Christmas is coming, which means it’s time to focus on some Festive Feasts and ideas for having a higher-welfare Christmas.  And this year that includes ideas that don’t demand splashing the cash but are so tasty, no one will notice how thrifty you’re being.

If you are the chief cook for the Christmas dinner, you’ve probably already thought about what to have – is it a traditional turkey again this year or perhaps a roast duck, or even a ham or gammon?  Lots of families choose turkey with all the trimmings so we have a delicious lemon roast turkey recipe for you. But more and more of us are trying alternatives too, so we’ve delicious recipes for both roast duck and baked gammon in our collection of Festive Feasts too.

If you’re cooking for a crowd on Christmas day, the price of the festive centre piece can make you think twice, but please don’t scrimp on your welfare-choice. Instead check back here over the next week for our 12 days of Christmas feature and our recipes with left-overs because by using what you buy wisely, you can make that higher-welfare choice really thrifty too. 

This year we’ve joined forces with the RSPCA Think Pig campaign to provide even more great (and thrifty) pork, bacon and sausage recipes for you to try. Think Pig encourages everyone to think about where our pork comes from and to choose higher-welfare such as Freedom Food labelled products because many of the pigs reared for our food across Europe do not enjoy high-welfare conditions.In light of this, it’s great to see that the major food retailers have increased the number of products carrying the Freedom Food logo, making it even easier for us to buy higher-welfare food for the entire Christmas kitchen. Whether it’s smoked salmon for canapés or a special breakfast, eggs for desserts and cakes, chipolata sausages, bacon or a gammon, look for the Freedom Food logo to be sure that the product you are choosing comes from animals reared to the RSPCA’s strict welfare standards.  

Adding to the Freedom Food labelled Christmas special ranges are some ready-to-eat products in Sainsbury’s, so if time is of the essence and there’s no chance to whizz up canapés yourself, you can still make a higher-welfare choice. A huge sigh of relief all round!

And finally, if you are escaping the madness of cooking for the family this Christmas and taking advantage of some of the many fantastic offers at restaurants and hotels instead, make sure your chosen venue chooses higher-welfare ingredients. You can check if they are part of our Simply Ask campaign (www.freedomfood.co.uk/simplyask), where their listing on our restaurant finder shows whether they choose only higher-welfare ingredients such as Freedom Food approved or free-range turkey, eggs or chicken, before you book.