Traditional Christmas dinner

I am having to organise three Christmas dinners for organisations or departments this year, and all three restaurants have the traditional Christmas turkey and trimmings as one of the options, perhaps it is just a case of looking further? I actually usually choose something different given the choice because I like my Christmas turkey meal to be something special I have cooked for the family (those that come), rather than a repeated option so that the Christmas Day meal is something I have had before.

Work do’s were always as much about the fun and socialising as about the food when I was working.

Like others we always went for the restaurant we all fancied, and often ended up in a non-traditional one.

To a degree I still feel the same, we are part of a group of people that meet quarterly to socialise and eat and although we enjoy the food we also enjoy the company.

If we want to eat something special, we usually go out alone as our taste is not necessarily the same as others, nor our willingness to pay a bit for something special.

I'm not keen on Xmas dinner. I can easily forego turkey , too often it is dry and boring. I would eat Xmas pudding but would prefer another choice . I suspect that wouldn't go but it would be because there was turkey on the menu. We rarely went for a traditional meal at Xmas when I worked. I think we had Greek or Italian, or a curry because it was easy to find alternatives for vegetarians , Halal, Kosher etc.

We have declined a reunion dinner for completely the opposite reason.

We were offered a really pedestrian 3 course meal - soup or pate, roast beef or fish or a vegetarian option and creme brulee for £38!!

I suppose lots of people no longer eat meat, some are gluten and lactose intolerant, cheese is bad for cholesterol, ......
I could go on!