Christmas Dinner

I, too, have done Christmas dinner for more years than I care to remember and cope with it by doing as much as possible (bar the cooking) before hand. I intend to make gallons of bread sauce this week for us and for two DDs. I'll also make some GF just for me!

The best Christmas dinner I ever made, according to my foodie son-in-law, was the year I made my way down a bottle of champagne at the same time - wish I could remember

This year, however, there will be just three (maybe five) of us so I've bought it all from M&S.

For many years mum and I would cook alternate years. Then when dad passed away and I did it every year. When DD got married 7yrs ago I looked forward to being catered for again. I'm still waiting!!

There will only be 3 of us for Christmas lunch but I will still do turkey and all the trimmings. I never stress over it. As has been said it's just a large Sunday roast.

Bread sauce, yuck!!

Is it me!!!! I cooked a C dinner yesterday with bread sauce and brandy butter for the Xmas pudding. Had my DD and family. I fancied turkey for lunch when I was shopping and then got carried away and asked DD if she would like to come. She bought Xmas crackers and wine so very enjoyable without the stress. Perhaps that's the answer have Xmas lunch another day.

I have never cooked Christmas Day Dinner. I am lucky to have a family where all the men fancy themselves as Gordon Ramsey and they are pretty good at it. I have to supervise the shopping and clear up the aftermath. Small price to pay!

Thanks so much Notso and baubles for the info. The Royle Family - how could I have forgotten !! Pretty easily it seems !

Our family used to disperse at Christmas and all come to me ( I had inherited the large table!) at New Year. My brother brought his latest girlfriend and as was traditional those who helped make the meal sat back while the others washed up. Girlfriend was a bit taken aback at been shown a teatowel but as she obviously had designs on my brother my sister and I thought she should be treated as family ! Later we took drink orders, meaning tea or coffee as it was only 3pm. Girlfriend asked for a large vodka and orange which was not forthcoming.
We never saw her again and I'm not sure why !!
Next girlfriend was much more suitable and offered to wash up, They have now been happily married for 25 years

I like that story, tiggy

We now do a sort of circuit over Christmas, starting here in Devon with DD and family, then to Hampshire to DS1 and family, ending up in Cheltenham with DS2 and family - his older daughter, DGD2, has a birthday on 28th December, so we are there in time for that.

Each D-i-L has her mum nearby, so they get to do Christmas lunch together, which is fine, and we grans get on very well. Theseus gets totally spoiled, and loves it!

So, I no longer cook for Christmas, which is wonderful indeed. I have made Christmas cakes, will make Yule log cakes, and will take plenty of booze.

My ds loves to cook C dinner, so I go to them or stay home alone with something simple!

I have never made bread sauce (yuk indeed), surely it was made as something to make the meal go farther?
Why would you need it these days?

(I'm behind the sofa now, waiting....)

DS2 and wife will be here the weekend before, DGS1 and family will be here over New Year. Christmas, therefore, needs to be quiet and simple. We are thinking of volunteering for the Big Get Together organised locally for those alone at Christmas by way of a complete change.
Bread sauce, altho delicious, reminds me of the bread poultices my lovely Mum used to put on splinters!

I would get hung, drawn and quartered if there was no bread sauce and have to make it for the rest of the family too. It might have started life as something to spin the meal out further but, at least in our family, it is the reason one has turkey or chicken.

Maybe the people who don't like it, haven't eaten a good one. Mine has finely chopped onions, lots of butter, salt and pepper and lots of grated nutmeg. [ducks behind the other sofa]

I make bread sauce by using quarter onions and cloves boiled in milk and then left to cool overnight. Strain out onion and cloves, add bread, no crusts, salt and pepper. Heat through until it thickens. Freezes well so make a large batch.

gracesmum If you have foodies in the family, ypu are just being nice to them if you let them contribute to the Christmas dinner.

The rest of the family - can you trust DD2 and BF to make bread sauce and wrap chipolatas in bacon and grill them? One Sis-in-Law can set the table and make sure the plates and serving dishes are all in readiness and the other can keep the kitchen surfaces clear of dirty preparation untensils. 24 yr old nephew can be in charge of keeping glasses filled. DD1 will have her work cut out keeping the DGS out of mischief.

Basil the grand-dog can be on clear-up duty eating anything that falls on the floor (If brother or sis-in-law drop any food they say "drat" and the dog comes running from the other end of the house to tidy it up. If they say drat for any other reason she still comes running)

I don't know whether GM is like me Elegran but everyone 'helping' me would harass me to death! The only people allowed in my kitchen without permission are people bearing

Food for thought!! I am not good at delegating (apart from spud peeling) but had already mentally lined up 1 sis-in law(the arty one!) to do the table, nephew to be in charge of drinks and hoped that maybe the other chaps would take the boys to our local playground in the village to keep them out of my hair as no matter how urgent the culinary task "Gwanny!" and upstretched arms will always come first!! I thought Basil might do excellent clear-up duty too - unlike Grace who would save us the bother of getting the plates dirty and just help herself from the worktops!! (Does anyone remember my catastrophe with the haunch of venison?) Acat-owning friend came back from midnight mass one year to find the tail end of the cat protruding from the tail end of the turkey which she thought she had put out of reach

We have Christmas dinner in turn at my house, DD2 and DS. DD1 lives at the other end of the country, and spends Christmas with the other inlaws, so her contact is by phone. This year it will be at DS. DiL will probably cook a couple of kosher chickens, as kosher turkeys seem to be in short supply. Actually, kosher meat of all kinds is as rare in Edinburgh as the proverbial pork chop in a synagogue, and previous Christmas birds have come from Glasgow or Manchester. She does a mean Christmas lunch, with the trimmings, despite not sharing the religious aspects of the day.

