To think it’s weird millions of people eat the same dishes on one day of the year?

[HelloCharming]

I have Russian friends who visited one Christmas (when it was still easy for Russians to visit). When we asked them what they ate for Christmas they looked confused and said, we cook something we really like, usually a bit more expensive or luxurious than usual. They thought it was hilarious that practically a whole country cooked essentially the same dinner on one day of the year.

bit of a lightbulb moment for me. We are having beef this year, and will be having lamb the first year we aren’t hosting lamb dislikes (the rest of the family).

We've not had a Christmas Dinner for about 10 yrs. Once we got out of mindset of "do it only because it's tradition" we all enjoyed Xmas loads more. We have whatever we fancy, this year is going to be steak, last year was hot buffet food and snacks all day, before that we an Indian takeaway for a few years that became our tradition for a bit. My Mum is dripping in tradition and will still have a Xmas roast no matter what, she visits us in the morning and goes home to cook for hours.

I like it. It connects us all as part of the same culture.

Same here - last year we had home made pizza. It was wonderful. Much better than dry old turkey.

It was also lovely not having to join in the massive queues of people trying to grab sprouts and turkey at the supermarket 😃

I think less and less people are having turkey these days. We haven't had it for years (might have it over the Christmas period if we're out somewhere). We're just having a bog standard pork joint from the freezer that we bought on offer

They thought it was hilarious that practically a whole country cooked essentially the same dinner on one day of the year.
Have they never heard of Thanksgiving meals? And that is celebrated in several "whole countries", not just the USA.

It is a bit weird though - especially when a lot of people don't like turkey but still seem to have it.

Some things are best kept for Christmas though - if mince pies were readily available all year round I'd be the size of a house.

One of our best Christmases, when we had a sudden influx of unexpected guests, was a BBQ. Went down very well - luckily nice enough weather for the cooking outside. No turkey.

We’ve never had turkey for Christmas dinner, for the sole reason that it’s no one in the family’s favourite food, so why would we eat something that is no one’s favourite for what is supposed to be a special meal?
We take it in turns to choose. Last year was lamb, the year before was venison wellington, this year we’re having a rib of beef.

When I was a TEFL teacher, i remember one of my students from I think Thailand ( but it could be somewhere else in Asia) asking me after class, if she could talk to me about her host family. She didn't know what to do because she had been there for two weeks and every day for breakfast.It was exactly the same food. Basically cornflakes and toast. I hadn't realised before then, that in some countries, breakfast changes every day.

Howver your Russian friends are being weird. Russians like lots of Europe, celebrate on Christmas Eve. They have 12 dishes to represent the 12 apostles.
They also traditionally have Russian Salad on NYE.

According to Radio 4 yesterday on 52%of people have Turkey now. with chicken, beef and lamb roasts taking over.

None of us like turkey beef this year - curry last year

We like turkey - to me it’s not really Christmas Day without the smell of the turkey in the oven.

If we didn’t have that, it’d be pork. Roast pork still feels Christmassy to me, probably because IIRC when I was a child we’d have it on Boxing Day. My DM must have been mad, cooking roasts 2 days running!

I thought having beef for Christmas wasn’t that unusual? I’ve had goose and pheasant. Many eat chicken. The tradition is the family all gathering to celebrate in whatever form that is, and a roast dinner is typical, but I think the components of that dinner - be it a turkey, beef or a nut roast , is more diverse than the media would have you believe.
I love turkey and can’t wait - especially as my DD said she’d cook and DS said he’d clean up after!

From what I’ve gleaned from a Swedish friend, they typically have certain dishes on Christmas Eve, which is their big day. Ham, gravlax, sundry other fishy things which I can’t remember, and ‘rice porridge’, which she makes with all single cream! Her son, when living in London, had apparently complained that we in the U.K. didn’t have the right rice for making the 🎄porridge,

I had to tell him to look on the prepared rice pudding shelves, for ‘pudding rice’. For some reason that’s where the supermarkets always shelve it.

We had lamb a few years ago and the problem we found is that it's not the best meat cold. The leftovers and cold cuts are a BIG thing in our house and we missed out that year. We wouldn't do it again but If you do perhaps have a chicken or gammon or something else too.

We don't always have turkey. We've been having goose more often recently. The only problem with goose is that there's not very much meat on them for the size of the bird, so if I was hosting a big party then I'd go for turkey for the volume.

I know you can have anything you want at Christmas, but for me a big part of the enjoyment is having certain things at that time of year that are special and that bring back memories. So I do often do the same things year on year that my parents and grandparents used to make.

Cold pork is very nice, too - straight or in sandwiches - we had some the other day with homemade apple chutney.

I agree with all of this. It’s grounding and brings joy.

If your turkey is dry you're cooking it wrong.

Lots of cultures have traditional foods that most people eat on certain days.

We never had turkey, though, my mum didn’t like it.

Each to their own. For family availability reasons we have 'Christmas dinner' on Boxing day and have whatever we fancy on Christmas Day.

Wait…what? I’m only supposed to have Stilton and beetroot when it’s Christmas? I have it all year round!

Turkey isn’t dry if you do it right. I’ve never had a dry Turkey. I can’t imagine eating pizza on Christmas Day - the meal is the absolute focus and we spend hours at the table eating, drinking and talking. It would be really sad for it not to be something special - though obvs that doesn’t have to be Turkey.

I think it’s lovely that something, not the exact contents, but the fact of celebrating a meal with friends and family or welcoming organisations, all happens on the same day. Not much unifies us now so it’s charming to think others are doing the same . ( Save me your ‘ but we do it a different way ‘ stories - it’s a broad brush )

According to Radio 4 yesterday on 52%of people have Turkey now. with chicken, beef and lamb roasts taking over.

I heard that as well - we've had all sorts of roasts over the years goose, duck, beef, pork, turducken not lamb that's more Easter meat for me - nor just chicken yet. So far it's always been a roast - more than a usual Sunday which till very recently was also always a roast dinner or a BBQ in summer.

Oddly IL are in camp of not liking turkey but being weird about having it - thought were talking chicken this year. They also not keen on christmas pudding but insist on having it.

Christmas pudding mince pies - Stollen since met DH are only eaten around christmas here - and brussel sprouts - grew up having them every Sunday but we tend to only get them chirstmas then do then with bacon and cream.

I think we were think pork - as we tend to do cold meals for a few days and cold pork, stuffing and apple sauce is very nice.

I think it's about relationship.

As we sit down to a meal knowing so many other households are eating the same thing, and have done on that particular day for years, can give a deep feeling of community across time and space.