Christmas dinner police

Rubbish!

Dinner is your main meal of the day regardless of what time it is eaten.

If you eat it in the afternoon it's Lunch, if you eat after 6pm it's Dinner.
You do what you want.

I used to do that! with a splash of port, and orange zest! I also used to make my own bread sauce....but I take a few more shortcuts these days 😊

I want to agree with you but MIL once poured mushy peas all over my Christmas dinner so maybe a bit of policing is a good thing 🤷‍♀️ (apart from it being an odd addition to a Christmas dinner, I hate mushy peas... which she knows!).

What do you have at, er, lunchtime then?

I hate the word “lunch”, belongs in the bin with moist etc.
Also a maverick here having beef and Yorkshire puds.
My daughter hates roast dinners so will make herself a salmon poke bowl.
Definitely YANBU

Ham in cola here

She takes them down on the second day of Christmas? Ok. I don’t know what she’s celebrating but it’s not Christmas.

My DD puts her tree and decorations up very early, usually November, and the lot come down on Boxing day. I'm always really pleased to take the cards down and look forward to having my space back. We don't have room for the tree inside now (we live in a flat) so we have it outside on the balcony where it can't interfere with normal life....

I cook the sausages and bacon separately too because I like them both properly browned and they take different amounts of time - though we don't roll the bacon. We love frozen peas too, though one DD hates them, largely because we didn't each much else when she was a child as DH would eat very few other vegetables. I make my own cranberry sauce because it is very easy, more fruity than the bought stuff, and we like to have a lot of it.

Theres lots of strange food rules from people on these types of threads, not just about Christmas

Its Christmas dinner, or lunch, or snack or breakfast, who cares

we didnt grow up having turkey, it was expensive and my parents didnt like the flavour anyway, we had a capon as did everyone else we knew

I like the sides anyway more than the main meat

More food rules on the site in general are what makes a 'meal', how much protein one should have, what makes a breakfast, how you shouldnt and cant put different combinations together, its endless.

I really don't much like whole turkeys either, however you cook them there's a lot of dryish white meat. Also the breast meat is so dense that they take ages to cook. We have a cockerel now which weighs around 4.5kg, is more tasty and cooks more quickly.
Sadly my DH loves turkey (everything his DM produced was dry and overcooked anyway, she always put joints in the oven at 7am) so I get a slow-cooked turkey joint from M&S which serves 4-6 people. It's pre-cooked in a sous vide, ready stuffed and really OK, he's happy with this and it gives us some white meat for another day too.

Well, lock me up and throw away the key… because I will be giving the traditional Christmas dinner a miss and eating cheese and chocolate all day 😁

If it’s at 4 or before 7 is it Christmas high tea 😉

Not for us who have dinner then tea

I make no secret of it.

There's far too much subversion going on here for my liking. Just for one day, why can't everything be like it was in the Eighties!!! Turkey, overcooked veg, Grandma falling asleep with her paper hat all crooked, and the Queen's speech! I'm perfectly modern the other 364 days.

Signed,
The Christmas Police

Well, now you've virtually met someone who, along with their friends and family, has called their evening meal (unless having a "dinner party" in the evening), "supper" for nearly 7 decades

Yes, the 'pigs in blankets' thing is definitely an obsession, at least on MN.

I've tried them from time to time and they are ok, but I think it's WAY preferable to cook the little sausages separately (they tend to stay so pallid when cooked wrapped in bacon!) and make separate bacon rolls, which you can cook to a nice degree of crispness without worrying about the unpredictable sausage inside.

Crispy streaky bacon rolls, some interesting stuffings, roast potatoes, parsnips and gravy (and peas - sorry to pea-haters) are my favourite parts of the meal.

Broccoli is Mediterranean, @Aluna? I have learned something new - thank you!

I'm always in awe of people who cook loads of different veg for Christmas dinner.
It seems that because it's Christmas it's time to go all out and excess is the thing
A couple of friends admitted they would never cook all that veg for a Sunday dinner
Anyone else cook 11 different veg on Christmas day ?

This sounds lush.
Will you have Turkish Delight afterwards ?

I never said it wasn't as I am actually quite aware that it is!

I did say though that I was born in north London and DH in south so quite a bit away from each other and we both call the evening meal "tea" and the "lunch time" meal "lunch".

We had 40 degrees today in Sydney, and high 30s are predicted next week. Having the oven and the cook top for several hours may be a blessing in winter but it's a nightmare in high summer temperatures even with the air con.

Cooked prawns, lots of seafood, bbqs, salads and light deserts with lots of cold fresh fruits and ice-creams have become a new traditional Christmas lunch in Australia.

Same with cauli cheese and roast chicken. Someone mentioned not long ago that this is surely down to those carvery places, where everyone takes some of everything because everything is on offer, and so any home-cooked roast dinner seems impoverished by comparison unless all conceivable sides are offered, irrespective of longstanding custom.
I guess its hard to justify prescription, of course, but personally I like the various differing accompaniments to depend on the meat .