I love hearing about everybody's different traditions. On Christmas Eve we often have salmon, baked in foil in the oven and served with broccoli or green beans or spinach and possibly cauliflower, none of which are going to feature on Christmas Day. The carbs are supplied by mince pies, which I bake in large quantities during the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that afternoon.
For the Christmas Day meal, I do turkey, sausagemeat stuffing cooked inside the bird, tiny chipolatas (cocktail sausages) separately, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, roast potatoes, Parmesan roast parsnips, Chantenay carrots with orange and tarragon, brussels sprouts (just boiled, key thing is not to overcook them), petits pois. I've toyed with the idea of doing more vegetables but there are just the four of us so it would be overkill. I love cauliflower cheese but it's very filling and needs oven space just at the point when it's at a premium so no, not with Christmas dinner. I'm not all that keen on red cabbage so that's a no.
If I ever had to cater for a much larger group, I would definitely do more veg as it's an easy way to make it more of a feast. Mashed swede would figure, so would cauliflower in some form, and maybe a second potato dish. And maybe I'd offer a starter, a thing I never do now!
We end with Christmas pudding. I like it with thick cream, my husband likes it with vanilla ice cream, my daughter likes to have both and my son doesn't like it at all (poor lad) so I buy him something else, probably involving chocolate and hazelnuts.
23 days to go!