Christmas Eve meal

[littlemousebigcheese]

Please help. DHs family are staying with us over Christmas, arriving Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is obviously sorted but I've agreed to make dinner Christmas eve and have no idea what to make. His father won't eat onions, mushrooms, peppers or fish. His sister wont eat red meat, his niece won't eat anything that isn't a chicken nugget. I've got no clue! Take away would be ideal but we live in the arse end of nowhere and none will be open. I've suggested jacket potatoes and a 'toppings bar' but that's been shut down, no one will eat a lasagne which is my other go to for big groups!
I was thinking buffet with nice nibbles but we're doing that Christmas Day and Boxing Day so that's out too!
Any ideas?!

Pie and mash?

It gets worse. You can say No, it might be difficult the first time but it gets easier. Why not have a lovely time with just your DH and your DC and cats. Plenty time for them to get organised themselves still. You are ruining these special times when your DC are young by accommodating such unpleasant , selfish and entitled people. Think about it please.

I think Ops stuck with them this year but I definitely wouldn't be having them next year.

Why are families so difficult? Yet people end up feeling guilty at having every Christmas with one side rather than the other. Or leaving people home alone.

They can all piss off! Vetoing every suggestion. Just get some supermarket pizzas and salads. FIL sounds like a nightmare.

I do a fish pie and a cottage pie in advance and freeze them. Get them out the night before to defrost and bung in the oven for a hour to reheat. Chuck some nuggets in the oven at the same time and a packet of tomatoes on the table to nibble on. Cheeky buggers!

Sausage rolls and beans or steak bake things
Bung it in the oven no hassle

The update on what you go through regarding room's etc fair enough this year but I'd be making it the last and would be conveying that message to them in January so they can get used to the idea of doing Xmas elsewhere.

They sound like hard work. I imagine FIL is if the generation where he won't eat anything non British - so anything with rice, pasta, tapas type food will probably be a no.

I would do kids something together & do nuggets if that is what your niece likes. Then you know the kids are sorted & they can play together/watch a film while you eat.

Honestly I am glad I don't ever have to host. It sounds awful.

Surely that generation would be pushing 130 now? I am almost 60, my parents would have been in their 80s, we all ate/eat “ non British “ food. My grandparents , born in the 1910s all enjoyed Chinese take aways etc. People have likes and dislikes obviously but there can be no living generation that has not come across rice/pasta etc.

Pizza and then cancel going forward.

Id have told them to piss of when all vetoing everything. But I realise you probably don't want to do at this late stage.

Bilinis, substitute smoked salmon with something else for the fil, pate? moules frite, steak/ frites, glazed ham with roasted vegetables , baked camembert, stroganoff. Champagne & do a dessert. I would find a baked potato completely bizarre choice tbh

I’d do the Christmas ham, hassleback or baked potatoes and leek/cauliflower cheese

Gosh you are a saint for putting up with it all OP. I'd have snapped by now.

@MsPavlichenko

My Dad never wanted to eat rice, pasta or anything like Indian or Chinese food. He was born in the 1940s. To be fair he would have been happy with a jacket potato for tea.

Have you rtft..the demands of the guests are ridiculous and that's just the food requirements then move on to the sleeping arrangements.

I am not sure putting chicken nuggets in the oven is cooking. Having said that I think jacket potato idea sounds great.

Did you invite them to come, or did they invite themselves?

In any case, it is your DCs home so they are entitled to make as much noise as they want and to treat it as they always do, except for not climbing on furniture that visitors are sitting in. But they can play with toys, make noise, sleep in their own beds.

You should also sleep in your own beds.

If BIL and SIL have a problem with the accommodations on offer, they can book a hotel or self-catering cottage nearby to sleep in. (And the same to PIL re grumbling about treadmill int the guest room - your house has to be multifunctional all the time.). Do they have dedicated rooms available for you to stay in that are never used for anything else? (And even if they do, it's likely because that are at a different stage in life and don't have any DCs living at home anymore - what does DH remember about visitors when he was growing up?!).