We’ll soon all be striving to complete the biggest cooking challenge of the year- but many will fail to perfect the Christmas dinner this year, a study has found.

Around four in 10 people who have cooked a Christmas dinner in the past are yet to pull off the ideal feast, according to a study of 2000 adults, which also found it takes an average of seven or eight dinners before one can master the festive meal.

Carried out by TV channel Food Network UK, the study revealed that 55 percent of respondents said they had learned from mistakes they made last year.

Common errors include cooking far too much of everything, serving the cardinal sin of lumpy gravy, struggling to fit all the food in the oven and getting the timing right.

“Cooking the Christmas dinner is no mean feat, especially if you are doing it for the first time, “ said Nick Thorogood of the Food Network.

“The research reveals the common mistakes are fairly universal but encouragingly nothing that can’t be easily rectified.

“Even the most competent cooks suffer from setbacks every now and then.”

One in 20 said they often suffer with a dry turkey, but a brilliantly festive five percent said they drink too much as they go along, with the food suffering as a result.

Two thirds said it was always mucking up the timings that threw them off course.

For 45 percent of families, cooking and preparing the dinner is a team effort, with both Mum and Dad mucking in.

But 29 percent admitted they have to struggle alone, while just over one in 10 said their mom joins in. The good news is that two thirds are confident their dinners are getting better each year.

The poll found 20 percent of people who host the family dinner said they feel under the most pressure from their mother, but a quarter said it was their other half who expected the best results.

Thankfully, only one in 20 said they had received complaints over the food they had served on Christmas Day… Perhaps because nearly half said their family wouldn’t dare complain after all the effort that had gone in to the dinner.

Despite this, a confident 40 percent said they can whip up a Christmas lunch with their eyes shut, but a third said they have to rely on lots of lists and notes dotted around the kitchen.

A very honest 37 percent of those questioned said they don’t think their dinners will ever be as good as good old Mum’s.