Christmas Dinner...reflections on and thought for the future

I don’t often do a roast dinner but enjoy prepping it once month with everything cooked from scratch. Anja is right in that Christmas is only a glorified chicken dinner so why do we stress so much over it?

I find I worry less when I write a timetable for buying on one day, prepping on Christmas Eve and then cooking in order on the day so that everything is served hot.

What is inevitable about stress at Christmas? And what have adverts and supermarkets got to do with it?

I am heading into my 50th family Christmas and over fifty years it is honed to a fine art. It has been tweeked a bit here and there over the years to adjust to changing circumstances, guests and, now allergies, but essentially it is the same. How can it be different?

The whole meal is completely prepared, complete with serving dishes out and jar of cranbury sauce standing in its bowl with spoon, waiting to be opened, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve to the sound of the King's College carols,

On Christmas day I put the turkey in the oven sometime between 8.00-9.00am, then apart from breakfast and present opening cocktails I do not go near the kitchen until mid day when I add the potatoes, parsnips and stuffing to the oven. At 12.30 the turkey comes out to rest while I cook veg and make gravy and lunch is ready between 1.00-1.30pm.

What is stressful about that - and afterwards everything goes in the dishwasher.

and Christmas dinner this year for me is....

Home made potato pie with crust/mushy peas/onions in vinegar/beetroot.

also for those who don't want the pie.

Chicken and pineapple curry with boiled rice, poppadoms/chutney/dips/nan bread. Samosas/Onion Bajis

All served in chip shop polystyrene trays with disposable plastic forks/spoons.

Our mum enjoys cooking and pretty much always serves the same menu for Christmas dinner: turkey with her famous stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, pickles, green salad, her famous Jell-O salad, Brussels sprouts, another veggie of some sort, bread, and cranberry sauce, with assorted Christmas cookies and candy for dessert. But, she has a few tricks up her sleeve for making things easier:

1. She usually picks up a "utility" turkey. These are cheaper, and usually boast a minor problem such as a wing missing or something. Nothing serious enough to impact the taste, but just enough of an issue that it can't be sold as a "prime" turkey.

2. She makes most of the Christmas cookies and goodies herself, but she starts weeks in advance. She makes a list of everything she wants to make, prepares it in advance, and then freezes it. The one shortcut she does take in this regard is to use frozen tart shells for her butter tarts, rather than making her own from scratch. They still taste good and they're so much easier than trying to make tart shells. She also buys bags of Christmas candy, usually items such as candy canes, mints, and chocolate balls. She puts a few of these on the cookie tray in addition to the Christmas cookies.

3. She makes many of her dishes the night before. For example, she always makes her stuffing the evening before. Not only does this cut down on work the day of, but it also makes it taste better as the herbs have a chance to soak into the bread. She also makes her Jell-O salad the evening before as that will keep nicely in the fridge overnight. I think sometimes she makes her cranberry sauce the day before, too.

4. We usually eat Christmas dinner around 2 p.m. This gives the morning for church and people can have a small snack if they're hungry. It also means that dinner is kind of every man for himself in case anyone's still hungry.

Mum also makes sure to use up all the leftovers. She saves the turkey carcass and uses it to make soup. The turkey that's been sliced (she always pre-carves the turkey and just brings the platter to the table, rather than having it carved at the table) can be used for sandwiches or eaten as is. One of my favourite leftovers is a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce.

We also eat Christmas dinner on the good china, crystal, and silverware, the set that my parents received for their wedding. Mum says it's important to make sure you use the good stuff, because otherwise, what are you saving it for? (Little ones still get plastic cups, just in case something gets dropped, but they get the good china plates and nice silverware too.)

Thank you Anja - dh and I are giggling away here at your post? I particularly like No. 7 - vanish the kids ??

With all respect agnurse your mother sounds a domestic goddess, but having done Christmas dinners since the early 70’s I think Anja has nailed it.
Once upon a time I too did the advance cooking and baking etc etc etc and enjoyed it, but frankly a turkey dinner is man’s revenge for feminism - pigs in blankets, stuffing (both ends?) bread sauce, cranberry sauce, roasties, at least 4 different veggies - for heavens sake. When it got to the stage of Delia issuing a minute by minute countdown to Christmas Day I decided enough was enough.

Somehow I always thought turkey was just a north American custom. Our Brit friends here in Canada do a roast beef, and pull crackers and wear funny hats while eating.

We do a typical turkey dinner, but mashed not roasted potatoes. No Brussel sprouts at our house! Green beans instead, since they are more popular. Dinner is typically at around 12;30 or 1:00

I agree it doesn't need to be a fuss, but then we do not have a huge family, so 12 people would be the max if all were available.

I've also learned not to make a fancy dessert since we just pick away at cookies or chocolates.

MawB you do not have to do all that, it is your choice.

