Do you have a Christmas dinner on Christmas Day? AIBU to politely decline

[unsureforevermore]

We always do and to be honest the kids very much look forward to it! We’ve been invited to the in-laws this Christmas however I’ve just discovered that they are doing a hot and cold buffet!!
This is not what I signed up for hahaha I had reached out to offer to do starters or veg etc or roasties etc and been told it’s ok no need it’s a buffet.

AIBU to decline now??

A Christmas dinner can be whatever you want it to be. We don’t have the traditional meal as we don’t like it
Spending time with family is more important than what you eat.

I wouldn’t want to go either because and maybe I’m being an arse I bet it’s just a boring
beige buffet not even a special for Christmas styled one.

Also not everyone is able to just do the big dinner on the eve or Boxing Day due to working. Moving it all the way to the weekend is then just Sunday roast.

We do have a big Christmas dinner, though some of us have a veggie alternative to the meat.

I really couldn't get upset about someone doing a buffet instead though. It's just food! For me, the people are much more important.

WTAF?

To me Christmas Day is about family so I wouldn’t cancel but I would have to have a Christmas dinner Boxing Day!

Yes i agree totally, it was just my perspective. I'm alone on Christmas day and cooking my roast will be a highlight! Going to family on Boxing day and looking forward to the traditional dinner there too. But we are all different.

As you’ve accepted and it’s a week out no you cannot back out now. Have a Christmas dinner on the 24th or Boxing Day if you want. I’d be disappointed too not to have a dinner as expected (and kind of feel you should have been told when invited) but I’d just do my own as I suggest.

Me too. It’s just all dull and brown and ugh. I don’t get the love for a roast but my brother and father live with me and they like it so…..💁🏻. I just eat a few mouthfuls and save myself for cheese. At least as my brother cooks it I don’t have to bother.

I don't really mind a roast dinner but I do think it's enormously overrated, laborious and creates a fuck ton of washing up
I especially don't want to see pictures of plates of roast dinner. It's ugly food.

Is the buffet going to include roast potatoes, turkey, gammon, sprouts, carrots, gravy etc?

I’m not a fan of a roast but if I wasnt having a Xmas dinner on Xmas day it wouldn’t feel like Xmas!!

A lot of people work on Christmas Day and have their Christmas dinner on a different day, they still manage to enjoy Christmas!

Just have your Xmas dinner on Boxing Day

When I was a child because there were so many of us as children my mum used to do a buffet that we could pick from all day because she'd spend all day in the kitchen and hardly any time with the kids.

Now I have 2 kids of my own I have considered doing a buffet again especially now we host for a fair few people I don't want to be standing in the kitchen all day cooking dinner I want to be involved with my kids playing their toys and the family conversations and games. However, I am still doing christmas dinner as that's what they prefer and I am prepping the night before so I'm not stood peeling everything for hours it's just there ready to be put on heat.

If it's people you're really close to and have a lot of care for I would go. Do a Christmas dinner for you guys on Boxing Day etc?

I don't think it's any more rigid than thinking you have to go to someone's house at Christmas just because they invite you.

It's just a big roast dinner! Just make it on different day. I really don't understand why waiting an extra day is such a big deal. Enjoy the family day and stop being so rigid in your thinking!