When it is here, everyone seems to be in my kitchen (drinks in hand) so they end up doing something! They ask beforehand if they can bring anything, so DD2 usually brings her famed trifle. She now makes two, one alcoholic and one not, as DiL can't drink normal sherry. I make cranberry and orange sauce, to DH's recipe (used to be his speciality) with port in one half but not in the other (for DiL)

SonIL 2 is the sprout guru - he always peels a sackful on Christmas Eve, with TV on and glass in hand, wherever the meal will be. I don't let DS make bread sauce any more, since he took "Stir it so that it doesn't stick" to mean "Beat it until it becomes wallpaper paste" BTW, soya milk makes good bread sauce if the normal stuff is running low, and a carton of soya milk keeps for several weeks in the fridge.

Christmas lunch is always exhaustingvery hectic in my house. The family always come to me for dinner and DH does a kind of relay picking everyone up although I insist on taxis home. We eventually sit down to dinner at about 5pm (much to my grandmas disgust) after much chatter and exchange of presents. My DH and I do everything. It is the one day a year that I actually use my dishwasher ! My house is a three story town house and the kitchen and dining room are on the ground floor and the lounge is on the first floor. Last year my DH and I had to carry my grandma upstairs after dinner. This year we will have to carry my mum up too. Blimey, not sure how that's going to work!

Not having had children Christmas lunch (more like dinner by the time it is ready) has never been stressful for me. Christmas morning DH would cook breakfast, then later we would go to the local pub until around 1.00, in the meantime the turkey would be in the oven (if I hadn't cooked it the night before). When we got back from the pub it would just be a question of cooking the veggies (bread sauce was banned as I consider it to be the work of the devil!). Always opened a bottle of wine while the veggies were cooking.

The most stressful Christmas lunch I had was whilst in the pub a couple of people said they were on their own for Christmas so DH invited them back to ours - I just threw in a few extra roast potatoes.

Since DH died I have spent Christmas with my family in Australia which was lovely but I spent last year alone and have to say apart from a few tears first thing it was fine. I have had a few invites this year but am staying home again.

As we won't have any family around this year, and if it's not tipping it down, Mr. Ffinn and I will pack a tasty picnic and take it to the shoreline.

Sounds heavenly ffinnochio Can we swap?

I certainly feel part of the sandwich generation. I cooked Christmas Lunch for my mother and MIL for many years, and now do it for my DDs and their families. Am still waiting to have someone else cook for me but think I will be waiting a long time. We also used to help parents with decorating and general plumbing things etc and now help DDs with things like that, and yet again still waiting for someone to help us. Feel we will have a long wait for that too. Where did we go wrong?

Being too good at it Nanapug!!!!!
Cultivate helplessness, burn the turkey, drop the sprouts, hang the wallpaper upside down, swap over the hot and cold taps - they'll soon get the message!!

When I was a child, our local baker used to cook turkeys at Christmas. Dad would take it down early in the morning and fetch it, beautifully cooked at about 1 o'clock.Heaven!Bring back the old ways, are there any local bakers left?
I've been cooking turkeys a la Delia for the last hundreds of years, so it seems.DH ordered ours this morning, so it looks like a repeat performance this year.Happy cooking all!

I don't want anyone doing anything for me nanapug until I (or DH ) can't do it and I live in dread of being properly old.

A few years ago we bought a small house now we simply don't have room for our ever growing family. My eldest daughter cooks for everyone although I cook the turkey. It works fine for me. :-)

It can certainly cause trouble. There have only been 2 years when I haven't cooked. The first when my womanising B.i.L wife finally came to her senses and left. We went to spend it with him. When I told my son and his wife my stupid son blurted out but what about dinner when his new wife said don't be silly ill cook it. He replied but what about the gravy! I'm sure there were a few words when I left. She was upset bless her, so much so she came to see me to ask how to make gravy. I gave her instruction and she told me she was afraid it would be lumpy so I told her to either buy a carton of gravy or use her usual instant and add a tablespoon of port and he'd never know the difference and he didn't. Last year we went to our other sons and it was a disaster. She has a bit of O.C.D with regard to housework and just couldn't cope. This year we are at home there will be 5 adults & 3 teenagers and 3 under 4's so it's turkey, ham trimmings for us nice and simple. Lots of noise. I do think we all have unattainable expectations. I find the shopping exhausting.