I just do turkey with sausage meat stuffed one end, a slice of ham(cooked and sliced before hand and just heated through), stuffing cooked in a bread tin for easy slicing, all served with roast potatoes, sprouts and gravy. The whole meal prepared in a couple of hours, max the afternoon before. Oh we do have cranberry sauce from a jar.

Everything domestic in our household is done on the K.I.S.S. system. (Keep it simple, stupid)

As I said M0nica I don’t!

I was describing the “traditional” Christmas dinner over which women up and down the country will be sweating blood.
Not me.

I always thought the 'traditional' meal as described by you, MawB was a fiction of advertisers and those making fun of it. I do not know of anyone who serves up all that - or anyone who could eat it.

Anyone, male or female, who seeks to serve up a meal on that scale and and martyr themselves to prepare it all on Christmas day deserves everything they get.

After fizz at breakfast and the traditional couple of sherries before dinner (the only day I drink the stuff), I’m usually too chilled to worry about anything. The only stress for me is in getting it all on the plates when I’ve 13 folk round a table meant for 8 at most. I’ve bought a couple of folding tables for the grandsons this year, but the idea of feeding them first is very tempting....

What four over-excited boys of six and under would be up to unsupervised in the rest of the house probably doesn’t bear thinking about though. It could all go a bit Lord of the Flies.

That’s a bit dismissive M0nica you only have to glance at the media- including magazines and sites such as this to see that there is huge pressure on women (mostly) to pull all the stops out for that one big meal of the year.
Anja and I are attempting healthy tongue in cheek cynicism but frankly, even for a Sunday lunch I would not put a slice of reheated turkey and a slice of ham on a plate, douse them with gravy and expect plaudits. Any half decent pub or carvery can do better than that.
(The ham is for Boxing Day anyway. Do you favour Nigella’s cooked in coke recipe or Jamie’s?)

Hi Anja and Day6 good to see you both back
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I adore sprouts! Like sodapop not messed with, not ‘crunchy’ just cooked with a dab of butter and white pepper. Best put them on a low light this weekend ...
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Paxo stuffing but I cook an onion till soft, chop it up and mix it in using the onion water (tad less as the onion is moist) and an extra 2 teaspoons of sage.

Delia Smith eat your heart out!

I do like the last couple of lines of the OP. NO ONE, And I mean no one APART FROM THE COOK IS ALLOWED TO GET P**SED AND FALL ASLEEP BEFORE THE WASHING UP IS DONE

DH doesn't get pissed but does always manage to fall asleep straight after a roast dinner, Christmas or not, and has to be woken up to do help with the washing up.

The Christmas before last everything was going swimmingly until I realised I had forgotten to light the oven, The turkey was sitting there as cold as when it came out of the fridge. Daughter shooed me out of the kitchen, sat me down in front of Frozen video with a couple of sausage rolls, and cooked the dinner herself.

We ate late, but I had a lovely morning.

Just go back to the old days as in 50s and 60s but with a modern oven and hob and better pans. All this stress today is home made, it need not be stressful, unless it is one person trying to outdo another

Ooh Gonegirl that sounds a good ploy! Bet you so enjoyed just sitting there, contentedly watching ‘Frozen’ (great film).

Gonegirl

Yep! I felt like the child of the house. Waiting for dinner to be called. Very nice.

I’m going to try that dodge, Gonegirl.

Is this a zombie thread from January, or is there a problem with the dates showing? The OP says 17/01/19, but that would be an odd time of year to be talking about Christmas dinner?

Ah. Some posters have mentioned what they did this year, so it must be an old thread.

As you were. ?

I think the thing to remember here is that everyone does Christmas "their way". I agree with the OP it is just a more fancy Sunday dinner. We really shouldn't allow the media/ad men/celeb chefs to dictate what that means. Have the things you like, leave out the so called "traditional"things if you don't like them. Buck the trend, and don't get stressed!

Oh yes. The original post was 17th January this year! (An odd time to be discussing cooking Xmas dinner. Bit late really)

Who digs these old threads up?

I've never stressed about Christmas dinner or Christmas anything, it's a big fuss about nothing. We always have a lovely meal and just enjoy ourselves and wonder what the fuss is all about.
The dishwasher takes care of the washing up and no one ever gets pissed here anyway. Basically we have no rules because we don't need them.

MawB many women manage to have an unstressful Christmas adverts or no adverts. It is quite simple, you just ignore them and do things your own way.

In fact if you look at the Christmas dinner as presented by supermarkets and the like they are ludicrous. The tables they show contain quiches, sausage rolls, pork pies, col slaw, to name but a few.

If any woman is daft enough to feel pressurised by these adverts, and there cannot be many, we are too sensible, then it is a self-inflicted injury and I have no sympathy for them.

As for recipes, I rarely use them, especially if it has a big name on the front cover. I bring the ham to boil in a pan of cold water, once boiling , I empty the water out and pour a bottle of red wine over the ham and a few cloves and simmer until cooked. The stock makes excellent gravy.

I am with FlexibleFriend, I agree with all her post, including the comments about not drinking too much. We don't