One Day You’ll Thank Me: Donna Hay’s winning Christmas tips and tricks

Chef and author Donna Hay has returned with a new show on Disney +. Photo / Disney

Welcome to the Herald’s parenting podcast: One Day You’ll Thank Me. Join parents and hosts Jenni Mortimer and Rebecca Haszard as they navigate the challenges and triumphs of parenting today with help from experts and well-known mums and dads from across Aotearoa.

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For those among us who love to cook and host, Christmas Day is the ultimate chance to serve up something special for the ones we love. But when you’re also a busy parent, achieving your festive fare dreams can be a little daunting.

On this week’s episode of One Day You’ll Thank Me, our hosts spoke to Australian food and entertaining legend Donna Hay about how to keep it simple but still special this Christmas.

“Christmas is that one time of year where everyone wants to celebrate” and “everybody wants a little bit of specialness as well”.

But Hay points out it’s also often the time when we find ourselves “cooking things that we cook seriously once a year and we wonder why it’s so stressful”.

Given this, it’s reasonable to call on our nearest and dearest to pitch in too, says Hay.

“If you do have a big family with lots of kids ... I think you can either ask people to bring something or give them a recipe to cook, to bring, so it all goes together. So there are no rogue outliers of flavours. I think with family you can be that bossy.”

Hay, who has a new show, Donna Hay Christmas, streaming now on Disney+, says her own Christmas menu this year will feature a range of dishes with the summer season in mind, some new dishes as well as traditional favourites.

“I think it’s a good combination of things that you want to bake in the oven and then beautiful fresh salads and things – that are easy to prep. So you kind of can juggle the amount of oven space you’ve got.”

Hay also suggests two centrepiece dishes that are easy to prepare, share and make for show-stopping moments in your Christmas feast.

• To find out more about how Donna Hay creates a special yet stress-free Christmas feast, as well as Toni Street’s top tips for celebrating the season with kids, listen to this week’s episode below.
• All episodes of Donna Hay Christmas are available on Disney+ now.

• You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. One Day You’ll Thank Me will return with new episodes on February 2nd