It’s Christmas! Albeit a different Christmas this year. A chance to bring families together, although in smaller numbers, and to enjoy our nearest and dearest after such a special year when we have become even more aware of how much we love each other.

The occasion calls for the best, down to the finest details. Festoon the table as it deserves, it is one of those details that lend distinction to our Christmas Eve dinners. Let’s enjoy the best dinner, in the best company in a beautiful Christmas atmosphere!

How to decorate the table in your rental flat? The team at Testa Residencial, the specialists in home rentals, propose various options described below for creating a Christmas centrepiece to make your Christmas Eve dinner table look great.

Ideas for making your own Christmas centrepiece

One of the most practical options for preparing a Christmas centrepiece is to use Christmas tree decorations. Two or three baubles, for example, in Christmas colours of red and silver, accompanied by natural elements such as moss, mistletoe or a couple of pine cones, all surrounded by a tinsel ribbon, is the first option we propose.

Candles are also very suitable for a centrepiece at Christmas. So, if you want to light up your Christmas Eve dinner, take a tray and put three low candles on it -all the better if they have a glass or metal support- and surround them, for example, with fruit. Again, in Christmas colours.

And if you want something grander for your Christmas centrepiece? Take a dish or empty tin of chocolates and fill it as you fancy with a varied mixture of decorative Christmas elements: Christmas trees, pine cones, ribbons. etc. A sprig of mistletoe is another good option.

While we’re on the subject of pine cones, did you know that pine cones are associated with Christmas because the first Christmas trees were decorated with apples and pine cones? Let’s get foraging! Some pine cones, a couple of red apples and a few leaves to give that green tone we’re after can be the most natural option for a Christmas centrepiece.

For the minimalists among you how about a tall candle on a saucer or tray with a small sprig of holly. Simple but also luminous and aromatic.

Finally, for those of you who were good at arts and crafts at school, take note:

1. Take a wreath of holly leaves, either natural or artificial.
2. Spray it with artificial snow. For a more natural effect, spray more in the centre of the wreath.
3. Let it dry for a few hours, so the “snow” hardens a little.
4. After three or four hours it’s time to dress it. Place a round tray in the middle of the wreath. Put three or four candles of different heights on it – battery-operated to avoid risks-.
5. And to finish off, you can give it the pièce de resistance by adding frozen crystallized sprigs to the branches of the wreath. These can be bought in any local craft shop or you could make them yourself with small branches covered in artificial snow.

¡Et voilà! Your Christmas centrepiece is all ready for you to enjoy a festooned Christmas Eve dinner. For the next step so that everything turns out perfect we need to move to the kitchen!

Options for Christmas Eve dinner

Have you already decided what to delight your guests with? Dishes from your own country’s cuisine or something more traditional in English-speaking countries like a turkey with stuffing?

Either way we have a couple of recipe suggestions:

Roast shoulder of lamb

Ingredients for three people: 3 grass-fed shoulders of lamb, potatoes, lard, olive oil, water, salt.

1. Peel and wash the potatoes and cut in half. Next, in an oven tray in which all the ingredients will all fit, put salt and some olive oil in the bottom of the tray. Put the potatoes on top and season.
2. After removing the skin and excess fat put the shoulders of lamb on top of the potatoes with the skin downwards.
3. Give them a first roasting and then pour a little water over them making sure it stays in the bottom of the dish. Turn the oven up to 150ºC with heat above and below, and when it is hot put the tray in and roast the lamb and the potatoes for 80 minutes to start with.
4. Turn over and season. After the first 80 minutes, turn the oven up to 180ºC and continue roasting for a further 30 minutes. After this, take the tray out of the oven and season the lamb before turning it over. You also need to season it when you’ve turned it over. If the meat has released a lot of water, remove some with a small saucepan.
5. Next, spread lard over the skin of the lamb, and put the tray back in the oven at 180ºC for another 30 minutes. After this half an hour, take the tray out of the oven and spread lard over the skin of the lamb again. This is the trick to making the skin very crunchy.
6. To toast the skin of the lamb, put the tray back in the oven but this time at 200ºC, for long enough for the skin to become golden and crunchy.

Christmas turkey

Ingredients for six people: A 4 to 5 kilo turkey, lard, water, salt, 50 ml of dessert wine, one onion.

Ingredients for the stuffing: 300 grams of bacon, 1 apple, 4 slices of dry bread, dried apricots, prunes and a glass of chicken stock.

Ingredients for the dressing: a bag of mixed lettuce leaves, a large bunch of grapes and an orange.

1. Clean the turkey, removing any remaining quills and feathers with tweezers and singeing the small ones with a blowtorch or a match.
2. Next, with a baking syringe inject 50ml of dessert wine into various points of the breast and legs, so these are juicy. Season inside and out and spread a little lard over it.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC, and in the meantime, prepare the stuffing. Rehydrate the prunes and dried apricots and cut them into pieces. Chop up the bacon very finely and put it in a bowl with the other ingredients, allowing the bread to soak well in the stock.
4. Once all the ingredients have been mixed together, add the apples cut into wedges and stuff the turkey. It’s a good idea to sew shut the opening with kitchen string so the stuffing doesn’t fall out during cooking. As regards timing, calculate 45 minutes per kilo of turkey at 180ºC. To prevent the turkey from over-cooking and drying up, after it has been in the oven for ninety minutes cover the breast and ends of the legs with aluminium foil.

Delicious, right? We at Testa Residencial hope that this Christmas, more than any other, you enjoy the festive season at home, sharing the best food with your family around you closer than ever.

From Testa, the company specialising in home rentals, we wish you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the new year.