Share your inspiration for Christmas Day food and drink with a difference - chance to win Lidl vouchers NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Lidl have their festive food all ready and waiting - now they want to know how MNers make Christmas lunch memorable for all the right reasons. They’d love to hear how you change things up on Christmas Day to make your meal extra special and please all of those celebrating with you - without breaking the bank.This can include main dishes, sides, puddings, and drinks.

Will you be going down the goose route this year, or opting for some seafood? Or maybe you have an interesting turkey treatment you'd like to share. If you are catering for vegetarians or other dietary needs, what options have gone down well - do you tend to do veggie variations on a roast or something completely different?

What about sides - do you have a cunning way with sprouts that makes everyone love them? Or a potato dish that knocks the usual roasties into a hat. For dessert, do you have a Christmas pudding variation? Or something different entirely that you always end your Christmas lunch with?

Drinks-wise, what's top of the drinks list for you? Do you create mocktails for the youngsters or anyone needingnon-alcoholic options? Or do you have an alternative to the traditional Buck's Fizz or a special version of mulled wine that sets you up for the day?

Inspire others with your personal takes on Christmas Day food and drinkbelow and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where you could win one of five £50 Lidl vouchers.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[Cambam2010]

This year my family (mainly my Dear Sister) cannot cope with a big family feast as previous years have always ended in arguments (dear Sis and her DP - as Christmas is always held at her house as she has the space). To give my sister a break, this year we are all having a Christmas meal in a local pub on the 23rd December. Then on Xmas day my sister is providing a cold buffet for everyone. We will have tasty breads, oil dips, pate, cheeses, cold meats, chutneys, sausage rolls, pies, salad, crisps, dips, humous, olives etc etc. This take the pressure off of my sister and means that she can spend less time in the kitchen and more time with the family.

[asuwere]

We make Christmas meal special by having a starter AND a pudding - every other day its one or the other. We also have sparkling water - the DC love having a fizzy drink :)
Probably not the kind of thing you're looking for but I just can't understand the weeks of planning and hours of cooking that people do for 1 meal.

[QueenofallIsee]

We are a large family who generally spend Christmas together - 18 of us! To all sit around the table requires military planning, or we end up eating in shifts (no mansions here sadly). Making the table beautiful is very important to us, charger plates, candles and fresh flowers all the way. We lay the table the day before, and then have croissants, pastrys, breakfast stuff 'buffet' style in the living room on christmas morning so not to spoil the lovely effect

Gravy is made in the run up to Xmas and then frozen for easy defrost. Turkey is just one of the meats and the one that is made early in the morning, we keep it warm using foil and towels, and this means the oven is much more accessible for the remaining food...oh and we are yorkshire pudding people even if there is no beef!

We have mid morning canapes and then go to church

Starters are traditionally seafood, a platter of shellfish is always included (last year Lidl were the lobster providers!) This year will be garlic mushrooms as well as we have 2 pregnant guests (so 20 guests next year then!)..pudding is always cheese and biscuits, black forest or Xmas pudding...retro folks we are!

Fizz for Xmas is always the way - Kir Royale and Bellini is a favourite.

[MrsDilligaf]

I can understand that, for some people, Christmas Dinner is no more than a posh roast dinner, but in the Dilligaf House we go all out, all day!

We have pretty much the same as we would have on a roast but definitely with added bells! Carrots are not sliced but battoned and roasted in honey, gravy is enriched with a large glug of red wine, stuffing is not paxo but sooper dooper apricot and brioche sausage meat stuffing.

Christmas dinner is the perfect opportunity to create memories, and if you can do that by eating scrumptious food with the ones you love then that's what matters most.

[GrumpyInsomniac]

We have different Christmas traditions depending on which side of our family we share Christmas with. MIL has an Aga that slowly roasts both a goose and a turkey for an evening dinner - we're usually 20+ people there - and a range of mashed turnips, carrots, and spouts to accompany the meal, followed by Christmas pudding. I also love that they serve cheese with their Christmas cake, which I've enthusiastically embraced.

On my side, Christmas without roast spuds is unthinkable, and we do sprouts differently, too. I parboil them, then roast with smoked lardons, a knob or two of butter, whole chestnuts, maple syrup and balsamic vinegar. Even my 10 year old DS eats them that way.

Being coeliac, I make some adjustments to the prep, so I make my own mince pies with an almond shortbread crust, and a gluten free Christmas pudding and cake, as well as GF bread sauce. I also make our turkey stuffing from scratch with Cox apples and caramelised onions.All the family are happy to eat these, so I'm apparently doing something right!

The best bit for me? Meals of leftovers, where I get to kick back and relax and enjoy the results of all my hard work :)

[forkhandles4candles]

so many little touches I like to do. A zingy salad of green mangoes and spring onions to start with, then a soup - thick and creamy. For the main, all traditional stuff, chestnuts in the Brussels, brilliantly crunchy roast potatoes, but mash too. And pudding - lemon sorbet in lemon shells is always a hit. Plus Christmas pud, made by my DB, and a Christmas cake. A winning thing too each year has been a huge escarole for the salad.

