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???

TheSlaughterOfTheMortificados ~ My sprouts have been gently simmering since October, and should be al dente by 2.00pm on December 25th.

Exactly! If you can't suck a sprout through your teeth then it's undercooked!!

And by the looks of it everyone on this thread is having pigs in blankets.

It's roast dinner with a starter and a pudding. Eaten in thousands of restaurants up and down the country every Sunday. What IS his point?!

our is:
breakfast: champagne, warm crispy croissants, florentines

Lunch:
lobster with thermidor butter
jeweled gammon (gammon simmered in orange juice for two hours then glazed with a pomegranate molasses mixture and roasted)
goose fat roast potatoes with a polenta and garlic crust
roast parsnips
sprouts done with stock, cream, garlic and parmesan
honey roasted carrots
pudding - we've got a pudding but I'm not keen. I love the idea of brandy snaps with cream and berries.
lots of fizz and wine

international cheese board with accompanying relishes/nuts/sauces etc
Special gin and tonic with this

I bloody love christmas

I FORGOT THE PIGS IN BLANKETS - JEEZ HOW COULD I?

We are SO having those.

Pigs in blankets make Christmas dinner, as does bread sauce. I would happily east at your table as I am the only one who eats Brussel sprouts and in bacon 😍😍😍😍.
Not to mention the cabbage, yum..
I have been with DH 14 years and we are about to spend it alone with our children. All of the above and roast turnips (DH hates) are on the menu.
I am very lucky as DH cooks the dinner, this year I can play games with the kids instead of us sitting watching taped soaps.
Elderly MIL isn't staying as my kids are to ferrel, she watches the soaps with SIL etc present and asks us to record as she hates us chatting.
We see SIL twice a year, heaven forbid to kiss a soap.....

lovely but... if I am invited I would like some Cranberry sauce too, please!!

"Apparently, according to DH, PILs will not be happy because 1) pigs in blankets are a bit common" - they don't eat them then, more for you (DH has just come home tonight with two packs of them!

"2) sprouts shouldn't have bacon anywhere near them" _ well I love sprouts so don't care how you serve them but as a peace offering I would suggest you do a few au naturel!

"3) starters are unnecessary" I refer you to point 1

" 4) it really is too much food to be able to enjoy it." This is the voice of my mum, it is the voice of war and rationing and I can understand it but I don't listen to it anytmore.

Enjoy.

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

I've been doing my lists today.

I had forgotten sprouts ffs!

Thanks

Pigs in blankets upgrade it to Christmas dinner rather than just another roast. I'd tell them, this is what we have. Eat what you can, leave what you can't. More leftovers for you. Good job they're not coming here, we've got shit loads of food.

I once did Christmas dinner for PILs. Once.

Veggie SIL had a fully veggie dinner, even roast tatties for done in veg oil, no cross contamination, much care taken to keep her happy.

Once everyone was served I asked "is everything okay?" before tucking into my food. SIL said "everything other than the turkey.

Note OP that was the first and last time I agreed to have the ILs over for Christmas.

Cook what you normally cook and guests can either be gracious and eat what they need from the offering, or they won't be invited back.

Enjoy your Christmas dinner, it sounds delicious.

He's just trying to undermine you; don't let him, tell him, if he knows better he can organise the meal himself.

Mmm yummy pigs in blankets - this thread is making my mouth water.

OP sod the outlaws, serve it all up, pigs, starters, bacon bits and all. Your menu sounds lovely. Don't give any pigs in blankets to your DH tho, cheeky bugger.

YANBU! That is a dream Christmas dinner!

Pigs in blankets are most definitely NOT common. Anyone who says they are is probably a bit Hyacinth Bucket and dead common themselves.

Oh, and tell your DH not to be such a bloody turncoat!

LTB. (Joking) Send DH and the precious PIL down to the local hospice or homeless shelter to help out and hopefully that will get their heads out of their ar*ses and make them appreciate what a great DW and DIL you are.

