'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.

My family usually have a light starter like melon, prawn cocktail or smoked salmon. I do think it makes it more of an occasion because we don’t normally have a starter at home. DP’s family don’t have a starter but they have both mash and roast potatoes, so need to save room for that!

We do either a small bowl of soup (usually lentil but last couple of years DC have been obsessed with butternut) or some melba toast, pate, small selection of sliced fruits. We serve turkey dinner at around 2 and sit at the table at 1 and do puzzles and games with DC so they can snack lightly. This year we have a 10 month old who's been napping at 1:30 so we'll be giving him more earlier, and he can have some xmas dinner when he wakes up or for dinner when we usually have snacky party food.

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.

By only having a small portion of each course.

Oh yes got to have a starter, doesn’t need to be too much but it’s a lovely start to the meal, we like sorbet after the starter too.

Absolutely definitely no starter!

I love all the extra side dishes we have with Xmas dinner (compared to a normal roast dinner) and if I had a starter I wouldn't be able to eat as much of them as I want. I have never found a started that makes it worth enjoying less Xmas dinner.

If your DH wants a started he should find something he can prepare the day before that can be served cold to anyone who wants one without getting in the way of the proper cooking.

We don’t do a starter, we do a selection of canapés an hour or two before dinner.

Nay, nay and thrice nay. Just the thought of having soup or anything for that matter before that enormous mound of roast food makes me feel a bit queasy.

After starter last Xmas I really wasn't hungry and couldn't eat much more. There was a lot of wasted food.

We’d never throw any of the food away! 😮😮

It gets packed up and made into lots of lovely meals from Boxing Day to NY.

I’m so in the mood for a Christmas dinner sandwich right now!

A light starter around 4 - chilli prawns, say, or a couple of scallops.

Main dinner around 5-6

Dessert around 8.

The only 'starter' should be of a liquid variety!

No starter.
We have so many sides that there is no need and it would add stress.

No starter and 2 puddings is the way to go.😊 - or even 3 puddings and no main course if you're feeling really decadent.

We've always had Yorkshire puddings as a starer - this goes back 3 generations in Yorkshire and is the way it should be. bangs gavel

We do party food for lunch which keeps us going/is a treat/leaves space for the main event.

No Jesus there's no room for starters in this house. Everyone staggers to the sofas hardly able to move after the main roast and all the puds and the fizz

If i did a starter i think we'd have to call an actual ambulance by the end!

Also - we have our xams dinner fairly early - half 12 ish, for various reasons, so no one is that starving they need to eat before dinner.

The prawn cocktail is my favourite part of the meal!

We do canapes with gift-exchanges around the Christmas tree about an hour before lunch is served. A sit-down starter at the dinner table is (a) too much food and (b) means that someone has to be worrying about the veg getting over-cooked while people linger over their prawn cocktail or whatever.

We have prawn cocktail and soup

@Wingedharpy yes to 2 puddings

I think starters are entirely unnecessary before a big Christmas dinner and growing up didnt have one. DH family does starters though so I find we have to have them now to keep him happy :/

I used to do one, then the last couple of years, I've dropped it. Much easier.

Have never done nor had a starter for Christmas dinner. We always have at least two meats plus sausage stuffing and pigs in blankets as well as all the other stuff so it would be a waste!

We have a nice breakfast at around 9 and then graze throughout the day ending with dinner at around 4ish.

I read once that Brits eat on average every 45 minutes on Christmas Day - I try to remember this is not a target but often fail

I do smoked salmon and cream cheese blinis and hand them out about half an hour before dinner. I find huge amounts of food really off-putting, so there is generally also a fairly long gap between main course and pudding too!