Christmas Day meal

[OttoGraph]

Do people still cook a roast on the day? yang

Or do more and more people cook something else? tabu

Id like to have a curry or a red wine casserole but my dd2 loves a roast dinner so I cook one each year and do the other dishes around xmas day. It is just the two of us and I do love cooking, so its not a chore and I prepare everything before hand.

Thinking this year I may get some ready prepared stuff from M&S. Oh and we never have turkey, but lamb or chicken - with all the trimmings though

Awesome

Traditional here. I love it. I also love slowly making the different elements over the preceding weeks and freezing them- doing it gradually while pottering with a podcast on takes all the stress out of it.

YABU, you should always cook a roast on Christmas Day. There are so many choices if you don't want turkey, you can have chicken or goose or one of those 5/7/10/however many bird roast things. If you don't want a whole turkey, get a crown. Some people even have beef roasted, seems wrong to me but fair enough if that's what they like. The important thing is you must have a roast, I guess vegetarians etc can skip the meat part and just have the gravy, stuffing and vegetables, but it must always be a roast dinner.

I love the traditional roast turkey with all the trimmings. Wouldn’t consider doing anything tbh.

We have had a roast every single year but usually my mum cooks.
This year we are going for a Indian the whole extended family 20+ people then back to hers for drinks games and nibbles I’m looking forward to it as as much as I love a roast just not at 2pm on christ Day

I am SO bored of turkey and trimmings every year. DH loves it. This year I have instigated a change. I have bought rib of beef and free range turkey legs, so we can both have what we want. Served with potato dauphinoise and braised red cabbage and probably something green. That's it.

Bollocks. There's no 'should' about it.

What do you make in advance? Curious about how to make it easier

We celebrate the winter solstice as our main day because we are pagans. It was veggie toad in the hole last year for your main meal. We were too stuffed on fancy food to eat any thing else.
Christmas day is an ordinary day to us so we did laundry and ususal chores, dinner was beans on toast! 😁

We do our Christmas day dinner on Christmas Eve. And then a chilled M&S buffet with all the family on Christmas day. I got fed up missing bits of the day and the pressure to have it all perfect. Now feel I have the perfect balance for us

I do a traditional Christmas dinner, but I we have alternative Sunday dinners for the rest of December. So by the time Christmas day comes we are all feeling roast deprivation, and its really appreciated.

Absolutely a huge Christmas dinner, very much part of our day. I can’t imagine Christmas at home without.

Served around 4.00pm, decorated table, candles lit, Christmas carols/instrumental music, wine, crackers and lots of chat. We all get dressed up too.
Such a togetherness.

Don’t know whether this is to me. But I make the following ahead-

—cranberry
-gravy (Jamie’s version)
—stuffing
-red cabbage
-infused milk and breadcrumbs for bread sauce (have tried freezing it as a sauce and imho it’s not as good)
-cake for Yule log

Some people freeze everything, even parboiled potatoes!

Thank you. Christmas bundle for two and Vegan bundle for two ordered. Christmas dinner done - never has it been more painless!

Our family always do a roast, always turkey and usually some other joint as well. This year they are doing goose, with a turkey crown as me and DD don't eat goose.

On Xmas day I like my traditional turkey crown and a beef.

We always have a roast but I ended up putting most of it in the bin last year and it was soul destroying so this year we are thinking of a Chinese banquet!

Sounds great, you're my kind of family, mind you someone will probably take offense and accuse you of taking the piss out of Mexicans and Ozzies 😀long may you continue to enjoy yourselves

Bit tricky deciphering the YABU / YANBU instructions

But we always have the traditional roast turkey dinner.
As does everyone I've ever asked, apart from one family where the Dad's birthday is on Christmas day, so they always have a curry (but then have "Christmas Dinner" on another day close to Christmas). Even the vegetarians I know love a traditional Christmas dinner (well, minus the meat of course).

It's not a normal roast though
Smoked salmon etc starter

Turkey
stuffing
cranberry
bread sauce
pigs and blankets
potatoes in goose fat
duchesse potatoes
sprouts with bacon and chestnuts
carrots and peas
parsnips in honey
gravy
yorkshire pud

We wouldn't usually eat all that on a Sunday!

We did a roast the year before last,none of my kids are a fan of a roast yet (they are 1,3 and 5) so it was just for me and my husband really.
Spent ages in the kitchen stressing so last year we had pizza.
No stress and got to spend more time with the kids. Love the buffet idea or @WhamBamThankU plan for when they are older though!

We are going to local Indian restaurant , normal prices too so winner winner no chicken dinner ! Roasts are overrated

This would be my dream Christmas lunch, sadly the rest of my family would disagree. If you have room for one more, I can bring some lovely wine

I cook one roast a year, at Christmas! Like someone else said, it's only a decent meal if it's done properly with all the trimmings. Last year we had it on Christmas Eve and it was lovely so will be doing that again. Means I don't spend Christmas Day in the kitchen, we just eat a massive cheese and charcuterie board and drink masses of champagne!

We never have a traditional Christmas dinner as DH is veggie and kids are fussy so won’t eat roast potatoes etc. I usually make some simple buffet type foods and invite friends to join us. 🤷🏻‍♀️