To not let my sister bring her own meat on Christmas day!

[FelizNavidadAmiga]

First off, we are a strictly vegan household for moral reasons. I invited my sister for Christmas lunch as she is recently divorced and has nowhere else to go. I usually put on a magnificent spread with roast vegetables, tagine, stuffed peppers, vine leaves, falafel, home made hummus etc. My sister has just sent me a message saying she's going to bring her own chicken to cook. AIBU to say no way! I don't want chicken cooking in my nice clean vegan oven! Plus the smell makes me feel ill 🤢 I don't want to upset her as she's very sensitive at the moment but surely she can do without chicken for 1 day.

I'm open to suggestions. What would you bring?

If the food is the main focus of her Christmas day, then she can eat meat elsewhere

If the people that she is with are the key thing,then it doesn't matter what she eats and beans on toast or whatever on offer she should be appreciative of

I do get why she would want to bring something else. But if she's choosing to come to you she has to deal with your menu choices or else stay home and make Christmas dinner how she wants it.

Yes- she’s accepted your hospitality and it’s pretty fucking rude for her to essentially say to you that your hospitality isn’t adequate for her! If she wants chicken she can have chicken at home. Or she can come and have a lovely social dinner at your house, and respect the customs of your home! She doesn’t get to pick’n’mix!

IMO Christmas is about spending time with people you want too, the food is important but not the most important part of the celebration. I’m full carnivore but I will eat vegan/ veggie if it’s important enough to family members.

I don’t think she should cook food in your kitchen you don’t want cooked there. But I do think she should be “allowed” I mean, catch onto yourself there, “allowed” to bring stuff she wants to eat as well.

your hospitality sounds very begrudging.

I said you are being unreasonable, sorry - tell her to bring cooked meat but your menu doesn't sound nice or christmassy

Even if you were going to someone else's place, you can typically expect the usual Christmas food, and it doesn't sound like it's on offer here x

It's food we enjoy. My husband is from the Middle East and he and our children love it! I guess we have different tastes but happy to hear your suggestions.

You’re dinner sounds great. If she wants a traditional christmas dinner she can have it some where else or on a different day.

I love.meat
But that's very rude it's only one day and you are preparing the food .

You can tell which posters on here think putting marmalade glaze on a gammon counts as exotic fare.

I think she should be able to bring already cooked chicken should she wish, as a host you should be prepared to accommodate

Cerrainly it’s expected that meat eaters have to accommodate vegan and vegetarian friends, so I fail to see why it shouldn’t work the other way

I’m practically carnivore apart from a lettuce leaf here and there, but if someone invited me to dinner I’d eat whatever was being cooked, I think she’s being rude. I’d tell her to get one of those cooked rotisserie chickens from the supermarket and have it in her car on the way home. It’s your house she’s not respecting the fact that you are probably going to have a busy kitchen anyway with no room for her to be butting in to try to stuff her chicken in the oven.

Even my H who “sneers at vegans” thinks she’s rude!

Jesus, and I worry that I'm too bitchy at times. You're a treat, aren't you?

But not to derail the thread: your house. No chicken. Massively reasonable @FelizNavidadAmiga - she's being a twit.

I'm confused by the suggestion that this meal will not be filling? I'm never hungry after a meal like that, there's always loads and it's not exactly a lightweight option.

Your house, your rules: reasonable or unreasonable it doesn't matter. However you don't need to brag about your food. Even if your food is boring, if she's coming to yours then that's what she's eating end of. Just apologise and say sorry that it's a non meat household.

Your dinner sounds amazing. Can I come? I'm happy to forgo meat for the day.

I guess you could tell her no but also then don't get the hump if she decides she would rather stay home.

I think you've done the right thing ensuring she knows the menu. Presumably she also knows your family is vegan for ethical reasons, and your house is a meat free zone.

So she's got all the information she needs to make a decision about whether to grace you with her presence for the big day.

Do you also make massive salads op? Been a couple of ‘wind em up’ threads closer we get to Christmas and this one…

However I’ll bite (no pun). Personally Christmas is about enjoying your food. You’d expect a vegan to be catered for in a non VG house so it’s only fair the same applies. You’ve made a lifestyle choice, as has your sister. Everyone eat what they please.

I'd say no to cooking a full roast chicken in your oven due to the grease getting everywhere. If she wanted to bring a tupperware of pre cooked meat I'd offer that as a compromise. Plus does she want to transport the rest of her chicken home afterwards? It'd be stinking up her car too.

I wouldn't want her to cook meat in my oven as a vegan but I wouldn't object to her bringing pre-cooked chicken along tbh.

I think you are both being unreasonable

I would make sure there was a more traditional, winter comfort food alternative at least. A good rich soup to dip into through the day, herby stuffing balls, braised portobello mushrooms in a red wine casserole. A vegan friend is stuffing slow roasted butternut squash with veggie haggis.

I think the poster who made the comparison of expecting pork to be on the menu in a Jewish household to expecting meat to be on the menu in an ethically vegan house hold had a good analogy.

And I sure as hell wouldn't expect that!

It's an ethical decision and OP doesn't want a dead animal that was tortured and badly treated before its murder to be brought into her house. That's not a lifestyle thing.

YANBU OP. Tell her no.