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DH used to say it was just a roast dinner until he was charged with making it last year -now he swears he'll never make it again (he messed up timings, killed the potatoes and murdered an unsuspecting xmas pudding - rest of it was lovely though). I think he forgot to factor in the whole opening presents part...

Mildred my mum taught me to cook a turkey or a chicken upside down for the first 40 mins, and then flip back over ( or not in your case!) so the juices run down into the breast.

It's sounding to me as if most of AIBU is half cut by Xmas afternoon!

It's sounding to me as if most of AIBU is half cut by Xmas afternoon!

I thought that was the law

Tis the law Chaotic. Breakfast in my house is bucks fixx at christmas ( not for the DC of course)

bucks fixx???

i made a new drink up

So.. Whats wrong with turkey crown? I CANNOT fit a full turkey in my new oven this year so it's either that or turkey twizzlers!

we used to always go to my mums for christmas.
After years of christmas dinner stress, she hit on a plan
When each person arrives on christmas eve they are handed a cuo of tea/gin and tonic depending on time, then asked which job they would like.

So we arrived on christmas eve and sat around drinking, listening to carols and preparing sprouts, peeling potatoes etc.

My dad insists on making chestnut stuffing FROM SCRATCH every year. His prefered time to do this is about 9pm on christmas eve when mum wants him to be packing presents. So we end up peeling hot chestnuts and burning our hands.

Mind you there was the christmas when he knocked down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room on christmas eve.

That became the standard for last minute prep in our house.

....when he knocked down the wall between the kitchen and the dining room on christmas eve......

I'm surprised they're still married! (If they are.)

Turkey crown loads better than whole turkey. Less waste if it is a small family. I just get a boned and rolled turkey breast. Even less than a crown and so much easier to carve and there is only me and 3 dcs. Having said that we are relegated to chicken this year as I'm the only one that likes turkey and we have invited my mum. The kids are eccstatic at my dm is coming as it means they don't have to put up with turkey.

It's a roast dinner with extras (although beef/pork roast here, no turkey).

As long as people stay out of the kitchen while I cook, they are alllowed back to clear up while I sit down afterwards..

Usually works fine.

My mum always used to get her knickers in a twist about cooking Xmas dinner. Mr Euro says it is just a roast dinner. So they have been coming to us ever since I moved in with him! It works for everyone.

I have to make DP 'guard' my mum otherwise she sneaks into the kitchen and turns the oven up as she thinks all meat needs to be cooked at the hottest temperature possible for at least 10 hours.

But if you only have a turkey crown, what do you feed teenage boys with? Mine get a drumstick each and it keeps them quiet for ages.

And you need the thighs for the turkey curry/risotto/sandwiches/soup, don't you?

Since the law says the only meat you can eat between December 25th and New Year's Eve is variations of turkey.

I would love to do Xmas at ours, but tradition dictates we go to my Mums and it's not worth falling out over, so it'll be at theirs, on the plus side...no mess to clean up and no fight in the supermarket for the last sprouts!

In fact because DH and I both have parents who have divorced and remarried we don't have to bother with food for the whole Xmas period becuase there are so many visits to make...Christmas Eve at one in-laws, having full Xmas lunch, Christmas day at my Mums, Boxing day at other in-laws and another full lunch and then the next day, long walk with most of the family and lunch at the pub. Works for us!

I'm not a good cook, but a roast is one of the few things I can do.

Never Turkey though, no one likes it very much, and it wouldn't be a Christmas Dinner if we had it. We always have Roast Beef.

I don't drink alcohol though, so no need to worry about being half cut!

I don't think it's any different to a normal roast though, we only have beef at Christmas, can't afford to have it more often than that, so when we do have a roast, it's usually chicken breasts, as we only like white breast meat, so a whole one is such a waste, as most of it got thrown away.

Took me a while to figure that it was cheaper and better for us to just buy breasts, than cook a whole chicken, then throw away most of it.

Mine and DH grew up far apart geographically but we both have childhood memoirs of our parents always rowing about cooking Christmas dinner - plus they'd spend the whole morning ignoring us to do the arguing and the cooking.

Same parents are horrified we don’t cook a turkey – we’ve had everything else duck, goose, pork, beef, 3 bird roast, quail. We don’t really like turkey.

We also get frozen honey glazed parsnips and frozen goose fat roast potatoes and any other short cuts we see. Deserts like trifle and Christmas pudding are eaten at a cold buffet tea following my family tradition.

We spend the day enjoying TV, drinking and playing with the DC. I’m sure the DC will survive the trauma of not having a turkey. So I don't get the drama around it.

Ah no-one we have for dinner is usually that fussed on the brown meat so if that's the only difference I'll give the crown a try!

One year I told my mid fifties colleagues I was cooking aunt bessies roasties

There was stunned silence!

cozie toes
they will celebrate their 50th next year!
Bit typical of them actually, I don't really remember that mum minded, she put everything in the fridge and went and wrapped presents. The oven and fridge were on the wall that remained. The next morning she just put the turkey in the oven and it became a family legend.
To be fair they were renovating an old house and the whole houese was a thinly disguised building site, and the long term plan was to loose the wall. He went to extend the table on Christmas eve and he couldn't because there wasn't enough room, so he took the wall down so we could all sit down for lunch!!

well, when I say she didn't mind, she wasn't exactly overjoyed about it1

It's just a roast dinner. But you do need the gravy boat. Pyrex jug on the table with gravy in. Eeow.

I started getting the first of the Christmas Paranoia e-mails from DM today. I was reflecting on my feelings of irritation about this while walking the dogs this afternoon and I have realized that I am sometimes purposefully blasé /lackadaisical about very important festive details (ie; Pyrex jugs instead of gravy boats) because she gets into such a tizzy about everything. And because I know it will wind her up.

I have concluded that I am a BAD PERSON.

Well it is just a roast dinner, but blinged up with nicer table settings. We all think turkey is tasteless and American so have had pork or goose for years and years. Nowadays I cook a large goose and a cock pheasant (for some white breast meat). It only needs 2 hours roasting. We have chestnut stuffing and sausagemeat stuffing, devils on horseback, roast spuds and panas (parsnips), sprouts and carrots. It means we don't have endless leftovers as well.
My lot will only eat xmas pud if it is home-made, i.e with lots of fruit, no nuts or peel and not black and burnt tasting. We always douse it with brandy and light it.
The best bit is sitting in the kitchen on Christmas Eve afternoon, listening to the Carol Service on Radio 4 from Kings and drinking sherry doing the prep, so that all we have to do on the day is put stuff in the oven at the right time.
My favourite is Boxing Day, when DH buggers off shooting and we have a girls' afternoon, DM, me, DDs 1&2 with a really old film, choccies and Baileys.