to think starters with Christmas dinner are superfluous?

[thatsgotit]

Just what the thread title says, really. How does anyone manage to do full justice to a turkey dinner if they've had their appetite blunted by a starter beforehand? (I do realise not everyone has turkey or even a roast, obviously, but I'm mainly talking here about those who do.)

This might be partly a generational thing, but personally I'd much rather leave myself more room to enjoy the main (and some Christmas pudding afterwards, which again I realise not everyone has) and it wouldn't even occur to me to plan a starter for Christmas Day. It just feels entirely superfluous. Surely I'm not the only one?

We have starter about an hour or so before dinner. Just small salad with Parma ham, bresola & salami. Then dinner & a few hours after we have dessert. Just spread 3 courses over the day. We don't have breakfast though.

I've never had a starter at Xmas. It's just more money to spend and more food to waste. We just have a usual size roast but with pigs in blankets. Plus a desert which we wouldn't normally have.

And that's coming from me....a very fat person who eats a lot of rubbish!

We do canapés OR a starter, not both. We start with canapés and fizz at around 11.30-12ish and nibble on those until our main meal is ready at about 4.30. Eat that, have pudding at about 7 - probably having had a board game interlude in between the two. Cheese comes out when people start getting peckish for something savoury at about 9.

It’s a bit of an all day event at ours 😂

We always had starters growing up - cold things like smoked salmon or prosciutto, that kind of thing. I’m sad that I now live with two non foodies (and veggies) so I don’t get to do that anymore. My dad was usually in charge of the starters.

We always have a starter - prawns, smoked salmon, hot smoked salmon and gravalax. Yes it’s a big starter but we enjoy it. There will be a break of over an hour between main and pudding. We always had a starter growing up - always smoked salmon and prawns. I remember my parents saving up the change from my dad’s pockets in a large jar to pay for the smoked salmon at Christmas. It was a real treat.

Starter > dessert

We do soup, it's a light vegetable broth that my gran always made so a bit of a family tradition.

We don’t have starters, we have ‘canopies’ throughout the day. Just a steady stream of little bits! Absolutely stoll hungry for the roast!

I have never done starters as such. After a late breakfast we don’t have dinner until 5 or 6, so I’ve often provided canapés a couple of hours beforehand - usually something fishy, ready made from M&S.

We don’t do starters, the meal itself is as large as you want it to be, all put on dishes in the middle of the table to help yourself from and then a choice of 4 puddings. Our guests come early afternoon, we have a brunch before they come (they will have breakfast/lunch in their houses before arriving) and there will be crisps/nuts/homemade sausage rolls etc in the afternoon for snacks. we eat around 5pm and then there is a full buffet from about 9 as we have other evening guests joining us at 7:30.

We do breakfast, a starter, snacks, and the main event. Basically a full day eating, although we manage a run first thing and a couple of dog walks in there too. If I don’t go to bed feeling sick, I’ll feel hard done by.

Smoked salmon and asparagus, maybe a light terrine.

Then anythjng but turkey.

Love it zmy favorite part of everything (almost ) that moment to sit ,relax take a breath and start. I don't feel I would have been relaxed enough to go straight into the roast ! I calm down during the starter ready for the main act.

I love how defensive people get on these threads 😂 What I don’t have any experience of are the “it’s just a Sunday roast” people! Our Christmas lunch is all out: two proteins, half a dozen vegetables, potatoes in various forms, sauces, gravy, pigs in blankets, stuffing - the works (and consequently no starters). If it’s just turkey and two veg and roast potatoes then yes it’s just a Sunday roast but with a bigger bird. But doesn’t everyone do all the seasonal stuff? Isn’t that what a Christmas lunch is?

never do starters at Christmas , it’s enough work doing the dinner

Yeah we do all the seasonal stuff, I just don’t eat loads of it. We don’t have turkey (it’s no one in our household’s favourite meat, so why would we eat something on a special day that’s no one’s favourite?) but this year the plan is rib of beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, braised red cabbage, cauliflower cheese and sprouts fried with butter and bacon. Can still eat a starter though, I just stop eating the main course when I’m full. No pudding, but we will have a cheese board late in the evening.

Yep me too, no starters and Christmas pudding is usually consumed late June or July.

I like starters, it makes it more of an occasion. It's about the only time we make a 3 course meal at home.

No roast here as we're veggies, but whatever you're eating, the main course doesn't have to be piled high, does it? I'm amazed at some of the menus people come up with for the main course - 3 kinds of potatoes, 6 different veg...

DH has to have a starter, they always did growing up, and it’s just madness to me. His starter of choice is tinned tomato soup.

Why on earth would you ruin the best roast dinner of the year, all lovingly cooked from scratch, followed by an amazing pudding with homemade custard (he cooks most of this himself too), with tinned tomato soup? I’ll never understand it.

At least it's not Cup-a-Soup in a bowl, à la Denise Royle in The Royle Family... 😅

I'm sufficiently long in the tooth that 'canopies' reminds me of Hilda Ogden in Corrie. 😄 Anyone else?

Every year my dad orders a turkey from his local butcher. I do a chicken as well as not a big fan of turkey. This year I said let’s have beef instead of turkey. But after 40 years of my 81yr old dad buying turkey from this local butcher he just can’t cope with changing 🤣 I tell him he could order beef from the local butcher instead but nope. He enjoys the practice of going into the butcher, the butcher looking up in his paper diary what size we ordered last year and get the same again this year then my dad walks away feeling chuffed that he is supporting the local butcher. That he only uses once a year 🤦🏽‍♀️ I just let him get on with it and will happily cook it for him and he can take home the leftovers. Only for him to then moan for days that he’s had enough of turkey and says next Christmas we will get something different. Then the next Christmas the whole conversation starts again and he still orders another turkey 🤣

I suppose it depends on timings. We eat our Christmas lunch at 2 as we have elderly relatives to get home afterwards, also I wouldn't like to eat a huge meal in the evening, so the lunch is more than enough without a first course. We do tend to get peckish later, I think some of those lovely starters could make a good supper, not sure why I've not thought of it before!

My dad used to do this except he did buy regularly from our local butcher. He'd worked in the meat industry before retiring and struck up quite a rapport with the butcher. Now he's gone, DH and I order from the same butcher for Christmas and other special meals, the meat's good quality and it's nice to feel we're continuing the tradition.

How have I only just realised that posting this thread would make me sound like I'm a MN competitive under-eater? 😄 Probably because it's so far from the truth, tbh. I like food, I just don't have a very big capacity in any given sitting. I often have three courses when I eat out, but it does tend to leave me feeling a bit overstuffed.

We don't bother making starters at home unless we have guests, though, which I'm sure is a big part of why they feel superfluous to me at Christmas.

Aw that is nice. I will probably do the same when my dad has gone except it won’t be bloody turkey 🤣