Is my Christmas dinner unreasonable?

[shivermytimbers]

I have just done a big chunk of the Xmas food shop today. I'll be cooking for 10 including PILs who haven't had Xmas lunch with us before. I luuurve Christmas dinner and all the leftovers so tend to make a bit of a feast. DH has happily tucked into said feast for many years. I'm doing...
Smoked salmon starter
Turkey
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing
Roasties
Parsnips
Sprouts with bacon
Red cabbage
Gravy
Christmas pudding with brandy butter and cream

Apparently, according to DH, PILs will not be happy because 1) pigs in blankets are a bit common 2) sprouts shouldn't have bacon anywhere near them 3) starters are unnecessary 4) it really is too much food to be able to enjoy it.

My response was that I've bought the food, I will cook the food and if they don't eat it I will happily consume the leftovers. Therefore - tough bloody luck if they don't like it!!!

I know I'm right... aren't I???

Aren't we all supposed to boycott Brussels sprouts this year, in solidarity?

We invariably end up with rels, and it is always traditional, rather like OP describes. Many years ago I used to cook Xmas lunch for my mum and a few others, and we always had goose (stuffed with mashed potato) but otherwise as per OP's list (although pigs in blankets - delicious! - hadn't been invented then, leastways not in Surrey). The idea is surely to feel bloated and sleep and fart your way through the rest of the afternoon, except the hearty types who want a ramble in some muddy wood instead.

I think Pigs in Blankets are quite a new thing. We had sausagemeat as children (1960's) and that's what I still do.

I have suckling pig this year! No ox or carp though. Do you think I should get some in? 😂

LD33 save the red cabbage for the leftovers and baked potato feast on Boxing Day, it gets lost on the plate in a Christmas Day lunch IMO, whereas with sliced ham, cold turkey,stuffing, baked pots, and pickles it will shine, and count as a veg!

I am laughing at the idea of "Too Much Food"!
I am glad your husband has realised he was being daft, it happens to many of us around our parents and important occasions.

I will post my Festive Christmas dinner.

We don't have a starter to leave room for as much of the festive fare as possible.

Vegetarian Christmas Lunch
Mushroom and Chestnut En Croute (á la Rose Elliot) 1 gluten free, 1 not GF
Quern Roast
Roast Potatoes
Roast Parsnips
Celeriac and Potato Mash
Carrots
Mushy Peas
Peas
Leeks in White Sauce
Sprouts
Gravy (lashings)
Cranberry Sauce
Bread Sauce
Apple Sauce
Yorkshire Puddings

No pigs in blankets as veggie bacon doesn't bend too well, but chipolatas are def an option

Washed down with a rose wine.

Christmas Pudding with brandy sauce/custard hours later

Visit to see grandchildren later with lots of snacks and bits

Home to cheese and biscuits or sandwich with Garners pickled onions

Boxing Day lunch is Fry Up, probably known to some as Bubble and Squeak
We make loads of veg on 25th just so we can have a lovely pan of golden goodness served up with warmed through En Croute and bring out the pickles and chutneys! There will be trifle or roulade later.

I like Boxing Day's food as much as Christmas Day

Have a lovely Christmas everyone, it all sounds fab!

They sell pigs in blankets ready made at Waitrose - so how can they be common. To make a point though you could wrap a few prunes in bacon too, as I believe 'devils on horseback' are considered classy!

Lovely spread by the way! Although I would add bread sauce!

YA definitely NBU!

My traditions are all about how I cook Christmas dinner, not what I eat. I will always, always cook it a certain way, but I expect everyone else to cook it their way and quite frankly if they're doing all the bloody hard work, then so they should!

Your menu is actually much like mine. We don't do starters as we do snack biscuits/canapes instead. And my sprouts are very traditional in that they are just sprouts - I love sprouts! But sprouts with bacon are lovely as I do them that way sometimes when I'm not doing Christmas dinner.

That sounds amazing.

And any guest who said that anything I was planning to cook was "a bit common" could feck off and eat somewhere else, tbh.

My menu for Christmas dinner this year is very basic

Whatever my db and dsil decide to cook.

And we shall all be very grateful. Surely that's the only possible reaction?

I think if my oh had said that then he and his parents would be eating elsewhere!!! Pigs in blankets common where are they from?? So many chefs must be "common" then stupid people. Cook what you want, eat what you want and inform them that it is very bad manners to turn their noses up at a meal cooked for them. As for oh grow up and I would make him cook his own food in future

We are having a buffet this year. My husband is under the care of the crisis team right now and as of yet I'm unsure if noro will go around the rest of the house. My mum is coming on Xmas eve to help us out and if everyone is well she is also coming Xmas day. A buffet is just easier this year under the circumstances.

Usually we have

Turkey
Stuffing
Pigs in blankets
Red cabbage
roast potatoes
carrots
parsnips
brussel sprouts
yorkshire puddings
obviously gravy and the sauces

Apart from vegetarians I have never met anyone who does not enjoy a pig in blanket.

Oh I forgot the sage, thyme and onion stuffing!
My mother's recipe.

Pigs in blankets are common?
I guess I'm as common as the muck that they roll in then.
They are the best bit of the dinner and the only item that if you see that someone else has 1 more than you it becomes a mutiny.

If you're the one cooking it, you stick to your guns and do it your way!

If they don't like it, tough titties!

Very nice menu. If your in laws don't want your Christmas dinner I'll come and eat it.

I'm not a vegetarian but I hate pigs in blankets. They're salty and disgusting

We have roast pork and glazed ham. With pigs in blankets. Awfully fond of the pig, we are.

We are having almost the same.
Prawn cocktail as starter
Turkey with streaky bacon
Pigs in blankets
Honey glazed Parsnips and carrots
Garlic potatoes
Boiled sprouts that I grill/roast a bit afterwards along with some chestnuts
Stuffing
Gravy
Might put Yorkshire puddings just because I love them
Either frozen cheesecake or profiteroles for dessert

Yours sounds perfectly fine to me. I also love leftovers and I make a mean Christmas leftover pie :D
The one who cooks decides! :D

Sounds like a perfect Christmas dinner to me! Make sure to dish up plenty of pigs and sprouts to your PIL!!

Pigs in blankets....common.....pleeeeeeease!! Think your DH and PIL need to get a grip!!

Sprouts must absolutely be served with bacon. And chestnuts. Nigella says so and that's good enough for me.
Pigs are better, imo, without the blankets but better wrapped than not at all.
Yorkshire puddings must only be served with roast beef and horseradish and have no place on a Christmas lunch menu.

Oh, and leftovers are an essential part of Christmas lunch
But starters are not permitted.

?
Completely average and understated and normal.
Basically a roast dinner.

I really, really want to hear more about the smell of chestnuts making the dogs randy! We have a 6 month old puppy, I better beware of the chestnuts :)

Pigs in blankets common? I believe the Queen has pigs in blankets. In fact she takes them to church in her handbag to graze in during the long tedious sermon.