With the crisp winter air, festive decorations, trips to shopping centers and the hum of Christmas tunes comes numerous entertaining opportunities. But each year, we all seem to feel as if we’ve gotten in over our heads and overwhelmed by the prospect of pulling off a smooth and enjoyable Christmas feast. While organization seems to be a word from a foreign language when thinking about holiday entertaining, here are a few tips to organize a Christmas feast so that you can enjoy spending time with the ones you love while entertaining them as well.

Consider making a frozen pie or freezable cake to serve at your Christmas feast and make it in November. Yes, that’s right, in November! To freeze a frosted cake, put it on a cookie sheet and place it in the freezer. Once it has frozen, remove the cake, wrap securely in plastic wrap and replace in the freezer.

Many stores offer a steep discount on Turkeys in November due to the Thanksgiving demand. Even if you decide to wait until early December, buy your turkey early. It will need 4 to 5 days to thaw and you want to make sure you have it in plenty of time. Mark on the 20th of December on your calendar that you need to set your turnkey out to thaw.

Two days before Christmas, you can make your cranberry sauce and refrigerate it until it is time to be served. You can also put your stuffing together that early and store it in an air tight container or even a zip lock bag (if you use a zip lock bag, remove the excess air while sealing). Remove the container or bag from the refrigerator on Christmas Eve. The stuffing shouldn’t be too cold when you put it into the turkey.

Mashed potatoes can be time consuming and quite a bit of work. Why not buy red potatoes this year and consider not peeling the skins before cutting the potato?
On Christmas Eve, simply scrub the red potatoes, cut them up and put them in a Dutch oven covered with cold water. The potatoes should store well until you are ready to boil and mash them. The skins cook beautifully, add a pleasant texture and are festive with their color!

Your vegetable can be prepared and refrigerated until preparation time. Consider using the prepared bagged salads in your grocer’s produce section. Always fresh, it is a great vegetable that looks like you spent time on it.

Many people have a difficult time with this suggestion, but there are more positives than negatives to this idea. When inviting your guests to Christmas dinner, ask them to bring a specific dish. When you plan your dinner, make a list of what you will serve and assign certain dishes to specific guests. Not only are your guests more than happy to accommodate your request, everyone loves to receive complements on their cooking!

The steps suggested are simply to take a little of the stress out and hopefully bring back some of the joy in Christmas entertaining. Take some of these small steps and enjoy your holiday!

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This article first appeared in Celebrating Christmas PDF Magazine 2004