Christmas Dinner

Apart from the one year when we first retired and were away on a trip I have cooked Christmas dinner every year and my son and daughter and now their partners come to stay.
Have to say I do enjoy the family with us and I do love all that comes with the holiday.
I do quite a bit of preparation and freezing before hand to save time on the day and it does tend to work out well.
This year however for the first time we will be traveling down to my daughters home for the Christmas period from Christmas Eve for 4 days and my son and dil will join us as my daughter gave birth in October and can't travel so far with the little one.
Because there will be 6 of us and 4 days meals I intend taking down a sliced turkey with plenty of stuffing, I'll freeze these and the baking I'll do, tortilla, etc can't just go down and expect my daughter to do everything for her first Christmas bash.
It will be good fun everyone will help and the main thing is we are all together for the holiday.

Well don't go tiring yourself out flower and sit down at any opportunity you get.. Other than that enjoy

Cheating Agus! Cheating, I still have to put the oven on

We usually host the DDs and partners plus kids and occasionally have a couple of extras. I stick to a roast turkey or a capon depending on numbers but prepare as much of the veg. and other bits ahead of the day possible so less time in the kitchen!

I have friends who make a really big deal out of the food but to me I'd rather be playing & enjoying a few festive tipple.

Nice one flower. I'm at the cheating stage too. Been there, done it, for years. Had it

Was it the Royal Family? Just saw a repeat which was like that, but ended happily in spite of all!

Well, I will stick to getting it all ready the day before. I spend less than hour in the kitchen on Christmas Day.

At the end of the day all it is, is a roast dinner with a large joint. Whether it is a quick simple roast meal or a full production number, with. metaphorically, fanfares of trumpets and waiters bearing boars heads on gilded plates, is a matter of choice.

Agree Anno, After all it's MY Christmas too.

Good thinking, Flower. Why do it all when it can be ready to cook on the day?

Was inspired by this forum to pick up the phone and order my Christmas Dinner from M&S. After 40 years of mainly me cooking the dinner, last year was a doddle, it seems a lot of money but I only buy free range turkeys so looking at the cost of one of those plus all the extra bits, plus the preparing I was more relaxed last year than I have ever been. My DD who is vegetarian (I have ordered a special vege roast for them) is contributing as is my youngest DS. All in all it will work out cheaper and less stressful for me.

Having been married 50 years it will be my 48th xmas dinner having been to eldest daughter twice. No she dosnt cook but SIl is great cook, i love doing it though this year having Quale followed by boned stuffed duck, hubbi must have his sprouts always do fried with pine nuts & avacardo as his fav but found in iceland last year with chestnuts he loved them so cheating again &using them, we love xmas pud and always make sure i get enough to last through out year:-D but will do choc ones for GC but if any need something diffrent that can be made in advance you will need a Blockof icecream (coop may still sell) a box of aftereights cut i/cream into cubes size of mints, put mint one 4 sides now this can be done in advance & put in freezer, before serving pipe cream on top decorate with strawberry or orange, you choose fruit, add sprig of mint if you happen to have, never known it fail to please apart from me who Hates mints of any sort :-D. Oh most i have cooked for on xmas day 90 lol they had 4 cources choice of turky or beef + had 2 vegies 1 vegon, not a trained chef but we had reastrant at the time, i did all cooking all gone by 4pm then did staff meal

Last year for the first time ever I had no-one for Christmas dinner. No pity required, my sister called round in the morning and I opened presents from friends, cousins etc. two sons were going to come Boxing Day with in laws and GC.

And what did I eat Mrsmopp? A delicious meat pie with puff pastry from M&S and then I enjoyed a small portion of pudding. The Dinner was served the next day and as is the norm, with the nattering, the wine, and everything being ready at the same time, was stone cold. Thank God for microwaves.

