Should you let guests know you're not cooking traditional Christmas Dinner

Wouldn’t bother me at all. I’m always grateful if someone else takes the time to make or retrieve a meal for me.

I absolutely adore a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings ! However I would be so delighted if invited somewhere on Christmas Day I wouldn’t care what I ate and I’d do my Christmas meal on another day !

Wouldn’t bother me any other time of the year but I would be disappointed not to have a ‘proper’ Christmas lunch..

It’s weird isn’t it. I don’t eat anything like a Christmas roast all through the year… except on Christmas Day. It’s like pancakes on pancake day. And I don’t eat meat. But love it, all the trimmings the cranberry sauce, the bread sauce, the roasted parsnips let alone the roast potatoes, the yummy sprouts, the chestnut stuffing, bring it on daughter.

When I invite people whose likes/problem foods I don't know I ask them 'Is there anything you don't eat?' That's their chance to say. But I think inviting people to a takeaway is a bit off really.

Common sense would dictate that if you invite anyone over for a meal you would tell them what you are having.

Do you expect a copy of the menu any other day of the year? I'd be grateful to be asked

It wouldn't bother me if it was a pair of kippers.

I’m someone with a nut allergy and an intolerance to pulses so I’d really want to know if it was a vegetarian/vegan meal. I probably wouldn’t be able to eat most of it!

There’s a sort of assumption that vegan is fine for anyone.

When all the family gets together I tie myself in knots trying to accommodate everyone’s different eating needs/preferences. ?

I always tell people what we are going to eat on Christmas Day. I also ask if anyone has any food allergies/likes/dislikes. To be honest I really would not want Indian/Chinese food on Christmas Day, only because I like tradition. We don't have turkey though as we prefer chicken.

Deedaa

If I invite someone to a meal at anytime I give them an idea of what I'm serving. It means they don't have to sit and eat something they don't really like and I don't have to watch them do it.

This all the time....not only could it be something disliked, there could be an allergy etc.
For me it's just courtesy and manners.

I think Christmas Day is the one day that it would be sensible to advise your guests what you are serving. As a host, I would prefer my guests to be happy with what I was offering. There is no pleasure in offering them something they don't like. It also gives them a chance to buy in the traditional meal for another day if it is important to them.

I’ve got my in laws staying for Christmas Day. I’m vegan and have been for many years. I haven’t told them that the dinner will be 100% vegan as I’m sure they expect it to be.
Well let’s hope so.
However if it’s something completely different like an Indian takeaway I think guests should be asked beforehand, not everyone likes Indian food. X

Well she has let them know in time so they can politely decline.

Depends, as long as they were sure I didn't have a specific thing I really didn't like, or a special diet or food allergy/ intolerance (a risk with some takeaways if you don't discuss it with the chef) I'd accept it as their choice. Vegan's fine for anyone as long as they don't have specific issues like Sesame allergy or gluten intolerance, other things might be difficult for people with specific religious or ethical issues - wouldn't spring meat on vegan's/ vegetarians or pork on particular religious groups. Guess depends on who your guests are and how well you have planned for them.

The hosts should have mentioned the food situation beforehand but if the guests are set on a traditional dinner for themselves they can either do it on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day for themselves. Surely the most important part is who you are spending the day with, not the food!

Yes, I'd mention it. Me and hubby are vegan but we cook a small turkey for those who aren't. I always say they have option of either.

Yes, I think that it's only good manners. I told my guests that there wouldn't be any meat and they are fine with that. It will be traditional apart from that though!

I think this year particularly I would go to the meal Christmas Day whatever it was and enjoy the company and then cook my turkey Boxing Day or the day after and enjoy that. In a year when a lot of us haven't known Tuesday from Thursday a 24 hour late turnkey doesn't really seem a problem. Would I say if I wasn't cooking traditional - yes.

I go to meals with others for the company, not for the type of food they are serving. I suppose I might be surprised at some of the ideas mentioned here, but I'd run with it.

We all like the traditional Christmas dinner. Sometimes we have it on a different day as my sons are shift workers, so we celebrate on the nearest day to suit their work patterns. I couldn't leave them out.

Takes me back ~25 years when one of DD1's friends asked what we'd be having for xmas dinner. DD said: "I don't know but it won't be turkey". If I remember rightly it was a Lebanese dish that included lamb and apricots.

But, yes, I would tell people if I wasn't going to serve a "traditional" Xmas dinner. I'd also ask them if there was anything they couldn't eat. Depending on responses, I'd then decide what to serve. Mind you at the moment I can't imagine inviting people whose basic eating habits I didn't already know. I don't count arranging an Indian meal that the people you ask to come along have to buy themselves as "inviting".

As others have said up thread, it's just polite, to be clear about what will be involved rather than assuming everyone will feel the same as you do.

We have been invited out and are really looking forward to it, it will be a traditional dinner but no idea what time it will be ready, a bit haphazard due to being a busy working farm and not enough time. We will have our own traditional dinner on Boxing Day.

We have stayed with friends when I knew we were going to have her Swedish Christmas, i.e. fishy things and ham on Christmas Eve, no trad meal on the day, though we did have a very mediocre pub turkey dinner on the 23rd.

So I had bought a small frozen turkey, which we then had with all the trimmings (and leftovers obviously) on about the 29th. To me it’s not a proper Christmas without all the leftovers to eat up between Christmas and New Year.

It would have been advisable to tell the couples what meal they were being offered as not everyone's digestion can tolerate Indian or vegan food, but having accepted the invitation it would be extremely bad manners to pull out now. Christmas Day isn't just about a meal, surely.

Both couples could easily have their Christmas meal on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.