Christmas Day would be better without Christmas dinner

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Presents, nice fizz, nibbles, smoked salmon on brown bread, chocolates, more nice booze, games, family, a walk, cheese board, Christmas telly. That's all that's needed for a great Christmas Day.

Cooking and eating Christmas dinner just takes up too much time and is too much work and leaves you uncomfortably full. AIBU that we should just leave out that part?

Definitely.Next year I'll be eating that type of thing.

I really like Christmas dinner. But I take as many short cuts as I like.

I do make the table look pretty.

I also like the structure of it in the day.

I think yesterday it took me an hour to cook everything. DH washed up. We are vegetarian though so no turkey to contend with.

Do what works for you though!!

I agree OP. We did Christmas Day with PIL yesterday afternoon and evening all outside round the fire pit. We had hot turkey and stuffing rolls, pigs in blankets and Christmas pudding. It was absolutely great. Much more time for us all to chill out and chat and do silly quizzes. I felt full but not nauseous with food overload.
Doing a proper full roast this evening and dh and I have got all afternoon to potter about and get it done.

All I really needed was a big portion of beautifully steamed buttered sprouts

@StealthPolarBear

You made home made stuffing and all that in an hour? It took me an hour to make the breadcrumbs!

@StealthPolarBear

Yes! How can it take an hour to make breadcrumbs? You just grate bread?

My homemade stuffing is chopped onion, breadcrumbs, garlic, rosemary and sage, cooked in a pan for about 5-10 mins then roasted for 25 mins. It's delicious.

We couldn’t have a Christmas dinner yesterday as the bloody turkey was still frozen (despite defrosting in the fridge for 50 hours ). I was gutted but actually I couldn’t believe how much nicer it was to have plenty of time to slob around in our jammies, play games with the little ones, have a lovely walk, have Zoom calls with family, fill ourselves with treats all day... now I’m looking forward to having our Christmas feast on Boxing Day instead! I’m thinking of doing the same next year actually.

I usually aim for a 3pm Xmas Dinner because the in-laws have several pets to get home and feed afterwards. This year it was just my sister and dad so we had a more normal 5:30 dinner time. Much less stressful and I hadn't done as much prep!

One roll of ham boiled then roasted. Veg prepped whilst the boiling was happening. Once that was in the cranberry sauce was made. Dessert was provided by sister because I usually do that on Xmas eve but was working this year.

Loads of day time for presents, a film (DH took the dog for a walk cos he wasn't fussed about watching Frozen 2) and we even built the presents that needed put together.

I'm on board with a less stressful Xmas day. We have some ham left over and lots of cheese etc for a picky lunch and dinner today.

I don’t think we’ll go back to a traditional Christmas Day dinner until the kids are much older - it was nice to have the pressure off, I like cooking and it’s not much more than a usual roast but in the context of presents and excitement it was nice to not think about a three course lunch. We’ve had a Boxing Day lunch instead which was much more relaxed and enjoyable. The kids had an easier time too not trying to sit still and eat a proper meal when they’d rather be playing abd are overtired.

I know it expensive in comparison but marks and Spencer is your best friend here.

I made soup and mash on Xmas eve and cooked the turkey. Everything else came from there and was just a case of putting in the oven or the microwave. Incredibly easy and it’s nice.

I’ve done the whole cook the lot from scratch and I found it exhausting this is sn absolute doddle

We have never had Christmas Dinner, not since we had DC. Didn't want deadlines and timings and being in and out of the kitchen when they were wanting to play with their presents. We could have visitors at any point and they could stay as long as they liked and eat whatever was going.
So we just have 'food' a buffet that goes on all day with everyone having input into what food that would be. Suits us.

I never have it, I just eat what I want to.

I don't celebrate Xmas so thank god I dont have to deal with all that faffing.

It was M&S spatchcock chicken that went straight into overnight for 1hr along with their truffle cheese cauliflower and had it with salad

It meant I didn't have to get out of bed early, went for a bike ride and when I got out of shower my food was ready

Then movies for rest of the evening

Bliss!!!

I know what you mean
We have this emotional attachment
I spent 3 solid hours cooking and we are only 3 people
Been having horrible meat 🍖 farts all day too (I don’t usually eat meat )
I might do what you suggest next year

I dont understand it really why are you doing things you don't like doing?
What is the worst that can happen if you don't cook and eat a traditional dinner.

Unless your religious or its some sacred tradition that will insult someone or something like that why bother.

Set your own traditions.

Mine is to not stress out so thats that!

We were two adults yesterday. I decided to do a small turkey anyway (usually do a crown or something simpler) but I enjoyed the extra planning that went into prepping, cooking, basting the bird and timing everything else to fit around it. It was a bit of effort, but we enjoyed it.

I’d be hungry on what you describe! And hammered. We all love our food so a special meal is a big part of the fun for us.

However, I’m not a fan of the traditional Christmas dinner. Yesterday we had lamb rack, dauphinoise, parsnips and beans yesterday (pavlova for pudding) and it was so much nicer! Didn’t feel bloated and much preferred the food to the usual.

I’m trying to persuade DH that we should ditch the traditional menu in future years and instead do more like our “desert island menu”.

You can if you want but for me it's the highlight of the day.

So no thank you.

I always do the potatoes a few weeks in advance. Par boil, then freeze. Straight from freezer onto hot oil in oven trays on the day.

@cyclingmad

I dont understand it really why are you doing things you don't like doing? What is the worst that can happen if you don't cook and eat a traditional dinner.

Unless your religious or its some sacred tradition that will insult someone or something like that why bother.

Set your own traditions.

Mine is to not stress out so thats that!

Because DH, SIL, DPs and DC all like it the way it is. I'm not intentionally giving myself a suboptimal Christmas for no reason also it's a lighthearted thread

I love christmas dinner and dont find it difficult to cook (we have roast dinner every sunday in winter anyway). So yabu imo!

I think the people that actually want Christmas Dinner should be the ones doing the preparation/cooking TBH.

We have sausage and mash, and play with the kids and eat chocolate. It’s ace.

Totally agree. Turkey is far overrated IMHO. Their marketing team needs a prize.

I think the 'it's just a roast' people must cook for small numbers on xmas day or have multiple ovens?

I'm a decent cook and can do a roast for 4 people without any fuss. However when cooking for (normally) about 12-14 people at christmas everything is made harder simply because of the quantities involved. There isn't room to simply prep and throw things into the oven at the normal timing - trays of things need to be cooked in succession then kept hot. Things that might be normally chucked in the oven have to be done on hob (and supervised) because there isn't oven space.

I don't find it particularly difficult, but it's hard to leave the kitchen for very long because there's always something you're keeping an eye on.

Hmm, I can totally see the logic in what you are saying.
However, I love Christmas dinner, and just M&S it all the way. Tasty and easy.