If not, sod them and like a previous poster said, serve up beans on toast with a sprig of holly.

(Anyone notice how simple Christmas dinner was in Poldark? I miss Demelza - awesome girl).

That sounds delicious, and I'd be very grateful to anyone who dished that up for me.

No Yorkshires though?

Generally people who throw around the word "common" tend to fall in that category themselves.

I guarantee they'll eat at least one pig in a blanket...

YANBU I usually do a big dinner with lots of people but my wife has expressed she would like a family Christmas just the three of us, myself, wife and 3/4 yo son, and I'm still doing.
Turkey
Roasties
Yorkshire puddings
cabbage and bacon
pigs in blankets
carrots
broccoli
cauliflower cheese
roasted parsnips/carrots
stuffing

If you can't be a bit mad at Christmas when can you!?!

Your DH should not have told you what they said and should have set his parents straight. It's just causes family rifts and bad feeling. Obviously it was very rude to even say this to your DH and they sound ungrateful and passive aggressive like they don't want to enjoy it. If they're hosting it's up to them what to serve if you're serving it's up to you.

How rude.
Give them a lump of coal to nibble on.

I love the sound of your Christmas dinner BUT for those with a light appetite it may feel like a huge amount. Are your ILs light eaters the rest of the year? If so (and I know I am) then a huge dinner can look unappetising as there's so much on the plate. They were probably brought up to eat it all up but fear that it's beyond them and don't want to cause offence. Perhaps they're trying to pre-empt this.

Being grateful that I am welcomed to my sister's for the big day I show my gratitude by eating it all up (even a few horrid sprouts) and going back for more for the buffet type evening meal I always regret it as I feel like I'm going to explode.

Anything will improve the sprouts and there's nothing wrong with pigs in blankets - I could happily eat them with gravy and a heap of mash without the rest of the dinner.

Surely for the 'light appetite' folk, they just plate less for themselves? Do people do plated Christmas lunch rather than putting the individual dishes out and letting people choose for themselves what they'd like on their plates?

I am a 'light appetite' person and yes, I just take less food, so a bit of meat, one pig in blanket, couple roasties, spoon of each type of veg and a stuffing ball and gravy, which still makes a full dinner plate full.

Wouldn't bother with Yorkshire puds (I don't cook them on Christmas Day as I think there is enough other stuff and it adds to oven/timing complications - I would do them if doing roast beef and fewer other sides but I probably wouldn't make a Christmas dinner like that anyway) and if I wasn't stuffed after that, I might get an extra roast potato or whatever I fancied, but really I would be leaving room for dessert anyway.

A couple of years ago I nearly became unstuck with the roast potatoes as I cooked what I thought would be a generous amount (it was something like one large potatoes worth for the women and two for the men (not being sexist but just trying to work out how much people might eat) so 250/500 g potato per person or 4-8 roast potatoes, plus two types of meat, stuffing, pigs in blankets and loads of veg of at least 3 types and that was after a starter, but what I didn't realise was that BIL and SIL eat very little veg and wanted about 10 roast potatoes each and because I didn't take any notice of how many they had served themselves, there was hardly any left at the end and they only just went round - I was expecting leftovers for DP and I to have another roast dinner the next day but I had to use frozen ones make some more.

Barbara your real name's not Denise Royale is it? Did you serve Cup-a-Soup and carrot crush?

She cooked two large potatoes between about eight people. 😂

I love that Christmas special, selfcleaning . The raw turkey and charcoal potatoes. Genius.

Self . I cooked 1-2 large potatoes PER PERSON so for the 8 people at the meal, about 3 kg of potatoes par boiled in a casserole pan and then roasted in two roasting trays as there were so many (each potato cut into 4 to make quite a large piece of roast potato).

Do people really eat several whole large potatoes plus an enormous amount of other food or consider it a light appetite if you eat less than that?