A very flatmate Christmas
Unreliable landlords and the cost of living shouldn’t stop you from getting into the Christmas spirit. Felix shares tips on having Christmas dinner on a budget.
An unpredictable oven that the landlord still won’t fix, three rickety dining chairs, and the cooking skills of someone who has lived the last three months on only beans and toast might not appear to be the start of the perfect flatmate Christmas dinner. The truth is, it’s not! But Christmas isn’t about perfection – it’s about collapsing to the floor in laughter in a pile with your friends because the turkey has come out looking like a very large chunk of coal.
To keep Christmas a source of joy among impending January exams and seasonal depression, the key is to keep it simple and certainly not break the bank. Simple moves like placing your sofa cushions on your dining chairs, popping into charity shops to pick up some cheap Christmas decorations, and turning the washing up into a Christmas group sing-along can make the night less stressful and more enjoyable.
The centre of the perfect Christmas dinner is, well, the dinner. At home, this might be a large turkey with hundreds of trimmings but the key to a student friendly Christmas dinner is to cook what you want to eat. If you’re a vegetarian, why would you force yourself to eat an awful roast? Who wants to spend hours slaving over brussel sprouts that no one is going to eat? If getting a mac and cheese or ordering a dominos gets you into the Christmas spirit, don’t let social expectation stop you.
The centre of the perfect Christmas dinner is, well, the dinner
Some of my best ideas have been a roasted Camembert as a starter, using the spices and honey I already had in my cupboard to elevate some parsnips (a highly underrated vegetable in my opinion), and buying a premade sticky toffee that I could chuck in the oven and forget about. You don’t want the conversation to be ruined by beeping alarms pulling you into the kitchen every five minutes. Be realistic about what you can achieve in the time you have, and factor in some additional time to welcome guests and enjoy yourself. Don’t worry about getting ready-made pieces – ASDA are currently doing an amazing seven party snacks for £10, including pigs in blankets. Don’t be afraid to keep it simple and cheap. Ways to keep things cheap and minimise food waste without your guests noticing is swapping out a turkey with some simple chicken breasts and going to Lidl instead of Tesco to buy amazing bottles of wine for £5.
My other top tip to derive maximum enjoyment from the event is to pre-cook as much as possible and, if you have help from multiple cooks, plan out when you’re all cooking to minimise chaos in our tiny student kitchens.
Some Christmas spirit can be added to your night with a boardgame, eccentric dress codes such as black tie or Christmas jumpers, a Christmas movie, or simply a good old secret Santa.
It might not be the same as mum’s cooking but it is a lovely way to get into the Christmas spirit and connect with your uni family.
