What additions to Christmas Dinner do you have that others consider strange?

[MyGazeboisLeaking]

Off the back of the Thanksgiving thread (I'm drooling!), I thought about our Christmas dinner.

Over the years, we've added the following that have now become standard:

Cauliflower cheese
Steamed red cabbage & raisins
Sweetcorn (for me!)

What additions do you have?

Yorkshire puddings

@mumsiedarlingrevolta

We have something called shrug.

Because my Nanna used to make it.
Think it was meant to be posh in the 1970's...
It is cranberry juice with a scoop of orange sorbet. It is meant to be a refreshing palate cleanser.
It is so pretty served in a cut glass and is so delicious.
As a child I used to eat the sorbet with a spoon.
Never knew anyone else who served it but wouldn't be Christmas without it!

This sounds delicious!

Pickled walnuts

@Rachellow

The staple sides here are red cabbage, roasties, honey carrots and parsnips, sprouts with bacony bits and cocktail sausages. 2014 aka the year we forgot to take the cocktail sausages out of the freezer is mentioned in tones of great horror every year. Half the family doesn't even eat meat so we'll generally do fish or mushroom wellington instead. We'll never do cauliflower cheese, peas or yorkshire puddings. We go to my aunt every year for boxing day for christmas dinner no 2 and the starter without fail is always prawn cocktail or melon balls.

This is right and everyone else is wrong.

Christmas vegetables are roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots, red cabbage, sprouts with chestnuts or bacon.

Absolutely no cauliflower cheese, leeks, sweet corn or other nursery staples.

Also have to have several stuffings - fresh chestnut; sausagemeat and apricot with juniper; and a family special, plus devils on horseback , cocktail sausages and Delia’s cranberry sauce. Not forgetting the bread sauce of course.

Apparently we have a lot of what's not considered normal according to this thread

Yorkshire puddings, croquettes, mash, onion rings, Coca Cola ham.

Growing up we had turkey with sprouts, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, standard stuffing and pigs in blankets. With cranberry and bread sauce as sides.
It wasn't until I had Xmas Dinner with my 1st husbands parents that we had other stuff added, mostly pickled stuff, which I cant abide.
I was in my late 20's when I discovered that goose was far superior to turkey.
These days I have either goose or duck with all sorts of veg and Yorkshire puds.
Cauliflower cheese is the work of the devil but brocoli cheese is awesome.

Not an addition as such, but we are in the Southern Hemisphere and cook our turkey on the Weber BBQ. Turns out brilliantly.

@Debtorsavings

Cheesy leaks. Essentially cauliflower cheese but with leeks and a brown bread crum on top. It's lovely. Mum also sometimes does a basin of suet pudding - nothing in the middle. Just a bowl of stodge. It's amazing with every condiment under the sun. I love a sauce. Stuffing, Yorkshires, all the veg, pigs, beef or pork. Although one year it was lasagna which was really nice!

We have suet pudding with every roast - crunchy outside, soft inside, carby, fatty deliciousness 🥰 Soaks up gravy a treat!!

I make a gammon with crackling every year on Christmas Day. We prefer it to turkey, apart from fil who once said it didn’t feel like Christmas as he didn’t eat turkey. Well, he doesn’t put up a Christmas tree either, and if he carries on he can cook for himself the ungrateful bugger! Never invited us round for dinner.

@violetbunny

Not an addition as such, but we are in the Southern Hemisphere and cook our turkey on the Weber BBQ. Turns out brilliantly.

Fantastic!

The girls in my family are veggies, but the boys are firm carnivores and have been BBQ'ing turkeys and all sorts during UK lockdown!

@DrMadelineMaxwell

My friend serves their Christmas pudding with rice pudding instead of brandy sauce.

Well that does sound very unusual... I wonder where that originated from?

We make a sausage l, cranberry and sage stuffing loaf wrapped in streaky bacon. This is baked in the oven and then served in slices. It’s divine. I also make sage and onion stuffing balls for the children.

Bread sauce. Of course. Delias is best.

I’d love to roast a goose but panic about how to cook! @Gingaaarghpussy how do you do yours?

I went to my brother's once who did stuffed peppers, potatoes with cream and sprouts with bacon. Enjoyed it, although personally don't feel the need to put meat with a veg dish. Sprouts are nice on their own (I realise not everyone agrees). I do like baked onions but they are worse for post-digestion odours than the aforementioned sprouts.

@Longdistance

I make a gammon with crackling every year on Christmas Day. We prefer it to turkey, apart from fil who once said it didn’t feel like Christmas as he didn’t eat turkey. Well, he doesn’t put up a Christmas tree either, and if he carries on he can cook for himself the ungrateful bugger! Never invited us round for dinner.

Have you ever tried Oxford sauce with gammon? It’s one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten.

The Swedes do a Christmas rice pudding, not with Christmas pudding though..

Our Christmas dinner has to be an Italian/British hybrid so it has to start with tortellini, then turkey and all the trimmings - with added fennel which is somehow traditional for my husband - then a choice of Christmas pudding or tiramisu/Italian rice cake. This year I might just miss out the Christmas pudding altogether as I rather like tiramisu anyway.

Italian panforte at Christmas is fab, I also like chocolate covered orange peel. 👍🏼

Yorkshire puddings though I cheat and buy frozen. Dd like mint sauce & apple sauce in addition to the gravy, cranberry relish and bread sauce the rest of us have

We also always have apple sauce.

Indian takeaway 😄. I've had so many 🤨 from people who can't understand why we don't have Roast Turkey on Xmas Day. (Turkey is boring, I love a roast dinner but CBA cooking all day)

When I lived at home as a teen my Mum would always do onion rings. She would balance them on top of the stuffing balls to cook to save room

@Strokethefurrywall do you have whisky sauce with it or anything? Definitely stealing this idea for Christmas, thank you!

My mum always serves the gammon we have at somepoint over the Christmas period with homemade rum & raisin sauce.

I would definitely advise making your own though as pre-made is never quite as good. Jamie oliver does a nice cauli cheese recipe. I never find bought cauli cheese is cheesy enough. I have made my own sauce, but find the Colmans Cheddar sauce mix is very good.

I don’t think there’s anything unusual going on in our Christmas dinner

Roasted rib of beef (I loathe Turkey so we’ve never had it on Christmas Day), roast potatoes, Parmesan parsnips, cauliflower cheese, stuffing balls, Yorkshire puddings, pancetta sprouts, carrots, pigs in blankets and usually another type of veg along with gravy and some horseradish sauce that dh makes tonnes of and forget every year that only about 3 people like it Try and keep it relatively simple as we usually cater for 22ish people and he usually spends 3 days beforehand prepping. I’ll be sad to miss out on it all this year but hey ho.
Boxing Day at MILs is goose with 2 types of stuffing, spiced red cabbage and usually a veggie rainbow pie for the non meat eaters along with most of the sides we have on Christmas Day.

Puddings for both days are a combination of mince pies (mil makes the mincemeat and delivers to all family households, dc put orange zest in our pastry which supposedly elevates them to the next level but I don’t eat them so just take their word for it), chocolate torte, Christmas pudding, hot chocolate fondant bombes and profiteroles with a chocolate sauce and a butterscotch sauce.
Cheese boards come out later in the evening on both days.