'Starter' at Christmas Dinner - yay or nay

[Bearlyawake]

Lighthearted household debate...

We are hosting Christmas this year. Will be dinner with all the trimmings. Earlier, DH asked if we will be having a starter, his family usually do one. I said I couldn't really be bothered, I can't really see the point of having a starter before eating a big old Christmas dinner and hopefully some Christmas pudding afterwards.

He maintains that having a starter makes it more of an occasion rather than just another roast dinner.

So...

YABU - Where's your sense of occasion? Of course you need a starter!

YANBU - we will already trough enough food on Christmas day, we don't need a starter!

Side observation - if you say the word starter too much it starts to sound like a fake word, if you know what I mean.

We have smoked salmon blinis and sausage rolls and champagne about 11 then Christmas meal around 4/5. So not exactly a starter...

Growing up in the 70s we always had (packet) tomato soup with cream, it was a tradition I kept up for 20 years, until a few years ago, then I realised that smoked salmon & croissants for a late breakfast was much more palatable!

Prawn cocktail, always. My nana always made it for us and I've kept the tradition alive since she passed. And I have her special secret recipe.

@Leaannb

We usually have appetizers to snack on during the day. Like stuffed mushrooms, hot crab dip served in a bread bowl with pita chips, pinwheels etc

I'm very interested in this hot crab dip.

I want to vote for both. There is so much food that a starter really is too much. But I like one anyway

YABU. Always prawn cocktail with smoked salmon and avocado in this house. It’s practically the law and wouldn’t be Christmas lunch without it.

We never do starters. People like to get stuck into the main event.

We do have nibbles, though.

No starter. We barely have enough room for Christmas pudding as it is.

We just have 2 meals on Christmas Day. A fancier breakfast around 9.30/10, then a main at around 4.30/5

There will be nibbling of chocolate/nuts/cheese around each of these.

We always have prawns in sauce, smoked salmon, king prawns in filo pastry and a bit of salad - very light but tasty

The year my husband managed to muck up the oven settings so the turkey didn't begin cooking until an hour before lunchtime we were VERY glad to have a starter up our sleeves!

We tend to have canapes with drink from 12-ish, Christmas lunch around 1 if we are home.

When we spend Christmas with friends or family, seems like everyone have various preferences, it's nice, but most people seem to have something before the main course.

If by starter you mean a purple Quality Street hunted out of the tin followed by a green triangle then yes, definitely starters in this house.

yes i do prawn cocktails or pate with brown bread and butter but small portions so it dosent fill you up then leave about half an hour between that and the main and i put the main dinner out buffet style so people can help themselves to an amount they know they can eat and then have a light dessert no one in our house likes christmas pud its the only day of the year i do three courses

I’m not a 3 course meal person generally and would rather have space for pudding.

How does anyone eat a starter and then Christmas dinner? Believe me I’m no skinny waif, but I always struggle to finish Christmas dinner and never have room for dessert, there’s no way I could eat a starter as well.

We don't have a sit down starter course most years, but we have canapés in the early afternoon (around normal lunch time). Usually things like smoked salmon, pâté etc.

More to the point, if your DH wants a starter then he knows where the kitchen is!

The last few years we have had antipasti rather than a starter and that has worked well. Some olives, salami, cheese, stuffed peppers, sundried tomatoes. Gives that starter feeling but doesn't fill you up or require much work.

We've had canapés before and providing there is time to let them go down a bit they are great but a lot of work.

A light starter like melon or prawn cocktail works too but I wouldn't have something as substantial as soup.

We do late breakfast of fresh out of the oven bread (comes out about 8.30 and we eat it about 9.30) with a choice of butter, various jams, marmalades, cream cheese or smoked salmon.

Then dinner about 4.30 with chocolates, nuts etc nibbled in between.

When there were small children around, there was a lunch of party type food for them.

Unless you count the chocolate and bucks fizz as a starter, then no, no starters here.

@Fink fair point I'll let him know

I'm liking the canapé idea, think that will be a good compromise!

No starter. In our family we always eat Christmas dinner around 1pm so just have a nice breakfast in the morning e.g smoked salmon and eggs, then just main event at lunch time. Leftover sandwiches in the evening and fancy chocolate biscuits / cheese etc.

@SinkGirl

How does anyone eat a starter and then Christmas dinner? Believe me I’m no skinny waif, but I always struggle to finish Christmas dinner and never have room for dessert, there’s no way I could eat a starter as well.

I am more curious about how people manage to have Christmas diner and no lunch! I'd be either starving or more likely completely full after having snacked all day long by then.

By 4 pm, my kids are requesting their afternoon snack anyway. Even the older ones

I do something snacky/canape like 11-12 ish and then Christmas dinner 2-3 ish. Gravalox on toast, sometimes I make a smoked trout/salmon and horseradish dip (I think it's Jamie Oliver, so good) with toasts, something to dip, just so we can eat a little bit (because that's usually when the prosecco gets opened and no one wants to be drunk before Christmas dinner). But no, I couldn't stomach an actual first course sort of starter just before eating a full Christmas dinner and I don't think I've ever been to anyone's house whose had a proper starter.

I think it depends what time you eat and what else is going on. We have breakfast them eat at 1 or 2pm, so no room for canapes or starters! But if you don't eat till later, they make more sense.

Canapes and fizz mid-morning, (something with a bit of protein in such as smoked salmon, but not too filling) and then a fairly late lunch - say 2pm with the full Christmas roast and pudding - has always worked well for us.