[jmszel]

Our Christmas meal is special because its the same recipes we've used for 20+ years. Any talk of trying something new does not go down well :) only this year I have to adapt the recipes as our little boy has dairy and egg allergies as well as coeliacs.

[TheSpottedZebra]

We're quite traditional too, with a few quite fussy eaters, and a vegetarian (me!) in the mix.
So its turkey, roast pots but no other potatoes, parsnips, carrots, Brussels, red cabbage etc.

There was much discussion last year as we mildly spiced the parsnips. They were delicious, but deemed Not Christmassy, so back to bog standard this year.

We've done away with the Christmas cake as no one ate it, but we have Christmas Profiteroles now as standard, alongside a yule log and Christmas pud.

[2014newme]

For us its all about the gravy!
Dh has a fantastic recipe he gets chicken wings to roast off just for the gravy and he starts making it the day before adding meat juices and port on the day. He makes loads as we have a turkey hash with leftovers we also add leftover roast potatoes and roast veg to the hash and the gravy.
We don't have a starter it's all about the main event.
We always flame the pudding.
We love a boxing day buffet of salads, Turkey, cold meats, jacket potatoes and salad.
I am hungry just thinking about it.
Yummy!

[foxessocks]

Definitely something alcoholic with dinner which we don't always do, followed by more than one pudding. Possibly a starter as well. Posh table decorations and of course crackers!

[Maddaddam]

If I had my choice we'd do totally different, non-traditional food each year. But because the dc like their idea of a traditional Christmas dinner, we do a variation of that - but the dc are all veggie and there are a couple of vegan relatives around some years, so we have veggie/vegan version. Nut roast, vegetarian haggis, veggie sausages and stuffing, lots of roast veg and gravy.

I usually add a spicy tomato sauce to satisfy those of us who don't go for bland British roast dinner.

Then we have Christmas pudding, which has to be set alight and burn properly, and have 20p coins in it. The burning is the important bit in our house.

[Foxyloxy1plus1]

A vegetarian nut roast with loads and loads of different nuts is enjoyed by meat eaters as well.

Breakfast is always smoked salmon sandwiches and Bucks Fizz. Everything else is traditional, apart from Christmas pudding that only one of us likes, so a small Lidl one suffices. The children are happy with posh type ice cream and the adults enjoy a roulade or chocolate pudding.

[Cagliostro]

We once made Christmas Present starters. Waldorf salad (or coleslaw, potato salad or something similar would do) wrapped in parma ham and tied with chive strings :o was really lovely actually. Another year we did melon, parma ham, goats cheese and honey which was really nice - good to have something fresh and light compared to the big filling main course.

We normally have Eton Mess for pudding, as none of us like Christmas cake/pudding and DH is a coeliac anyway. Once we did mini baked Alaskas (using gluten free macaroons as a base) and another time we did fake Christmas puds - used little pudding basins to mould chocolate ice cream into the right shape, and hid chocolate coins in them. Might do that this year actually (this adventurous stuff was all pre-DC!)

[mumsbe]

The few things that we do differently for Christmas are because my son has autism so he doesnt like certain textures. So we make fresh chicken nuggarts shaped like christmas trees and because he likes a lot of flavour we do sausage and cranberry stuffing balls.
Not many of the family like christmas pudding so we normally get chocolate fudge cake, strawberry cheese cake and a small christmas pudding for me.

[Oblomov16]

Taking notes.

We just do a roast, but posher. Whole leg of lamb, pigs in blankets, posh stuffing balls, Yorkshire puddings, roasted parsnips, along with all the usual / normal roast stuff.

A posh pudding or trifle, or apple crumble.

And a doze. Having been completely stuffed and drunk too much wine.

[AmyAmoeba]

I've become a bit more adventurous with our Christmas food since starting shopping with Lidl. Ive discovered all sorts of lovely German Christmas treats that add a lovely European dimension to the run up to the big day. And not being a big fan of mince pies it's a relief to see how widespread the German retailers influence has lately become! Marzipan and gingerbread have become the quintessential taste of Christmas now.

My family are staunch traditionalists on the big day so its still very much a turkey and ham dinner here, but on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day I can indulge in more interesting roasts like Guinea fowl, and roast pheasant and spiced duck and now I mark the start of Advent too with a nice roast goose, which of course guarantees lots of yummy roast potatoes!

I love to cook from scratch, and find Lidl great for fresh good quality ingredients as well as inspiration. I love to browse the Christmas range of sauces and chutneys for ideas of flavours to experiment with, and combinations I might not have considered. Then I shamelessly steal the idea to make my own version

Even though my family are traditionalists at the table in the last few years they've accepted a lot of little tweaks that would have been heresy ten years ago! We used to have a plum pudding, complete with blue flames that no one actually enjoyed. Now I make a chocolate biscuit pudding flavoured with orange, cinnamon and cardamom and they all love it. The 1970s sherry trifle has evolved into a tee total cherry trifle with almond fingers replacing the stale sponge and a cherry and vanilla reduction replacing the sherry. The Brussels sprouts were actually eaten last year with the addition of garlic and chorizo! I was even reminded to make a bigger portion this year!