By the way I have told all my friends not to buy olives. I have, due to being unable to drive, had to rely on Tesco deliveries. Due to my total ignorance of the metric system have purchased the largest bag of sugar ever seen, a tiny box of soap powder and this last week a massive jar of olives.

It's not the same sort of thing we cook every day. I very rarely cook "roasts" these days as my husband doesn't eat meat now and I rarely eat it. Also, I'm a bit fed up with cooking so we tend to have simple stuff most of the time. The details of other Gransnetters' evening meals put me to shame.

I don't really 'get' Xmas Dinner. It's the same sort of thing as you cook any day of the week, obviously with a few more tit bits. Hubby and I only bother if we have family company or obviously get invited to someone's home.

We like going to the pub and 'scooping up' an odd waif and stray who has no big plan for a Xmas dinner either. We have had some great Xmases and the spontaneity of it all means you never know how it will turn out. We have never been on our own to date and we have had some cracking laughs and shared good food and plenty of drink with many kind hearted and amusing friends. It always amazes me how many people either are on their own or those whose family will not be with them for one good reason or another. People enjoy bringing their bits and booze and mucking in in general.

Perhaps we are lucky because we live in a village so everybody knows each other, it's a bit like Dibley without the Vicar.

sunseeker grin DH grew very fond of mums sprouts, personally the only veggies I like mushy are peas.

My mother always bought too much food at Christmas. I remember when my brother got married his wife asked him what she should get in for Christmas, he said to ask Mum what she was getting - then halve it!
I do remember overcooked sprouts though - hated them, now they are one of my favourite veg, as long as they still have a bit of crunch!

Flower

annsixty it's true, in fact veggies were cooked by this method on an all year round basis. Of course we now know that adding bicarbonate of soda destroys the vitamins in the vegetables (so I believe).

Mum always over catered so, the left overs went into a huge black frying pan to be fried to a crisp and served with bacon (always fried never grilled).

Do you remember the advert where a mother in a risingly hysterical voice is putting all the Christmas lunch out on the table, two or three kinds of potatoes, three veg, sausage and bacon rolls, bread sauce etc etc etc. Then a voice says 'where's the turkey' - and we are left to realise she has completely forgotten to cook the turkey. I still have a giggle when I think of it.

This reminds me of Victoria Wood who,in a monologue, said her mother puts the sprouts on to cook in October.

I am just glad to have survived the Christmas dinners my mum and my aunt cooked.

The turkey......fresh, never frozen put in the oven early Christmas Eve left to slow cook overnight.

Veggies put on a low light in the morning, copious amounts of salt added to the water, anything green had a pinch of bicarbonate soda for good measure so it didn't lose it's colour during the cooking process.

Well done anno. Little festive glass of something, feet up and let someone else (if a man even better) sweat in the kitchen. Perfect. I'll be in Ireland with my sister and in her case the nieces will probably take over the cooking while I go for a nice walk, urging my sister to come too and stay well out of range
Going to the pub while someone else cooks a viable option as well if you want to keep well clear.

I would really recommend Jamie O's mixed roasted game birds from his 'Jamie at Home' book - pheasant, guinea fowl, partridge, wood pigeons, quails or whatever combination you want - he does it with polenta but we did it with mixed mashed veg and red cabbage - - pile it all up on big platters and everybody just digs in. Makes dinner slightly less formal tho' so may not suit everybody.

Just read Mishap's question re: the viability of a year long frozen turkey and the wonderful answer - what a relief! I'm in exactly the same position and will take the plunge and go for it as this year's feast. What a relief! I felt really guilty at the thought of having to dispose of it in the bin.

How we're going to fit everyone in for Christmas dinner though this year I'm not sure. We only have 1 baby now and 11 other people of various ages to sit around our table. Game of sardines, anyone?

There was one year when I didn't cook at Christmas which was a wonderful relief until I realised that I hadn't planned for the rest of the holiday period without any left overs!!! It's easy to cook a Christmas dinner but it's the quantities involved that get me.