Christmas dinner for people who don’t like roasts?

[crossstranger]

I do like a roast but Dh and teens don’t want a roast, they don’t want vegetables.
I usually do cold meat and salad with bits for Boxing Day and they like that.
Dh suggests just a spread rather than a sit down meal.

It doesn’t surprise me that nobody wants a traditional Christmas dinner because nobody likes roasts except me and I’m not spending hours in the kitchen cooking for just me.
What would you do? And what even goes on a spread?

In previous years I’ve spent all morning preparing roast turkey while the rest of the family eat chocolate, drink and fill up on crap, just to force down a bit of turkey to please me so I need some ideas.

Make yourself a nice little mini-roast, it won't take long. I always treated myself to a good little roast on the times I was just cooking for myself on Xmas Day.

Let them eat whatever crap they want, it won't take them long to open the packets or whatever.

Last year we had Gambas pil pil starter and a very indulgent risotto that the kids always love. Best Christmas dinner ever - previous years we have gone out to an Indian restaurant with family then everyone can choose curry or roast. Nobody ever chooses the turkey.

Op instead of playing the guessing game..let them do Xmas dinner and have something nice in reserve for yourself incase it's a pile of doo.👍

This is maybe going to sound harsh - but cooking a roast is stressful, and it can be a bit wearing to have one person stuck in the kitchen all day preparing a meal that other people don't really want. It never creates a good atmosphere - the person cooking feels underappreciated and the non-cooking people feel under pressure to eat a massive meal that they dont' want.

I know that sounds harsh but my memory of a lot of family Christmas days is my mother acting the martyr and going to a huge effort to cook a completely over the top meal that no-one actually wanted - it would have been a far better atmosphere if she had spent the time with us in the living room.

My ex boyfriend used to have lasagne for Christmas Day. It was actually one of many things that made me rethink our whole relationship but someone who doesn’t like a roast potato just isn’t the man for me.

When it's just been me and my partner for Xmas, we have had a fancy M&S pie with some posh mash and gravy (partner is a total veg dodger so gets away with not eating veg on Xmas day).

I wish your family were mine OP! In my family, I'm the one who doesn't like roast dinners and everyone else does. I'd love to not bother with a proper meal and just eat chocolate all day. What we usually do, is DH cooks a big roast dinner (with the help of the DCs these days), then I either eat it as well, but don't eat the meat (it's the meat I don't like), or I buy a takeaway of my choice the day before (Indian/Thai) and have that warmed up, while they eat their roast.

At the end of the day, Christmas to me is a day for doing whatever we want, including eating whatever we want, so I would have a good discussion with the family, and come to an agreement on what they're number 1 favourite meal, or selection of foods is, and serve that up.

And it's a no brainer that they should do it.

We get up when we want, spoil the pets, open some presents, have brunch (salmon, eggs etc) with bubbles, go and see local family, come home, open some more presents, snack on charcuterie board or something similar, watch a film, nap, friends for games & karaoke in the evening, zero stress. Best Christmas 🎄 Go out to a restaurant with family/friends on Boxing Day. Why waste the most celebrated time of the year being a Stepford wife just because they did it in the 1950's. Relax, be cosy, have fun 👍

She says that no one apart from her likes roasts !!!!!!!!!!!! Why cook a whole bluddy roast when she is the only one whole eats it ?? Cook off some meats maybe, shove em in the oven, job done. The rest can be picky bits.

@NavyTurtleI get that but its an option if it’s something she still wants to have , why should she miss out on what she fancies having because no one else wants one .

I would love a massive fry up for brunch and then pizza/party food in the evening. An ex colleague told me she did this on Christmas Day when her kids were wee and it’s always stuck with me! They then had a turkey on Boxing Day.

Otherwise, a steak pie would be nice, although that’s a New Years Day thing in Scotland. Chicken, ham and leek pie maybe? Lasagne? Chilli but with chunks of beef instead of mince?

'Vegetables' is a very broad category to just dismiss as "I don't like that" - unless maybe you're 3 and you haven't learned to be brave and to enjoy a proper balanced diet yet.

