If you make your own Christmas pudding, the date that matters is not 25 December. It is the Sunday before Advent, known as Stir-up Sunday, which in 2026 falls on 22 November. Traditionally this is the day the pudding gets mixed, so it has four or five weeks to sit, darken and deepen before it reaches the table.
The name is older than the kitchen ritual. It comes from the collect read in church that Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer, which opens “Stir up, we beseech thee”. The line and the season lined up neatly with the practical need to start the pudding, and the phrase stuck. The custom that grew around it is a nice one: each member of the household takes a turn to stir, by tradition from east to west in a nod to the journey of the Nativity, and makes a wish. A coin is sometimes hidden in the mix for whoever serves it to find.
The reason to make it this early is not nostalgia, it is flavour. A steamed suet pudding genuinely improves with time. Over a few weeks the fruit settles, the spices marry, any alcohol mellows and the whole thing darkens into something richer than it was on the day you made it. Left to its own devices in a cool cupboard, it does most of the work for you.
A simple timeline if you are doing it yourself:
- 22 November: make the mix, stir in the good wishes, then steam it for several hours and let it cool completely before storing.
- Weekly after that: unwrap, spoon over a little brandy or your spirit of choice to feed it, then re-cover and return it to the cupboard.
- Christmas Day: steam again to reheat, usually for an hour or two, and serve hot.
None of this is compulsory. A shop-bought pudding is a perfectly good decision and nobody at the table will audit you, much as nobody minds a bought mince pie. But if you want the house to smell of citrus and spice for a month, and a pudding with your own wish stirred through it, this is the weekend to do it. It also sets the tone for the rest of the festive table, from the sides to a proper alcohol-free punch to go with it.
Stir-up Sunday is one of those dates that rewards being early. Mark 22 November, and the hardest part of Christmas pudding is done before December even starts. For more on where the season’s food is heading, our food news keeps pace with it.