Skipping the gravy with your turkey

I can almost live without the cranberry sauce, but no gravy for the dry meat, peas and those golden crunchy roast potatoes is like forgetting to pack the duct-tape-wrapped tennis ball with the backyard cricket set. To avoid gravy mishaps like lumpy or watery gravy, make a base gravy while the turkey is roasting. You can then stir in the turkey’s pan juices.

Failing at oven tray Tetris

Don’t leave it to the day to realise you don’t have a roasting tray that fits the bird or that your oven won’t fit both the tray and the bird. Along with the tray of roasties. Just check it the day before, okay? It’s also good to remember to actually put the turkey in the oven. We forgot one year, and ended up eating Christmas lunch at 5.30pm. Not a disaster, but a wee bit embarrassing.

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Undercooking the potatoes

Christmas surveys constantly put golden roast potatoes as the best thing about that festive feast. Undercooked roasties is the most unforgivable of sins at Christmas. Put them in early and give them extra time to crust up golden while the meat is resting. Remember: great roasties usually always take about 15 minutes more than you think they will.

Misfiring the Champagne cork

The lunch spread is laid out on the table. Time to celebrate with a glass of bubbles. Don’t be the goose that fires the cork into the light bulb or fluorescent light above the table, sending shards of glass down into the food, rendering it inedible.

Sending someone to the hospital, or morgue

Remember your basic food hygiene and food safety protocols. Don’t cross-contaminate. Wash your vegies, and hands. Do take the proper amount of time to slowly thaw frozen meat. Do clear out your fridge so it runs cool enough and has enough space to store leftovers correctly.

Here are some other mistakes of a slightly less catastrophic nature that it is wise to plan to avoid:

• Don’t forget the vegan or the coeliac at the table.
• Do check that you have enough plates and cutlery.
• Stock up on loo paper, ice, cream and milk.
• Don’t forget to delegate some of the bigger ‘big’ tasks to other reliable guests. That ‘reliable’ part is important. But never delegate the gravy. No matter what.

Ultimately, Christmas is all about spending time with people you love (and some you don’t). So long as you’ve got bread, cheese and maybe some ham, you’ve got a feed, even if everything else goes wrong. Throw in a bottle of booze and some chocolate, and you’ve got a party.

Related story: Entertaining 101: your survival guide to the festive season