The stockings are hung, you’ve made your list and checked it twice, and you’ve already started blasting All I Want For Christmas is You to ring in the season – the holidays are underway, and it’s brought along the traditions of Christmas cooking, too. By one circumstance or another, you’re hosting a Christmas get-together of some kind, be it a family dinner or a potluck. Usually acting as the main course of these affairs is a large, festively trimmed protein.

Americans eat about 22 million turkeys on Christmas, while many others make up those who purchase approximately 318 million pounds of ham. A survey by YouGov encouraged 1140 people to name their favorite parts of a Christmas meal. Among the top proteins listed were turkey, prime rib, roast beef, steak, chicken or Cornish hens, ham, pork loin, brisket, fish and more. That’s a lot of meat.

If you’re looking to get that meat thawed in time for your Christmas dinner, however, timing is everything. How long should you thaw turkey, ham, steak, or otherwise so that it will cook properly and in time for your family, friends and inlaws to sit down to dinner? Let’s dig into holiday dinner thawing times to ensure you take your protein out of the freezer in time for the biggest meal of the season.

The Safest Way to Thaw Your Christmas Proteins

No matter what you’re thawing, make sure you’re doing so safely. The FDA recommends using your fridge as the outlet for thawing your proteins. It’ll keep your meats out of the ‘danger zone’ of bacteria growth that occurs when it’s kept in temperatures above a certain level for over two hours.

How Long to Thaw Turkey and Chicken for Christmas Dinner

How long you thaw your turkey or chicken prior to cooking it up for Christmas dinner is heavily dependent on how much it weighs, a factor that you’ll see coming into play over many of these protein-based main meals. Thankfully, there’s a metric you can follow: 24 hours for every four to five pounds. A fifteen pound bird will take three days to thaw (5 x 3). If you’re cooking dinner on the 25th, take it out of the freezer on the 22nd.

Here’s a chart to help you know when to take a turkey or chicken out of the freezer in time for Christmas dinner. These dates are intended for a turkey that will be eaten on December 25th – adjust for Christmas Eve or earlier meals as needed.

How Long to Thaw Ham for Christmas Dinner

Ham is another popular Christmas dinner star, and much like its poultry counterpart, has a thawing time that’s dependent on weight. The USDA recommends slow, safe fridge-based thawing at 4–6 hours per pound. A five pound ham will need roughly an entire day to thaw, so take it out in the morning on December 24th, and you should be oven-ready by Christmas.

How Long to Thaw Steak, Roasts, and Brisket

Red meat fans looking to sear up a steak, slow-cook a tender roast or break out the smoker for a Christmas barbecue brisket will need to adjust their thawing times accordingly.

Most steaks will thaw in the fridge in 18–24 hours, meaning you’ll be fine to let it start defrosting on Christmas Eve. Thicker cuts, like ribeyes and sirloins, may take up to 30 hours. If your steak is 1.5 to 2 inches thick, give it more fridge time.

Roasts, like chuck roast, eye of round, tenderloins, tri-tip, bottom round and top sirloin will need varying time allowances depending on the thickness, and if bone is still present. If there’s no bone, aim for 24 hours. Bone in cuts will require about two days. Use your discretion here – if your roast is particularly thick, keep yourself in the clear by taking it out on the 23rd to eat on Christmas.

Brisket, meanwhile, operates on a similar timeframe as turkey and ham: 24 hours for every 5 pounds of meat. A 12 lb brisket will take 3–4 days to thaw.

How Long to Thaw Seafood for Christmas Dinner

If you’ll be tucking into a whole roast fish, salmon wellington or maybe a crab boil this Christmas, it’s recommended that you use seafood that is as fresh as possible, buying as close to your actual dinner as you can. However, if you don’t want to run to the butcher shop on Christmas Eve, there’s no harm in buying ahead and freezing. Fish doesn’t take quite as long to thaw, since it’s usually thinner and more lean than other Christmas dinner staples.

For fillets, take the fish out of the freezer the night before, or even the early morning if you’re cooking later in the evening. For whole fish, the morning of the day before you’ll be cooking it is advised. So, for Christmas, the morning of the 24th.

What About Water Thawing?

It’s Christmas day. Dinner needs to be on the table, but your ham is still raw and frozen. It’s time to turn to the water defrosting method.

This involves putting the meat into an airtight, sealable bag and placing it in a bowl of room temperature water while the sink tap trickles over it. The laws of thermodynamics will come into play, and your meat will thaw rather quickly. The timeframe for this is easy to remember: shoot for 30 minutes per pound of meat if you’re thawing something like a turkey or ham. If you’re thawing smaller fare, anticipate 20 minutes to an hour for the whole cut.

No matter what you’re thawing this way, ensure that you’re changing the water every 30 minutes. It’s tedious, but it could save your holiday meal.

Can You Cook Meat That’s Still Frozen?

What if you simply have no time at all before Christmas dinner? In this case, you might be tempted to just throw your meat right into the oven to cook it while it’s still a little icy. Can you cook unthawed meat?

The answer is yes, but anticipate a longer cooking time and a slight dip in quality. For one, you’ll find seasoning or dressing the meat tricky when it’s still rock-solid frozen. Seasonings sprinkled on are liable to drip down when the outer layer of ice melts, and it’ll be nigh-impossible to stuff a turkey or chicken cavity like that. Still, if you absolutely need to get it on the table, take the protein out partway through cooking and – without touching it directly with your hands – season as best you can. It might be too late to stuff, but you can at least up your flavor game.

If you’re cooking meat from a frozen state, it will take about 50% more time to cook. Adjust your time accordingly. At worst, you might have to entertain your guests a little longer with Christmas trivia or appetizers before dinner starts.