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.

No one hates vegans. Lots of people hate being told that vegans are better than they are because the choose to not eat meat.

Like the wise men she will bring great gifts to your household at this holy time of year. Let her prepare her nutritious feast and let it give her the festive strength to contemplate and digest the stomach churning cheese that is vegan.

YANBU OP unless she requires meat for health reasons (my vegan SiL recently cooked chicken for me as it's one of the very few solid foods I can eat at the moment. Fwiw your spread sounds delicious).

I totally get you don't want meat in your oven

And sister can manage to not eat meat for one meal and shouldn't need to bring with her

Tho equally your dishes don't appeal to me

And I have eaten veggie /vegan food

Obv something special is nice for Xmas

Not sure what to suggest food wise

Maybe some other vegans can offer some dishes up

OP, the food you’re offering- does your sister like it at all? You mention that your kids and husband like it but maybe it doesn’t appeal to your sister?

Her offering to bring meat and cook it in your house is not on however would you meet your sister somewhere in the middle and allow vegetarian food?

I make an absolutely gorgeous lamb tagine that everybody raves over. The vegan version I have done is a pale imitation. I mean, the vegans raved over it, but the omnivores were disappointed. And I don't blame them.

Don't be ridiculous. Why on earth would people eat food they are not fond off, particularly at Christmas.

I’m vegetarian and honestly - i’m sorry - I don’t like English Christmas food. Obviously I don’t eat the turkey. Roasted veg are ok, but pretty bland unless you do something exciting to them. Boiled veg? Not for me. Stuffing? So dry. Don’t get me started on gravy (veggie or not).

But I eat it (minus the meat) when I’m with my English husband’s family because I want to be with them. That’s why I eat food I’m not fond of on Christmas!

Normally I don't like it when vegans try to police what others eat, for example I had one friend who didn't like it when I ate meat in a restaurant (which I found very controlling) However, it is the OP's house and the OP's rules, and I don't see why she should have chicken in her house at all.

YANBU. I’d politely decline though, Christmas for me includes meat.

Well, that's an extreme comparison. It's difficult to gain supporters when you use unrealistic comparisons. 🙄

Laughable. If we were supposed to be omnivores we wouldn't need to cook it.

It's not extreme. The hope was to invoke empathy for how many vegans and vegetarians feel about meat contamination. All vertebrate carcasses are physically similar. As a lifelong vegetarian I react to the biological horror of any carcass.

It's only for emotional reasons that you treat human carcasses differently, not because human meat is actually materially different.

Was just about to ask the same. To me it's obvious she can't cook her own chicken in OPs oven - but if she really dislikes the OPs proposed menu but still wants to see her family at Christmas, surely there is a middle ground?

It's generally easier to replace ovens rather than try to clean them.

I‘m vegan so obviously think she’s being unreasonable. However I also wouldn’t like falafel on Christmas to be honest. Can you compromise for a vegan turkey/chicken alternative? My fave is the Sainsbury’s one, we have it every year. THIS also do a good vegan chicken crown?

It really is. And the idea that it can work the other way round and vegans/ vegetarians should cook meat for non vegetarians.

Interestingly for all the "oh I won't eat that" carnivore types, I've noticed that at office barbecue, conferences and the like where food is a buffet that organisers often now say that if you didn't give notice you wanted vegetarian or vegan please don't help yourself to the vegetarian or vegan options. If it were so awful why the need to say that?

different strokes, different cultures..

the amount of veg dodgers on this thread is baffling to me!

Do people seriously have to have meat with every meal or they’ll keel over?

We’re vegetarian not vegan but don’t cook meat although don’t outlaw it in the house as have a very much non-veggie cat!

My MIL once cooked herself a fish pie for one in the oven when she babysat and I could smell it for days.

If I was a strict vegan though, I would say no meat in the house and sis can like it or lump it. Surely she can get through the meal and then go and neck some pigs in blankets when she gets home.

It is highly offensive bringing something like meat to someone’s house that is vegan!!!!!!!!!! And then cooking it in your kitchen 😫

Don’t make it about the meat.

Tell your sister, your oven and hob will be in use, she cannot cook at yours (who the heck brings food to cook at someone else’s house). Your oven is fully in use.

Tell her she is welcome to cook it at her own house, and bring it to yours, BUT just enough for her is fine as you are preparing a full meal gir everyone and don’t need more food. And you don’t need leftovers.

It’s really actually rude to do what she is planning. Really impolite.

Also takes a lot more skill to cook veggie/vegan well. Maybe you need more practice.

WTF>

Yes drives me bonkers! I was at the office Christmas drinks the other night and everyone ate all the veggie canapés before I and the other vegetarian even got a sniff!

This is why meat eaters hate vegans: they imagine, apropos of nothing, that vegans are telling them that they are better than they are because they choose not to eat meat.

It stems from your own hate-filled imagination and is not reality.

It's a phenomenon called "do-gooder derogation".

Not very filling?? How is a plate of falafel, hummus, stuffed peppers, roasted vegetables and tagine not filling? 😂

She is being ridiculous
I think your meal sounds delicious and certainly doesn't warrant meat in any case
I would feel exactly the same.
I'd be tempted to retract the invitation