Agreed! Do they ever eat vegetables or do they all just live on junk food? It feels odd that they can’t just sit down at the table and eat a nice dinner that they haven’t even had to cook. They sound feral.

I’d insist on going out somewhere that I could choose a Christmas dinner and they could order something else.

We never eat a roast on Christmas Day. You’re all weird for doing that.
Christmas Eve is the day for a roast dinner. Then Christmas Day is cheese, blinis, chicken nuggets, ham, crackers, little cheesy breadsticks, hummus, dips, pigs in blankets, crisps, Brie and Camembert, grapes and apple slices and massive slabs of warmed bread dripping with butter.
I look forward to it every year and it hardly takes any prep or time and it’s amazing

I don't want a roast this year either so I'm making this. It's quite easy.
www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/large-servings/foil-baked-whole-fresh-salmon-with-green-herb-mayonnaise

I don't really understand why people are such sticklers for roasts on Xmas day or why not wanting a roast is a problem. Have literally any food your family actually enjoys. Get them to suggest things.

We've had everything from game pies to slow-cooked ragu to a selection of curries on Xmas day. Haven't eaten turkey in about 20 years and don't miss it in the slightest.

I wouldn't cook a meal no one wanted. I'd probably go for the cold meat buffet they would enjoy, but get them to sit to the table when they'd filled their plates and do the crackers and candles and things as we would if eating the traditional meal. That way its still a bit special but they enjoy the food.

I’d also have the turkey on Christmas Eve, so you have leftovers. I’d also cook (or buy a cooked) ham, and in advance make a batch of Nigella’s festive mac n cheese, red cabbage and pigs in blankets. I’d serve all of that with a winter slaw on Christmas Day. Have cheese and chocolates later. Actually I’d make some Christmassy rocky road.

A make ahead spread that doesn’t need much work on the day.

If DH suggests a spread then let him pull his finger out and do a spread then...

I like the idea of a nice roast on Christmas Eve. Then you can just spend Christmas relaxing and have cold meats plus throw some pigs in blankets / sausage rolls / chips/ party bits in the oven to add something hot.

I made a salmon wellington one year:

two boxes ready made puff pastry, 2 sides of salmon, then filled the middle with herbs and citrus fruits

I’m in Australia and unless you are 90 odd or a blow in, it’s not usual to do a roast. No one wants the house heated up from cooking in summer. Some do a BBQ outside otherwise a cold buffet.

We tend to go for cold buffet on Xmas day, being:
A Ham leg
Pre-cooked turkey breast/roll (so now cold) with cranberry sauce
Prawns - lots and lots of these 🤣
Roast pork loin roll (cold) with apple sauce
Nice bread rolls
Coleslaw
Potato salad or Pasta salad
Greek salad or a Green salad
Pavlova
Trifle

We do the BBQ on Boxing Day. Prawns still obviously mandatory though 😁, and you can stick in some lobster tails as well as the other usual nice BBQ fare. Leftover pavlova and trifle is mandatory 😊.

We have a Chinese!

I also tend to think that if a turkey roast was so nice, people would have it at other times as well, but oddly enough it is never top of anyone's list for 364 days of the year.

I'm sure they're capable of at least suggesting what they might like to eat, and instead of expecting (and you accepting) you to organise everything. Weaponised incompetence at it's best.

I also tend to think that if a turkey roast was so nice, people would have it at other times as well, but oddly enough it is never top of anyone's list for 364 days of the year

We would, however where we are, it’s only available over Xmas period. You can put in an order with a butcher to see if they could get one during the year but then you are buying the whole turkey. We only like the breast, which you can buy fresh rolled (as in multiple breasts rolled and netted for roasting) for Xmas. I presume they just do the majority of breeding/raising of turkey’s here for Xmas season only. You can buy rolled breast frozen in supermarket during the year but that is 🤢, nothing like the fresh rolled stuff from butchers at Xmas. If we could get that year round we would have frequently!