to think starters with Christmas dinner are superfluous?

Yeah I feel like those of us who find a starter far superior to any dessert are a much maligned group. And don’t get me started on the fact that you hardly ever get a ‘cheese plate for one’ option on any festive menu when dining out!

Honestly I'm sure it will be lovely but personally I don't want 6 courses for dinner on Christmas day and nor would I want to cook/prepare 6 courses when I could instead be playing uno and trying to get a picture of the dog wearing reindeer antlers.

You leave at least an hour between courses.
Aperitifs and canapés at 2, starter at 3, main course at 4, but it'll probably slip to 5. Puddings at the first point anyone can be bothered. They don't need much doing to them.

My mum has been making prawn cocktails in the green prawn cocktail glasses she and my dad received as a wedding gift for the starter for as long as I can remember. It’s the only prawn cocktail I ever have in a year, and it may be superfluous in terms of quantity of food to come, but I like the tradition. Loads of things about Christmas don’t “need” to be there, but why not.

We don’t have a pudding at all! Would rather have a starter than a pudding.

It would not be Christmas without prawn cocktail. Christmas Pudding is the optional bit as far as I’m concerned. A small bit for tradition’s sake and that’s that.

We have never done started either .even canapes are too much .
Years ago...and I mean years..DH and I would remember hig Christmas dinners when we were kids.. And then a huge Christmas tea around the table. with everything ..cold meats sausage rolls pork pie cheeses..a table full of food.
Where did we put it all..
I couldn't do it now.....burp....

Oooo what are you doing?

I don’t agree. I need my traditional prawn cocktail on a bed of iceberg lettuce serve in a little glass dish. It’s not Christmas dinner without that first.

Our schedule goes like this

9ish - pork pie with bread and butter plus champagne
1ish starters - pate/salmon or such like
3ish - Christmas dinner

After that my job is done and people can help themselves to whatever they want because I will now be on the sofa for games and films and in the evening I will be enjoying my cheeseboard 😀

No , I love a seafood starter

Totally agree.

We changed it around a few years ago.

Some variation of smoked salmon for breakfast

Dinner late afternoon

Evening snack - turkey sandwich or dessert

We don’t do starters either. I’d get too full up! Always have dessert though I’m not a dessert person, I will try and eat it out of politeness.

We don’t, have enough issue fitting in breakfast before but I’m not an early riser. We eat at 2pm to be able to fit in the extensive cheeseboard, antipasti selection and all those little bits you bake in the oven (I wouldn’t bother but mum buys them, they are quite moreish like all processed foods!)

Dunno what the non-starters on here would think of the six courses I’m aiming for!

This is what we do too

Canapés are the solution, they take the edge off if dinner is running late and not obligatory for people who would rather wait for the turkey

We have a light starter (prawn cocktail or paté or gazpacho or similar), but there are a lot of us and a full three-course meal, plus cheese and all the other bits, will be stretched out over four-six hours!

People will get up and go for a stroll between courses, we're not tied to the dining room during that period. 😁

We have smoked salmon and sour cream blini canapés, but they are small and don't have much effect on our appetites when we have the main course an hour and a half or so later.

(And champagne along with the blini...)

We do canapés a few hours before.

Agree - as the chef doing a load of starters plus the massive roast with all the trimmings is too much. So people can like it or lump it!

We also have a ‘starter’ instead of lunch, as we don’t eat dinner until 6-7ish. So smoked salmon for breakfast, canapés/starter type things around 2ish then dinner in the evening.
However… I would actually generally prefer to have a smaller dinner and a starter than a massive roast. I like variety across a meal and get a bit bored if I just have one giant plate of main!

We used to have starters and then realised we weren't doing justice to the roast which was a shame. We stopped doing them and enjoy the roast much more now. We will have some canapés with fizz earlier on though

But starters are yummy and feel special and luxurious, so of course they are appropriate for Christmas day. And obviously, the more leftovers from the main course the better. Win, win!

No starters in this household and never when my mum and I used to cook in her house for 14 to 20 people all through the 90s! Not enough time, stomach capacity or plates!
My mother in law always did a starter. It was always melon with some ginger powder on it . Occasionally she'd dribble a splash of red wine on it too and we had no idea where this idea originated but it was not an enhancement

We'll have starters, but probably no pudding. DS proposed oysters, which are a favourite so just organising the supplies!