Hit me with your Christmas starters!

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After years of bouncing between the parents of my partner and my own we finally have a place big enough to host everyone.

Mains are traditional and dessert is a sticky toffee pudding but I'm stumped for delicious, manageable starters. I'll be serving 8 adults (kids are having soup).

Please please please hit me with your Christmas starters, all suggestions are welcome

So many lovely ideas on here. Our favourites have been:
Gougeres (cheesy profiteroles)
Baked or breaded Camembert with cranberry sauce (although not if you are doing a cheeseboard straight after)
Chicken liver pate with toast and chutney
Smoked salmon and cream cheese blinis
Prawn cocktail - an oldie but a goodie
Caramelised onion and goats cheese puff pastry tartlets with rocket
Pear, walnut and blue cheese salad

Following and drooling. I was aiming for a small bruschetta for all of us (vegetarian dd and awkward) but some of these sound amazing.

justcurious121
I can tell you are a fellow cheese lover!

We don't do a specific starter either. Just salmon blinis and pigs in blankets with cocktail sticks and hot sausage rolls with the champagne on the sofa once parents have arrived.

Then once I've finished cooking we have the main course and then pudding.

Coquille St Jacques or Pate with home made Melba toast are the options at ours and some people have both!!!

I'm in the canapés camp - Goats cheese and red pepper, smoked salmon and lemon, pate and thyme, all on separate crackers with bubbly and the presents, then the turkey after that.

www.tastemade.co.uk/videos/baked-camembert-with-pancetta-breadstick-twists/

I like the idea of a selection of canapés to be honest. That way we can eat as much/little as we like and have a range of flavours

I can’t believe all these suggestions, there is only one possible starter for Christmas Day - Camembert!

Get a nice bread in, cut up some crudities and bake the Camembert. We did Camembert with balsamic roasted figs one year and that was incredible.

Thankyou. It was the starter I made from the last Christmas I hosted, pre covid.

By making the dinner an all day affair and sitting round the table chatting, or opening some presents, bit of tv, if nearby, playing with the wee one etc for an hour or so inbetween courses in our house. Means the chef (me) is less stressed and can dip in and out of the kitchen.
Dessert is usually early evening to make sure we get all three courses in as we are a greedy bunch! 😂

I always do fish starters. Mackerel, horseradish and lemon pate and a prawn cocktail. Nice and light before all of the meat comes out…

No starter here either. We still struggle to find room for Christmas pud.

I always do three quarters of a box of chocolates, a bag of nuts, all the sweets from the kids’ stockings, various crisps and any biscuits I have been given.

It does indeed look gorgeous, @MarmiteCoriander - it would make a lovely change from the smoked salmon "cigars" I usually make as a starter at Christmas. I don't suppose you have the recipe for that terrine to hand, by any chance, if you wouldn't mind sharing it, please?

Some I buy, some I make @Abcdefu. The ones I buy are from the M&S range through Ocado, and the ones I make are things like nduja, honey and rocket on crostini, ham and melon on a stick (mainly for 6yo DD2!), mini vol au vent cases with prawn cocktail in, smoked salmon and sour cream on blini (or rye bread), things like that.

@Jaichangecentfoisdenom TBH- I made that salmon terrine 3yrs ago and have no idea which exact recipe I used? I think it was a tweak of a few recipes. I know I added dill into the cream cheese, not fennel, which is in several recipes. I lined the dish with cling film, then lined with smoked salmon across the dish so the excess hung out. I then made the filling and added- then folded over the excess smoked salmon and cling film. I 'think' I put a slightly heavier dish on top, or maybe just left in the fridge overnight.

Sorry that I can't recall the exact recipe, but here are 2 I might have used for inspiration. I didn't add the additional salmon layers inside the terrine which the BBC recipes does though:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smoked-salmon-terrine
www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/salmon-terrine/

That sounds really good. Must start researching. I live in Ireland so unfortunately our m&s doesn't deliver but I can check in store!

@MarmiteCoriander - thank you! I'd seen that BBC recipe but decided the layers would be too fiddly for me, so I think I'll use your method for the smoked salmon casing and make the same filling I use for smoked salmon cigars, without bothering with the layers. Or the dill!

Smoked salmon on brown bread with a tangerine and green leaf salad.

Canapés here too, on the sofas with fizz, spicy prawn balls, olives, bruschetta, blinis, or whatever - then after a while the main meal, usually at 3 ish, then pudding is coming out as it gets dark, we always light a Christmas pudding but most of us have the tiramisu, then chill back in the lounge…

I’m so excited for all the Xmas food now!! I love the prep, the cooking, the eating, the leftovers 😋

I have to do pate or the kids would revolt! It's good though as I can make it now and freeze it, so it's hassle free on the day 😊

Espresso martini

We've had various over the years, but favourites were scallops and black pudding, chicken liver and brandy pate, and citrus gravadlax with horseradish cream here:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/citrus-cured-salmon-gravadlax/amp