on their plates and ensure they have their own perfect meal. 

Get Your Timing Right

When it comes to Christmas dinner, perfection isn’t just about the food itself, but a lot of the time, it comes down to the timing. If one thing is running late, the entire meal can be ruined (or at least take a lot longer than you wanted, which can cause a problem if you’ve got other things planned for the day as well). 

The best thing to do is to make a schedule so that everything is ready at about the same time. Work backwards from when you’re planning to serve the food and make a list of all the times you need to put things in the oven or start preparing various ingredients. In that way, you’ll stay on track, and the end result will be on time. 

Set The Scene 

The perfect Christmas dinner includes great food, as little stress as possible, and being around the right people, but there’s something else too – it’s about the atmosphere you create. Something that can help with that is decorating the table (and maybe the entire room) beautifully so that it all looks gorgeous and festive. Use a fancy foliage centerpiece, for example, and add some candles too. You can also play some soft Christmas music in the background, and when you say your prayers for Christmas, you’ll really feel like you’re enjoying the Christmas spirit. 

Share The Cooking

If you’re really worried about making a perfect Christmas dinner, why not ask for some help? You can get everyone over early and have them join in with the cooking, or you could even ask them all to bring a dish in a potluck style. 

The thing to remember is that your version of the perfect Christmas dinner is just that – yours. So make it whatever you want it to be and have a great time.