To ask if anyone else has NEVER cooked Christmas dinner

[OrtolanLBunting]

Or lunch depending on when you have the main meal.

I'm well into middle age but have never done it. Am happy to peel veg, set the table, clear away and wash up every single thing.

But cook it - never! wouldn't know where to start. And don't go saying it's just a Sunday roast cos I've never done one of those either.

Anyone else?

I understand roasts aren’t for everyone, I like them but won’t necessarily have one at Christmas though - and thank you! 😊

I think people are missing the point when I mentioned I would rather have fish and chips on Christmas day because it isn't "special".
But if I was doing it I would make it special. You can make any meal special if you do it a bit more fancy that you usually do.
My dream Christmas dinner would be a pick n mix selection of fish fingers, scampi, chicken strips for the chicken eaters, chips, onion rings, coated mushrooms, hash browns, various sauces, sides like corn on the cob, fancy mushy peas, posh beans, salad (like the type you would get at Harvester type places).
We'd have all the typical Christmas table decor, crackers etc.
(Just thinking about it is making it hungry)

What really REALLY pisses me off is that all the washing up falls to me too. I’m not usually the martyr type but I usually spend about 5 hours in the kitchen on Christmas Day.

The dishwasher is on duty on Christmas Day. Most of the rest of the year we don’t use it.

Me. Except the covid year
But still didn't make a roast dinner. we had sweet and sour chicken.
we always go to someone else's where I eat potato ham and brocolli

I've cooked plenty of roast dinners but at the age of 58 I've never cooked a Christmas dinner. My parents aged 80 and 81 do it so well and as they have a much larger house than us will also be hosting my elder two daughters, their spouses and grandchild. We do have them over for a special meal on New Year's Day - less expectations! I'm sort of hoping the torch will pass to one of my daughters when my parents are too old.

Absolutely outrageous and unacceptable that the person who has done the most of the food purchasing / prep /cooking even lifts a finger once the meal is eaten. You’re not the maid.

That's the kind of stuff I wouldcfobgir new years eve. A nice fried food buffet!

I couldn't eat all that beige food, it sounds like shovelling up the Iceland freezer and sticking it all in the oven.

There will 12 of us this year and hopefully 14 next year, there may be more as dm loves inviting random strangers, who are on their own, for Christmas Dinner.

@TheaBrandt I dunno....my husband cooks but then afterwards likes to go in the kitchen and wash up because he listens to the football on the radio.
(btw I usually do the food shop)

Me! But I'm vegetarian and live with meat eaters, I don't know much about cooking turkey!
I'd love to live by myself and cook all my favourites.

I find it definitely odd for people not to do it. It’s so lazy to let someone else do quite so much work for you without ever reciprocating.

@Roussette not "beige food" to me - it's delicious food .
I actually wouldn't eat all that. Some parts of it I don't like - but others in my family do.
(and nothing wrong with Iceland - they sell the same branded stuff as Waitrose 😂)

I have my mum every other year for Xmas dinner, alternating with my brothers ex wife as brother and new wife are arseholes.

I bloody hate roast dinners, I love Mediterranean food, but when it’s my turn to entertain mum she insists on Xmas dinner, the roast and all the trimmings plus providing the feckin turkey 🤨

This year I’ve put my foot down, we’re having seafood. She had a sample the other Xmas, I did it as a starter and she loved it. So this year that’s the main course, prawns and scallops in a creamy chorizo sauce with a sprinkle of chilli flakes and tagliatelle all on a bed of rocket. So much less of an assault on your poor digestive system.

If I have to cook for Xmas day, from now on I cook what I piggin like 😬

I haven't, and I'm in no way lazy as I do plenty in the home, just not cooking, can't stand it. I think if I lived alone I would just have toast, ready meals and takeaways.

@Roussette and you can do everything I suggested homemade from scratch. It doesn't have to be frozen.

I ADORE cooking Christmas lunch. I pack everyone off on a dog walk and have the house to myself, stick a Christmas film or carols on on the ipad, and get cracking!

I think a lot of it depends on how Christmas is done when you are a child. My grandmother always made Christmas dinner, and I always helped her, from about age 4 or 5, so I found it easy to then do it on my own. I've been making Christmas dinner for myself since I was about 12 now, and I don't do turkey every year - we like to mix it up!

I've never cooked it on my own and I am 49. Either had Christmas day at my mum's or sister's when younger and just peeled veg / washed up. Or DH did it (got married in mid-20s) and now DS does it. I do a lot of everything else though (presents, cards, decorating, shopping) - Christmas Day is my time off.

Why do you have to do it? If you don't want to, don't. Either someone else involved will, if it's important to them, or no one will cos no one is fussed enough about it to cook it, in which case you're doing something you don't want to do for no reason.

I don't want to cook Xmas dinner, I don't want to eat Xmas dinner. If someone else wants to they can. Anyone martyring themself cooking Xmas dinner hoping one day I'll offer to do it would do better to say so than to seethe and say nothing and hope I somehow know what they want me to do without them asking.

This

Don't get me wrong... I will be getting some of it to tuck into at some point over Christmas/NY with lots off wine ... just can't imagine it instead of Christmas lunch, but each to their own

@Roussette it's my fantasy Christmas dinner though really.
The others in the family are happy with the (boring) traditional stuff.
My idea is never gonna happen.... unfortunately 🙁

Awwww not fair lego !!

My DCs just like it like we've always done with a few variations which they can come up with, cos I can't be arsed!

I just vary the christmas cocktail recipe!

That's a thread we need. Your fantasy Xmas Dinner if you had your own way

Me! I'm 52. We always used to alternate between parents and PIL for Christmas day, so DM or MIL did it. Dsis has also hosted a few times and cooked it. We are hosting this year for the second time and dh will cook.

I'm a perfectly capable everyday cook and have made roast dinners, but dh is an excellent cook, absolutely loves doing it, and is totally chilled, unflappable, organised and tidy about it, whatever he's cooking and however many he's feeding. I would not be any of those things . He's announced he's doing a 9 course tasting menu (for 10 of us) in Christmas Eve . Bonkers.