For our Christmas Lunch we have a baked ham with various salads.
I premake a garden salad, greek salad, potato salad and a pasta and bean salad.
We also have a pavlova that I make the night before and have whipped cream ready in the fridge with sliced strawberries. When ready to eat I cover the pav with cream and the strawberries, drizzle with passionfruit and sprinkle on flaked chocolate and we are good to go.

We like platters of cold food: eg cold meats, cheeses, fruits. They’re easy to make in advance and easy to serve.

Make the stuffing, gravy, pudding, mince pies.

Loving this question and answers.
I always do my prep a few weeks in advance and freeze it.

Rice paper rolls are great.You can make it early and put it in the fridge.

Aw I’m not ready to think at Xmas yet !! :O

Lasagne! Always tastes better made 1 day ahead!

If there are some vegans, why not make vegan burgers and freeze them. They can be easily heated up in the oven or thrown on the barbie.

This is my great grandmothers boiled fruit cake recipe everyone loves it and you can add essence or flavours or alcohol to customise.

INGREDIENTS

Plain Flour 1cup
Self Raising Flour 1cup
Bi Carb 1tsp
Butter 250g
Mixed Spice 1tsp
Mixed Dried Fruit 400g
Raw Sugar 1cup
Glazed Cherries 100g
Eggs x2
Water 1 1/2cups

Mix flour and eggs in bowl
The rest goes on stove top boil then simmer for about 1/2 hr, pre heat oven 160 degrees, using a colander separate fruit mix from liquid then pour wet ingredients into flour mix stir til smooth then put in fruit and stir and place in oven til firm.
Cake tins need to be buttered and lined with baking paper for easy removal of cake and perfect finish on cake.
You can add alcohol or essence before oven and for allergies to red instead of cherries I use dark chocolate it was amazing.
We had to make 40 last year everyone loves them, the best fruit mix I find is brandy fruit mix from Aldi. These cakes are best frozen then eaten thawed and for extra sass heated with custard.

Baked potatoes,
potato bake,
cauliflower, broccoli and cheese bake,
sweet potato, pumpkin and feta bake,
Vegetable bakes
Precook meats and slice (can reheat or have cold
Couscous salads
Pasta salads

Cold meats
Salads
Platters
Cakes
And a lot of prep for foods you need to cook on the day, can be done on the previous days

I suppose anything you can freeze. And bite size food can be easy to serve (bit more fiddley to prepare)
Even homemade sausage rolls. Mince pies. Gingerbread house can last weeks! Especially wrapped in celophane. Meat platter. Dips with cut up veggies or crackers. Jelly! Enjoy ????

Baked festive sweet foods can also be made ahead of time and stored for the Christmas period.

Thank you all very much – some really helpful answers!

Wonderful moms again have delivered amazing answers. You could also go the smorgasbord way and have mini quiches, sticky chicken, battered fish fillets, Sliced meats, potato and veggie bakes, risotto’s, and of course salads.

Heaps of things. Baked ham, Christmas pudding, quiche, roast chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, devilled eggs.

Lasagne and savoury cakes can be prepared way in advance and then frozen.

If you are looking at traditional Christmas fare, there are quite a few things that can be made ahead of time – dips and marinated vegetables; gingerbread cake; Christmas cake/fruitcake/Christmas pudding; mincemeat/mince pies; cranberry sauce; stuffing; shortbread; roast meat; eggnog; cold meat and salads.

Cold cuts of meats and gourmet salads can be prepared ahead of time.