What are you having for Christmas dinner?

[SurferJet]

i need some inspiration .

[Enjolrass]

We were talking about this last night.

We don't usually do turkey. We do chicken and another meat. It will either be a ham/joint or beef.

We will have sausages, ds' favourite, and plenty of veg. Potatoes will be roast. Also stuffing and Yorkshire puddings.

We don't do starters, but will have pudding. This years it's Christmas pudding or baklava and jelly for ds. Dad loves chocolate to will have to do a choc dessert for him. But me, dd and dh love baklava.

We are quite lucky that people who come here for Christmas dinner and really not picky. At all.

We will have a small lunch (sandwiches etc) and have dinner about 5pm.

[BondJayneBond]

We're thinking beef for the main course this year.

DH doesn't like turkey, so no point getting that. We had duck the last two years, but the kids aren't fans of that.

So, going to try beef. Side dishes will include roast potatoes, either pigs in blankets or cocktail sausages, and veg. Probably Mediterranean roasted veg plus carrots and peas. No starters.

Dessert is still undecided - DH wants Christmas pudding but he's the only one in the house who likes that.

[Cookingongas]

Goat cheese and walnut salad for starters.

Goose is our meat choice
Red cabbage, sprouts with bacon and chestnuts, roast potatoes, parsnips, Yorkshires, gravy, bread sauce and cranberry sauce. Pigs in blankets will be made despite not being traditional with goose.

Trifle and Christmas pud for desert.

[SurferJet]

Yes, dh doesn't like turkey so I always buy beef for him ( I love turkey myself )
& I've never thought of doing sausages before even though ds loves them - so thank you
I'm stuck on what to have for pudding - I'm cooking for 10 so wanted to impress with something homemade .....possible too late to start making my own Christmas cake.

[SurferJet]

Goat cheese and walnut salad for starters.

Mmmm. nice

[Savagebeauty]

Just 3 of us.
Shoulder of lamb with garlic and rosemary.
Means I can go out for Xmas drinks till 2 and not have any faffing around when I come back full of champagne.
Puddings in the evening. Profiteroles, Xmas pud and some thing else from M and S.

[janaus]

Australia here, and sometimes Xmas day can be high 30 c, like about 100 F.
Christmas lunch our family still has traditional.
Turkey, chicken, ham, then all the roast vegies, etc.
Dessert is always Christmas pudding, trifle, Pavlova
Then dinner, the night meal, is cold meats leftover and salad.

[Paperblank]

Surferjet it's not too late to make a cake, I just measured out my fruit this morning. It's soaking in a pint of brandy and I'll make it tomorrow.

[SurferJet]

Hi Janaus - I just can't imagin a hot Christmas, we're lucky if we get hot summers here

Paperblank. That's good to know
< off to google a recipe >

[ElasticPants]

We are boringly traditional,
Prawn cocktail and melon for DD to start

Turkey
Roast potatoes
Stuffing balls
Pigs in blankets
Yorkshires
Carrots
Brussel sprouts
Broccoli
Red cabbage
Jugs of gravy and cranberry sauce

For pudding
Christmas pudding for adults
And cookie dough ice cream ( with magic stars to make it look festive) for DC

[SymphonyofShadows]

We always have beef, with a small piece of Turkey too as the DC's like it. This year we are having fillet of beef with all the usual roast veg, red cabbage, pigs etc. I make a port and red wine gravy with the meat juices for the adults.

We don't have a starter but I do nibbles beforehand. No one likes dried fruit so pud is a baked New York-style cheesecake with naice ice cream. I make it the day before so it gets really dense and crumbly.

[MrsFrankRicard]

We are going out and I have already picked what I am having -

Prawn and crayfish salad, marie rose sauce
Honey roasted celeriac soup
Roast rib eye of beef, yorkshire pudding, red wine sauce
Clementine creme brulee

[NarcyCow]

Rasher sandwiches and buck's fizz for brekkie. Coco Pops or somesuch from their stockings for the kids. That'll probably all happen around 8 or so.

