What will your Christmas Day menu look like?

Pretty much a Sunday roast, for just the two of us. We have not been invited to son or daughter, but even if we are, DH will not want to go, sadly. I will maybe do a prawn cocktail starter, and add pigs in blankets ( but no Yorkshire puddings) to the usual turkey crown or chicken. Probably no room for pudding, but with type 2 diabetes, that is just as well.
Or I could get him a ready meal and go alone to my son’s for the biggest and best meal of my life!

We haven’t spent Christmas with family since the start of the pandemic. Will be going to my daughters this year but we’ve both realised that neither of us go to town with a traditional Christmas meal any more.

A lot of Bucks Fizz, mince pies, etc until our dinner that I will prepare for my sister and I. It will be a small stuffed chicken crown and all the usual bits and bobs with some wine. Dogs walked then home for pavlova and the rest of the night nodding off drinking Bailey's.

Depends if son and daughter and their partners will make it (all work shifts), but it would normally be a choice of soup for starters (my son insists on what he calls my xmas soup - carrot, parsnip and orange) and something like pate or smoked salmon, then turkey with all the trimmings (with a veggie alternative for DiL), then usually homemade pavlova or cheesecake.

Large gathering at DS where we all chip in. Lovely!

One of the best is Delia’s Christmas chutney. I make it every year.

Riverwalk

My main tip is no sit-down starter - I serve canapes & drinks beforehand then we sit down to the usual roast turkey.

Us too, drinks and canapés,usually smoked salmon, mini sausages, haggis and scrambled egg in little croustades, olives, devils on horseback.

I par boil the sprouts and potatoes on Xmas eve and refrigerate, I also do the giblet stock the night before.
I pan fry the sprouts with pancetta, the turkey comes out of the oven and rests for around an hour while I do the roasties, carrots and peas, pigs in blankets and stuffing goes in with the roasties, I stir the gravy whilst quaffing champagne.

Xmas pudding goes in the microwave….. I hate it😬.

By 7pm we are done and cleared away, we will then have cheese and chutney by the fire, I adore cheese and chutney.

Lunch at DS,’s this year🙂

But if at ours it’s the same recipe every year.

Delia from her Christmas Book.

My easiest Christmas dinner was a few years go. On the day, DH, DS, DIL and GC not well with flu, decided no one could face the big dinner. Luckily the turkey was a fresh one, so froze it. The family stayed at their home, DH in bed all day, only wanted Lucozade to drink.

I had some of the bacon intended for the turkey with a fried egg for dinner. Quick, easy, tasty, simple. Spent all day watching relaxing rubbish on the tv, South Pacific, Wallace and Gromit, 7 Brides for 7 Brothers, all stuff DH wouldn’t want to watch, but hey ho, he was in bed!

A different Christmas Day, but selfishly, it was quite a restful one for me!

Nibbles to keep everyone busy while I'm cooking (nuts, olives, crisps), then nut roast, roast and mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegan pigs in blankets veggies (usually brussels sprouts, roast parsnips, roast carrots, roast onions, roast garlic, peas), gravy, cranberry sauce (homegrown cranberries this year!) spinach tart, then salted caramel chocolate tart, blueberry cheesecake, Christmas pudding (all vegan).

I'll eat whatever my DH cooks for me

🤣🤣🤣

Have it at 5 or 6 - so much more civilised - lunchtime is such a rush for the cook. And IMO people are that much more ready for it. So a late breakfast/brunch, and canapés (M&S) a couple of hours before the dinner.
I keep it simple, not umpteen side dishes, though pigs in blankets are of course mandatory.

Plus, even after hosting more times than I care to remember, I still work out the timings, starting backwards from when we’re going to sit down, right back to when to turn the oven on for the turkey. And then write it all out in time order, and stick it on the front of the fridge, or anywhere lane it’s not going to get buried under all the debris or splashed with roasting tin juices.

Leek and potato soup with Melba toast, turkey, ham, mashed and roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots, red and green cabbage, stuffing, chipolatas, bread sauce and cranberry sauce, trifle, cheesecake and chocolate pots. It has been the same menu for decades regardless of who makes it. First mum, then me and now, every second year, my daughter.

I like the sound of your Christmas kitty. I might give that a go!

Don’t know as we are going to DDs. Though there was mention of Tarteflette .

Mushroom lentil shepherd pie - mash on top, baguette sage cranberry stuffing - tin baked, assorted variety of mushroom red wine gravy, roasted veg, cranberry ginger rosemary sauce, fruit, chocolate.

We cook a minimal menu for 2 persons, thus no fuss.

Meal is impressive plated with all colours of fruit and veg. Shepherd pie is an absolutely gorgeous casserole.

I make the same menu every holiday, and if I ever veer from traditional there is upset! They all say please don't change since they look forward to it.

Turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots, corn, green bean salad. Family comes over 11-ish on Christmas and dinner is around 12:30 or 1:00

Dessert may vary, but traditionally I do a Yule Log cake with layered chocolate biscuits and whip cream. Easy peasy and everyone likes it.

After clearing up, we are usually done by around 2:00, visitors usually pop by in the afternoon, but house quiet by 6:00. Lovely.

The easiest Christmas dinner I ever did was the one where I sent everyone to the pub and I drank the champagne at home. Apparently it was the best I've ever done. Sadly,I needed a lie down and missed it.

Mine will look like whatever my son decides. I haven’t made a Christmas dinner since I was in my forties.

It's a Sunday roast with a couple of extras. I like bung in the oven or ping in the microwave stuff. No fuss.

My main tip is no sit-down starter - I serve canapes & drinks beforehand then we sit down to the usual roast turkey.

My tip is to stay on the sherry while somebody else does the cooking. 🥳

Eat in someone else’s house, so no idea what’s on the menu apart from turkey and the usual. Everyone’s bringing something to contribute at my GSs house.

We always do our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and it goes down a storm. This leaves Christmas Day as a put a little buffet out and sit back and relax day. It feels less pressure somehow. But i will be watching out for tips too snowberry as it’s a big meal but I love it making it.

This will be my first Christmas in supported living - cracking little independent flats but a communal meal at lunch time.

Looking forward to seeing what I get given!!