But some recipes will never be tweaked like my great grandmothers special gravy. I'm sure she would haunt me if I shared her secret recipe on a public Internet forum!

[Butteredpars1ps]

I actually enjoy cooking Christmas Dinner, we usually have a dozen or so of us and share the preparations. I also buy some ready prepared dishes to make the day run better.

The table is a big part of making it extra special, and I take time and care to get it just so. This year I will be using some vintage coloured wine glasses that belonged to my parents and will set each place with co-ordinating crackers, napkins, chocolates and decorations to complete the theme. It will be special to use these heirlooms and make new memories.

I also have some large serving platters that I warm above the oven and use to bring an extra sense of occasion and allow everyone to serve themselves.

Rather than have a starter I like to do canapés (bought ones) with drinks at around noon. BIL organises cocktails and makes non alcoholic versions for DC. We then have lunch between 2&3 depending upon how many cocktails I have consumed. .

Food wise I usually make a large stuffed turkey breast roll wrapped in Parma ham and serve it with home made gravy, cranberry and port sauce and bread sauce. I cheat by using bought stuffing and pigs in blankets and Mil helps me to prepare the veg so that everything is ready.

I always make a rich xmas pudding and serve an alternative (usually bought) alongside it for the dried fruit refusers.

I have to say it's the people around the table who make it truly special, but I like to put the effort into serving a good meal.

[cheerylilthing]

This year is our little boy's first Christmas & it will be an opportunity to have his first baby led meal. We're expecting more mess than anything but I'm sure his face will be a picture when he realises he has the same as us & has his own seat rather than being on our knee.

For the last few years we've had a 3 or 5 bird roast but we're just having turkey this year with plenty of veg, stuffing & yorkshire puddings.

Christmas Day tea is centred around pork pies from the butchers with various other snack-style food.

I usually bake & this year I'll be making vanilla biscuits, stollen, an iced sponge cake with penguin decoration & a couple of different flavours of fudge (probably cranberry & white chocolate & cherry bakewell).

[throwingpebbles]

My favourite bit of Christmas Day is actually breakfast

It makes the day feel extra special to start it with a really indulgent breakfast. Croissants and lots of fruit and fresh coffee for the adults; super sugary variety mix cereals or pancakes for the kids (or kids at heart). Always with mini jars of marmalade and jam. No idea why! It's just a family tradition to have mini jars on Christmas Day!

[CopperPan]

We like to mix Christmas dinner up a bit as various members of my extended family are from other countries and everyone contributes a dish. So we have a traditional turkey and roasties, but also extra dishes like a lamb curry, spring rolls or lobster. None of us really like Christmas pudding and I find a big colourful fruit salad is a nice dessert to round off all the overindulgence. For the dc we sometimes make them into fruit kebabs.

[LifeIsGhoulish]

We don't eat pork, so instead of Pigs in Blankets we have Sheep in Slankets: lamb sausages wrapped in pastrami. (Lidl pastrami, of course!)

[Kateallison16]

The weird and wonderful.

The dinner:

Crispy and fluffy roast potatoes. Bring to boil, drain and leave to cool a little. Toss them in semolina powder and rosemary and bake in beef dripping.

Carrots, slice long ways. Simmer in chicken stock with a spoon of sugar and a sprinkle of salt. When halfway cooked take out and leave to cool. Place on a baking tray and sprinkle with salt, pepper and a dash of maple syrup.

Drinks

The godfather
1 litre Coke, 3 shots bourbon and 3 shots amerreto.

Cruella
1 litre lemonade, 1 cup of orange juice, 1 cup of pineapple juice, 6 shots of gin.

[annandale]

We are pretty traditional and/but are going for beef this year. Actually not my favourite but we have it so rarely it will be a fantastic treat.

Timing wise in recent years we have had Christmas meal on the table on the dot of 1pm but now that ds is older we will have bubbles and meze at 10.30, go for a walk and eat main course and pudding a bit later. I'm hoping to avoid that stuffed cobra feeling as I don't enjoy it. My MIL is doing a special Christmas pudding she does which somehow is low fat though I think that must be relative! Very tasty though.

[FeelingSmurfy]

We normally have a few options for pudding and what doesn't get eaten on the day will be a pudding another night. They include -
Mince pie ice cream
Individual steamed puddings (Christmas pudding, syrup sponge, chocolate sponge etc) with custard
Mince pie and custard
Christmas centerpiece sponge cake
A show stopper dessert one of the supermarkets has brought out that year
Any of the other festive bits and pieces we haven't eaten yet

[Sammyislost]

Pudding is my favourite dish to be a part of at Christmas. I love using white chocolate to add personalisation to our puddings, last year I made chocolate mousse.
It's so easy to pipe a name that can be added on top of a dessert to make it that little bit more special!