To tell newly vegan guest to bring their own dish on Christmas Day?

[GunpowderGelatine]

I'm hosting Christmas day at my house this year, not something I've done in ages. There's ten of us, including the kids, which is a great number - my plan, like every year I cook, is to order M&S food and pick it up on Christmas Eve then just bung it all in the oven and make some homemade gravy. I usually get a pork joint as I'm not a turkey fan, but will also be getting a turkey joint for my guests. I'm not usually the type to stress about Christmas dinner (it's only a roast after all!) but I also want it to be as simple as possible. One of my guests has declared they are now vegan. Which is a bit of a PITA for dinner if I'm honest as I'll have to sort a vegan main, gravy, dessert etc. I also have a nut allergy sufferer in the group which excludes quite a lot of vegan options as mains.

WIBU to ask the newly vegan guest to bring their own dish on the day or is that really rude? I've kind of planned the food around the size of my oven/hob and could do without the added stuff having to go in it (don't mind warming something up though)?

Lots of the common vegetable dishes and indeed desserts for Christmas contain animal products, so not really.

It's rare you'll find one that you can't veganise really easily. Most of the time it's as simple as just buying the cheaper version of a product and not the more expensive one with added cream.

You might prefer the taste of the one with animal products in it because that's your preference but it's not true to say it's difficult.

We have vegan, veggie, pescatarian and omnivore at our table, we make all the veg the same except my fil likes a bit of cream in his mash so we add it at the end. Then we have a tofurkey Christmas joint and a turkey one. And two separate gravy's that each take about two minutes to make.
Then we have a Christmas pudding from the co op that everyone can eat with alpro custard for the vegans and cream for everyone else.

It's honestly not hard but it does mean everyone has to be a bit flexible. You can't claim that it's the vegans being awkward when the meat eaters won't even try another brand of mince pie.
Just get those mince pies another time.

My in laws were really upset when we went vegan claiming that they would never be able to eat a meal with us again, but now they eat mostly vegan themselves because they've seen how easy it is and how nice the food is.

It's fair enough for your argument to be that you won't compromise in any way because you prefer the taste but let that be the argument because it's not hard to make a vegan Christmas dinner at all.

In case anyone is interested, I picked up a copy of the Co-op's latest food magazine today, and there are loads of delicious looking festive vegan recipe ideas and ready made dishes in there.

Exactly furrytoebean That is how I cook most of the time to accomodate my child's allergies. It really isn't terribly difficult.

My veggie son is off to his GF's parents for Christmas (they are all meat eaters). He'll probably get a "Kevin" pie which is vegan for his lunch (available in many supermarkets). There is so much choice these days for 'alternative' diets that I don't think it's hard for you to pick up something they can have, and which doesn't involve you cooking extra.

Nothing you wrote refuted my point purpledaisies. Preparing separate vegan versions of dishes that contain animal products and checking ingredients before buying, perhaps buying separately, is a lot more faff than making a chickpea curry or similar that everyone can have at an ordinary meal of no cultural significance. It just is. The same is also true of furrytoebean. Nobody said veganising was impossible.

But why are you making two separate versions? Just make the vegan one and everyone have that?

I imagine the answer is because you prefer it the other way which is totally fine; but it's because you prefer it not because it's difficult.

The OP is already checking the back of packets for nuts.

Vegan meal for Christmas? No thanks! Couldn’t think of anything worse! Sorry, my vote is the friend brings their own food.

But why are you making two separate versions? Just make the vegan one and everyone have that?

I imagine the answer is because you prefer it the other way which is totally fine; but it's because you prefer it not because it's difficult.

This doesn't make any sense. You make two versions to cater for the two sets of preferences. That's more difficult than making one version. What you appear to be trying to do here is suggest that it's the non-vegans causing the difficulty not the vegan, but while that's potentially true in some contexts, Christmas dinner is not one of them, because it's Christmas dinner.

It also really doesn't pertain to the point I was making either, even if it were true. You seem to have just seen an opportunity to talk about how easy making things vegan is and shoe horned it in, oddly whilst responding to a post that broadly takes the view that catering for a vegan is usually doable enough.

