When is the right time to start hosting your own family Christmas dinner and not rely on the parents to supply the festive cheer?

This is the question I've been pondering recently as the season to be jolly looms large. Personally, I'd much prefer to see in Christmas drunkenly from the safety of the sofa while my mum and dad feed me and my brood - and then maybe help with a little light washing up.

So it was with some trepidation that I set off to Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons at Great Milton, to embark on a Christmas cookery course. I was dreading having to actually search inside a turkey for its entrails - and hoped to be eased in gently, so to speak, by cooking school captain Stephen Bulmer.

It turned out that Stephen was the most appropriate teacher of a Christmas course you could hope for - an entertainer through and through.

Cracking jokes like nuts, his performance involved lots of anecdotes, red herrings, tips, advice and storytelling while he assembled an endless stream of elaborate dishes without even blinking.

He held his audience spellbound throughout his performance - which was a whirlwind tour of the festive larder.

His students' scribbled down notes, nodded, tested, sniffed, fried and poked, deboned, ate and baked our way through a very full day.

The course might seem expensive at £250 a pop, but Stephen crammed so much in, it turned out to be good value for money.

Before you conjure up stereotypical images of the clientele - half the class were men for a start - I found myself wedged in between a property developer - his wife had bought him the course as a gift - and a headmistress who had never cooked in her life.

Personally I thought it was like trying to swim the Channel before she tried paddling, but, hey, it was her money.

We started at 9am on the dot. Some of my fellow cooks had stayed the night as there is a special package that includes dinner and a very nice room.

Robed in Le Manoir chefs whites and pinnys, folders firmly in hand, off we went, like sprinters out of the starting blocks.

The cookery school is situated right in the hallowed halls of Le Manoir's kitchens and, through the windows, you can watch the bona fide chefs at work.

The ingredients were breathtaking - as was the skill of Stephen and his team.

They very cleverly made it look as if we were doing all the work, but give or take the odd pan-fried venison steak, it was Raymond Blanc's magicians who whipped the food seemingly out of thin air, pausing only for the banquet of a lunch we made ourselves and then ate in the cookery school kitchen.

I'm not sure if vegetarians would fare well on this particular course - there is a lot of meat, fish and fowl to get through - but then it is Christmas, when any edible animal worth its price tag should be cowering in its shed.

And with a wide range of courses running throughout the year from bread to wine-tasting there's sure to be one that tempts there less carnivorous taste buds.

By 5pm we were all exhausted, but it was with an air of achievement and pride that we trooped out and returned to the real world, a galette de rois tart clutched tightly in our sticky hands.

Christmas lunch for the family?

Well I'm far too tired now after all that cooking, so maybe next year.

Call 01844 278881 or e-mail lemanoir@blanc.co.uk for further information.