To ask for menu inspiration?

[MAFIL]

Sorry, I know there are more appropriate places to ask but I am getting desperate and know there will ne a lot of traffic here. I am normally quite a good cook but for some reason I've just hone absolutely blank over this meal.
I am hosting Christmas Eve lunch for my family and some friends. There will be 6 of us in total. These are friends who have been hugely supportive to me over a very difficult year so I want it to be a special meal, but I am cooking Christmas dinner next day too so my prep time is hoing to be fairly limited. Plus there are multiple allergies to contend with - nuts, peanuts, sesame, fish, dairy and eggs. The dairy and eggs are just my son and I can probably find work arounds for them. He will be happy with a soya yogurt or something for dessert so I don't have to do a vegan dessert if I dont have time. But the others are all non negotiable due to resulting in anaphylaxis.
I am trying to think of something Christmassy but not too similar to Christmas dinner, as nice as it is, nobody wants two on consecutive days. The harder I think the less inspired I get!
Can I have some ideas please?!

People have so much to eat and drink at this time of year. If it's only six of you, I'd be tempted to do canapes, soup, cheese / meat and fancy bread ie very relaxed and informal, especially if you'll be seeing some of the same family members the following day

But perhaps that's not fancy enough. I can see you might prefer something a bit more special

It depends on if you are actually cooking, if you see what I mean. If you are starting with raw ingredients, how about this?

A home-made leek-and-potato soup to start with because that can be made in advance and then kept in the fridge, and needs no prep on the day just heating up. (Cut up three leeks, fry them fast with a little oil not butter in a large saucepan until they are just starting to go brown, pour on a kettle-full of boiling water with a satisfactory hissing noise, add a couple of chicken Oxo cubes (Knorr if you are feeling fancy), and then grate in three medium-sized peeled potatoes and leave it to simmer until the grated bits of potato stop having sharp edges andit has turned into a soup.) Fancy bread-roll or slice of bread with it -- supermarket bakery bread is fine for this.

Most people don't have lamb at Christmas; how about oven-cooked lamb steaks or a leg of lamb, with plenty of different roasted veg (whatever you like) all made in one dish (saves on saucepans on the hob). You don't really need roast potatoes with this: you have had potatoes and bread in the first course. Or how about pork steaks cooked in the oven in a sauce, instead of lamb?

And for pudding maybe baked apples with or without cream, cooked with raisins in the middle after you take the core out, and brown sugar to fill the gaps round them in the centres. Those can be cooking at the bottom of the oven, in a dish with a quarter inch of water in it and a foil lid, while everything else is also being cooked, so they are very little fuss, and they are difficult to over-cook because the worst that happens is they turn into a fluffy mass of cooked apple with a skin not round it any more and still taste much the same. The water and sugar/syrup turn into a delicious goo for spooning over each.

(Looking at it, that is a lot of food; miss out the soup or the apples if you reckon nobody is going to want them.)

How about a selection of home made curry dishes with rice, salad, vegan yogurt raita etc?

Easy to make the whole thing free of fish, nuts, egg and sesame then depending what dishes you like, any dairy can be substituted out- paneer for firm tofu and cream/ yogurt for coconut milk (adjusting spices).

I suppose there would be a bit of prep but the allergies are at least manageable.

Could you make a big pot of curry and buy pre-made samosas, bhajis etc. to serve with it? I honestly think people won’t be expecting a formal meal on Christmas Eve.

Otherwise, I did a brunch last week and fancy breads with different cheeses and chutney went down very well. Get some nibbles too for the non-dairy folk.

I'd be tempted to do something in the slow cooker or oven, you could do a vegie one and a meat one and do some rice rather than loads of veg to prep.

A Christmas ham - easy and can serve with mash or roasties (or dauphinois). An easy shop bought tart for pud x

I was going to say a ham, nigella has a Christmassy recipe, with crusty breads, a couple of salads (maybe one with red cabbage) and a spiced plum crumble and Swedish glace for pudding? I think that should be fine for all the dietary requirements you’ve listed. You could add in cheese - for those who can have it - but really a huge ham buttie with salad and then a steaming bowl of pudding should be plenty.

We do pork belly for Christmas eve, with one parent, with red cabbage and a few other veg.

When we're with the other parent for Christmas eve we have smoked salmon risotto.

With that combination of allergies, I would go down the big pot of chilli route.
If you want to go a bit fancier, possibly use the chilli to fill a wrap, then top with with sour cream and grated cheese and bake in the oven. Served with salad, doritos and dips.

I recommend two Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipes from his Fruit book: lamb tagine with rice or couscous, which is listed as kid tagine (just leave the almonds out, it’s good without them). It’s dead easy and always v popular when I make it. Agree with PP that a ham would also be good. For pudding I’d do caramelised oranges in syrup. It’s cheap and easy, and if you put a cinnamon stick in with the orange syrup, has a nice Christmassy feel without being heavy. You could serve it with ice cream for dairy eaters.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/28/goat-kid-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/23/orange-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

The link to the caramelised orange recipe also includes a recipe for oranges in mulled wine syrup, which sounds ideal, but I haven’t tried it so can’t say for sure!