Christmas dinner, which in the UK is not typically anything resembling a vegan meal, requires veganisation for a vegan to eat it. That takes effort. This is not true of other meals on other occasions. If a vegan pal pops round unexpectedly for lunch I can just rustle up some jackets with beans or lentil soup or whatever, and it's no more faff than making us jackets with cheese would be. There'd be no expectation from either of us on that occasion other than the food filling us up, tasting fine and, in the pal's case, not having any dead animal in it. This is not true of Christmas dinner. The difficulty is not in producing a vegan meal per se, it's in making this meal vegan.

But why are you making two separate versions? Just make the vegan one and everyone have that?

Bleurgh no way. Why should 9 of my guests have their preferences changed because of one person?

And he's the answer is because I prefer it, nothing wrong with having my preference.

This thread has been quite eye opening I didn't quite realise just how many people martyred themselves on Christmas Day!

The difficulty is not in producing a vegan meal per se, it's in making this meal vegan.

But this meal isn't difficult to make vegan at all.
Roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts, glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, gravy. Mince pies, Christmas pudding
All things that I could pick up at my local tiny co op, all vegan.
The only thing that isn't vegan is the turkey and I wouldn't mind going without, or you can pick up a packet of vegan sausages.

The only way those things aren't vegan is if you deliberately go out of your way to add animal products into them.

I think most people who come round for Christmas lunch just want a decent meal and aren’t bothered if the sprouts have bacon and you use olive oil for the spuds.

It’s totally your choice but the martyr comment is a bit ott.

Bleurgh no way. Why should 9 of my guests have their preferences changed because of one person?

There's nothing wrong with having preferences at all. But we've had page after page of people saying that the vegan is being awkward and should be more flexible and I'm pointing out that this goes both ways.

Yes it is difficult, because so many Christmas versions of those dishes and others either have animal products in them (roast potatoes in goose fat etc) or require care to source vegan versions rather than just getting whatever looks best quality/cheapest/in your usual supermarket/whatever criteria you would usually use that isn't vegan. You keeping mentioning ways of cooking dishes that are vegan is not a refutation to this. In particular it doesn't prove that this is no less faff than doing jackets with beans instead of tuna for lunch, or other non-Christmas meal

And it doesn't go both ways when it's only one person who wants a vegan meal because they're detoxing, for a festival meal that involves lots of animal products, and nobody else has this requirement. It is the vegan and the vegan alone who is choosing to be difficult.

It is easier to make an ordinary Sunday lunch vegan version, because few people bother with goose fat, and fancy versions of side vegetable dishes that are not vegan.
Also vegan versions of desserts tend to be cheap desserts. Fine for a Sunday lunch, not so good at Xmas.

@PurpleDaisies That may be true if you are not really bothered by food. But I really enjoy eating fancy veg sides that I would never go to the effort of cooking normally.

That may be true if you are not really bothered by food. But I really enjoy eating fancy veg sides that I would never go to the effort of cooking normally.

You don’t have to use animal products to have fancy veg sides.

Really? Apart from cabbage with apple which I love, what other special veg sides would you make without using animal products?

Are you seriously saying there’s no other way to make a special roast potato apart from using goose fat?

I was not taking about roast potatoes but all the other side vegs I make. I am fine with roast parsnips done with olive oil as well. But everything else I make uses bacon, butter or cream.

Sprouts are lovely with chestnuts. Maple glazed carrots and parsnips are just as good as honey glazed ones. Carrots are delicious roasted with orange.

Or you just try google.

Please don't patronise me, I have been cooking for many years. And I make an orange carrot dish with cloves and butter.
I know you can compromise and use margarine. Of course it is possible. But it is a compromise with taste.

And that is my point, that cooking a vegan Xmas dinner is a compromise with taste for everyone.
Vegetarians though are easy to include in Xmas dinner.

I always take my own vegan stuff, my mother has to cater for the gluten free tribe and I think she'd self combust if she had to do vegan as well.

Just grab a Quorn roast and vegetable gravy it's no big deal. They can have all the veg and spuds too. It's rude to expect a guest to self cater - you are catering for a nut allergy already.