There may be some grazing over the course of the morning, possibly a wedge dainty slice of christmas cake around 11.

Dinner will be at 3 to cater for visitors who like to leave early and it leaves more scope for leftover sandwiches later.

No starter, I can't be bothered.

Turkey: a crown, dry brined in salt and sugar, then I'll put a layer of seasoned goose fat under the skin (I know butter is the more usual approach but I don't like butter flavoured turkey; goose flavoured turkey makes so much more sense to my tastebuds!) and roast it.
Ham: roasted with a glaze; I'm torn between salted caramel and bourbon (like the Aldi one that's not available in Ireland), and apple butter and homemade cider as the glaze. The skin will be made into shards of golden crackling.
Gingerbread stuffing
Herbed pear and chestnut stuffing
Roast potatoes
Sprout and pancetta gratin
Caramelised roast tri-coloured baby carrots
Buttered toast bread sauce
Persian spiced cranberry and clementine relish
Madeira gravy

I haven't altogether decided about dessert. I was toying with the idea of a small pistachio and white chocolate croquembouche - they're so lovely and christmas-tree-shaped - but I'm not sure I want to get into making spun sugar on christmas morning.

God, I love christmas cooking.

[DragonMamma]

We are having:

King prawn & crab cocktail or chicken liver parfait to start - can't beat the classics!

Turkey crown & rib of beef
Cauliflower and broccoli cheese
Mash potatoes
Roast spuds and parsnips
Sweetheart cabbage
Carrots
Peas
Yorkshire puds
Pigs in blankets
Sprouts

Pudding will be some pavlova or Christmas pudding.

Best meal of the year!

[DragonMamma]

Oh and stuffing. The stuffing is the best thing ever.

[NarcyCow]

The buttered toast bread sauce is from the December Good Food magazine.

I don't remember the exact recipe but basically simmer an onion, bay leaves, mace, a couple of cloves and a touch of nutmeg in some milk (you can leave it to steep overnight as well). Then remove the solids, toast a few slices of bread to brownness, blitz, and add to the milk with some butter. Blitz for smoothness, or not (I like it velvety smooth and thick). Freeze it at this stage if you want. When you want to serve it, add some cream and fry some toast crumbs in butter to sprinkle on top.

It's a whole new level of bread sauce deliciousness.

[MummyPig24]

This year we are going to have pork or gammon.
Roast potatoes
parsnips
Carrots
Brussels sprouts and bacon
Pigs in blankets
Peas
Stuffing
Yorkshire pudding
Gravy

Not sure about starters or puddings yet.

[eastmidswarwicknightnanny]

There is me dh ds1 (5) and ds2 (12mths) and we will have

Starter prawns of some sort both boys love king prawns

Main roast beef ds1 request and we love rib of beef with roast potatoes, sweet potato, carrots, parsnips, sausage stuffing, pigs in blankets and poss some broccoli or cabbage

Pud will be something dairy free for me and ds2 and choc for ds1 and dh.

We have brunch at 11ish and then main dinner at 4ish have done since ds1 was eating as fits with his meal times and obv until he was 3 he napped 12-2 no such luck with ds2 who will eat all day long and nap when he really really has too!!

[SurferJet]

This is wonderful!
Thank you all for lots of ideas. [santa]

[bigbadbarry]

Toasted bread sauce sounds amazing, I'm going to try that this year! Is it www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/buttered-toast-bread-sauce?

[ginmakesitallok]

We'll be having traditional turkey, stuffing, wee sausages, roasties, sprouts, braised red cabbage, cranberry sauce etc. Will have a pavlova probably and a pandoro for pudding. Dp is veggie, so he'll spend the week before Christmas finding the mist elaborate veggie option he can find just to mess up my timings/ oven usage.

[putthePuffindown]

We're just going to buy in a load of ready made stuff from Morrisons this year as we'll have the best Christmas present ever (39+3 wks atm ), but it won't be as delicious as Narcycow's menu!

[Whoknewitcouldbeso]

We've had slow cooked lamb the last two years so this year we've decided to have duck 😊