Our 2025 Christmas menu shopping list & time plan
This year, we're taking the stress out of your Christmas meal by planning it all out for you. Below is everything you need for our ultimate take on a classic Christmas dinner, from a printable menu and shopping list to a full time plan for the lead up to the big day.
Our 2025 Christmas menu shopping list & time plan
This year, we're taking the stress out of your Christmas meal by planning it all out for you. Below is everything you need for our ultimate take on a classic Christmas dinner, from a printable menu and shopping list to a full time plan for the lead up to the big day.
This detailed time plan will take you through making your Christmas dinner, from start to finish, to help take some of the pressure off on the big day itself. We've got a full shopping list, and day by day instructions for everything from turkey to roasties.
This is a very classic Christmas menu, but with a bit of a GBC Kitchen spin! The turkey is jointed in advance, so every part can be easily cooked to perfection. For starters we've got home-cured salmon, and to finish we have a gleaming tower of gold-dusted profiteroles. You can print off your shopping list and time plan below, to make things as easy as possible, and we've even designed a printable menu to share with friends and family.
Our classic Christmas menu
Our classic Christmas menu covers everything from a starter and sides to a showstopping centrepiece and dessert. You will find the full recipes for each element in the links below, and these are the recipes that we'll be referring to in our time plan further down the page.
You can find the full recipe for the turkey port gravy over on our Instagram, and you won't need the gremolata for the carrots below.
Shopping list
This shopping list covers all the ingredients you will need to make our entire classic Christmas menu. Click the print button below to print out the full list and time plan.
Metric
Imperial
Seafood & meat
- 1kg side of salmon, skin on
- 8 pork sausages
- 4kg whole turkey, jointed into breasts, legs, thighs, wings; thighs butterflied (if possible)
- caviar
Dairy & eggs
- 2.1l whole milk
- 400g of unsalted butter
- 600ml of double cream
- 26 eggs
- 200g of crème fraîche
Vegetables & fruit
- 3 beetroots
- 1 cucumber
- 1 bunch of dill
- 3 lemons
- 2 clementines
- 1 orange
- 1.5kg potatoes
- 800g of carrots
- 1 onion
- 4 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp of chopped parsley
- 2 tbsp of chopped sage
- 1 bunch of thyme
Store cupboard
- 1.1kg caster sugar
- 1 tbsp of light brown sugar
- 3 tbsp of clear honey
- 2 tbsp of black treacle
- 600g of plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- extra virgin olive oil
- 500ml of chicken stock, or turkey stock
- 100g of white breadcrumbs
- 100g of cooked chestnuts, chopped
- capers
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp of Dijon mustard
- 150ml of white wine vinegar
- duck fat, optional
- 1 tbsp of juniper berries
- 1 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- flaky sea salt
- 100g of coarse sea salt
- 1 tsp redcurrant jelly
- 90g of cornflour
- gold leaf, optional
- edible glitter, optional
Christmas cookery time plan
Here is our classic Christmas menu time plan, beginning on December 22nd with curing the salmon, and finishing with assembling the spectacular croquembouche. Follow this carefully and you'll hugely reduce the amount of work you need to do on the day itself. You'll need to refer back to the full recipes linked at the top of this page for specific steps.
22nd December (three days before):
Today you'll start curing your salmon for the starter, begin assembling different elements needed for the turkey, and make the rich custard for the eggnog profiteroles:
Cure the salmon (steps 1-3) for the starter
Make the custard for filling the profiteroles (steps 10-14), but don’t fold through the whipped cream. Cover with cling film directly touching the surface and refrigerate
Ask your butcher to joint the turkey and butterfly the thighs (if not already done)
Make the stuffing (steps 1-2) and refrigerate
Prepare the clementine glaze (step 11) and refrigerate in a sealed jar
23rd December (two days before):
Today, you'll be doing some more prep for the turkey, baking your profiteroles, and doing some prep for the carrots and gravy:
Turn the salmon over in its cure and rewrap to ensure even curing (step 3)
Make and bake all profiteroles (steps 1-8). Once cooled, store in airtight containers at room temperature. If your kitchen is humid, keep them in a cool dry spot. You might need to re-crisp them in a very low oven for 10 minutes before assembling the croquembouche
Prepare the turkey pieces and stuffing for roasting, arrange on trays, then cover tightly and refrigerate (steps 4-6)
Chop and weigh out the chestnuts for the gravy
Trim and wash the carrots, and prepare the glaze (step 4)
Christmas Eve (one day before):
Today, you'll be preparing the final pieces of your salmon blinis, finishing off your eggnog-inspired profiterole filling, and prepping your potatoes:
Remove the salmon from the cure. Rinse gently under cold water and pat dry. Wrap tightly and refrigerate, ready for slicing on Christmas Day (step 4)
Make the pickled cucumber ribbons and refrigerate in their brine (step 6-7)
Make the blini batter, cover and chill overnight (step 8)
Whip the double cream and fold into the cooled pastry crème to make the eggnog filling. Transfer to a piping bag and refrigerate (step 15-16)
Peel the potatoes, parboil them for 8 minutes, and refrigerate on a tray uncovered overnight to dry them out (step 1)
Christmas Day
The day has finally arrived but there should be a bit less to do in the kitchen than you might be used to, thanks to the prep you've already completed. We've still broken things down by hour, so you can stay on top of every element:
Take the turkey out of the fridge
Set the table and pick out platters
Roast and rest the turkey (steps 7-13)
Make your gravy using the turkey drippings
Roast the potatoes (steps 2-5)
20 minutes after the potatoes go in, roast the carrots (steps 1-6)
Finish preparing and assemble the salmon blinis (steps 8-10)
Serve the salmon blinis
Serve the turkey with gravy, carrots and potatoes
Fill the profiteroles, and assemble the croquembouche. Decorate with spun sugar, gold leaf and glitter (step 16-23)
Serve immediately as your grand finale
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