Skip to content

My SZN Guide · Live the SZN · ❄️ Winter

Planning Christmas Food: The December Food Calendar

What to order when, what to freeze early, and how to spread December's eating so Christmas Day isn't the only thing you've thought about.

Guide · food · 8 min · 8 min read

A kitchen counter with festive ingredients including a wrapped joint of meat, cranberries and herbs

December has one enormous meal in it, but it also has weeks either side of that meal — office parties, family visits, school events, New Year — and treating all of that as one undifferentiated 'Christmas food' problem is how kitchens end up overwhelmed.

The better approach separates the big day from everything around it. The big day gets planned properly and early because it can't be improvised on the morning. Everything else can be far more relaxed, because most of it is just normal eating with slightly nicer ingredients.

This is a food calendar for the month, followed by the specific planning that makes the day itself manageable rather than a solo kitchen marathon.

The December food calendar

  1. Early December: order the main meat — a fresh turkey, goose or joint — from a butcher if you want one, since good ones sell out well before the day.
  2. Early to mid December: stock the freezer with anything that freezes well — pigs in blankets, bread sauce, stuffing, mince pies, cranberry sauce — so it's done and out of the way.
  3. Mid December: do the dry and tinned shop — stock cubes, tinned tomatoes, dried fruit, spices, crackers, chocolates — so only fresh items remain for the final shop.
  4. The week before: confirm numbers for the big day so quantities are right, and check who's bringing what if it's a shared meal.
  5. Two or three days before: the final fresh shop — vegetables, bread, dairy, the trimmings that don't keep.
  6. Christmas Eve: prep whatever can be done ahead — peeled vegetables in water, stuffing made and chilled, the table set.

What genuinely freezes well ahead of time

  • Stuffing, uncooked or cooked, freezes for weeks — make a big batch early.
  • Cranberry sauce keeps for months in the freezer and tastes better after resting anyway.
  • Bread sauce freezes well; reheat gently with a splash of milk.
  • Pigs in blankets can be assembled raw and frozen, then cooked from frozen with a little extra time.
  • Mince pies and most Christmas baking freeze beautifully — bake in November without anyone noticing the difference.
  • Gravy made from a stock base freezes well, leaving only the meat juices to add on the day.

What not to buy or cook too early

  • Fresh turkey or poultry — order it, but collect it only two or three days before, unless frozen.
  • Fresh vegetables, especially anything leafy — buy in the final shop, not the mid-month one.
  • Bread and anything meant to be fresh on the day.
  • Cream, soft cheeses and other short-life dairy.
  • Salad items, if part of a boxing day spread — these don't keep the distance from an early shop.

Thinking about the whole month, not just the day

December brings genuine extra eating beyond the 25th: a work Christmas do, a school fair, a family gathering the weekend before, Boxing Day leftovers, New Year's Eve. None of these need the same intensity of planning as the big day, but it helps to know roughly what's happening when.

A simple trick is a one-page December food outline — which days involve a proper meal you're hosting or attending, which are ordinary, and which are leftovers — sketched out once you know your social calendar for the month. It stops the food shop feeling like a constant improvisation.

Leftovers deserve their own small plan too: a turkey curry, a bubble and squeak, a sandwich round, a stock made from the carcass. Deciding this in advance means the days after Christmas involve less thinking, not more.

A rough Christmas Day cooking order

  1. The night before: prep vegetables, make stuffing, set the table, chill anything that needs it.
  2. Early morning: get the main meat in the oven first, since it typically takes the longest and needs resting time.
  3. Late morning: potatoes and vegetables started with enough margin for the meat's resting time.
  4. While the meat rests: finish the trimmings, warm the gravy, plate up.
  5. Serve with the meat rested for at least 20–30 minutes — this matters more than serving everything piping hot at once.

A note on catering for different diets

If the table includes a vegetarian, vegan or allergy need, plan their dish alongside the main meal rather than as an afterthought bought on the day — a proper alternative main, not just extra vegetables, makes a real difference to how included someone feels.

Christmas food questions people actually ask

How far ahead can you order a Christmas turkey?
Butchers typically take orders from late October or November for collection just before Christmas. Ordering early secures the size and type you want — fresh, free-range or a particular breed — since good butchers do sell out.
What Christmas food can be prepared in advance?
Stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, gravy base, pigs in blankets and most baking all freeze well and can be made weeks ahead. Vegetables, bread, dairy and the fresh meat itself should stay in the final few days' shop.
How do you plan a Christmas dinner timeline?
Work backwards from your serving time using the meat's cooking and resting time as the anchor, since it usually takes longest. Vegetables and trimmings are then timed to finish while the meat rests, not before.

My SZN editorial. Opening times, prices and local conditions change — always check with the place you're visiting before you travel.

More My SZN Guides