Christmas dinner police

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Can’t sleep and endlessly reading MN. Oh how I loathe the Christmas dinner police. Policing what “should” be on a Christmas dinner, calling it Christmas lunch (urgh), all the formalities and “musts”. Reminds me of my ex DP who was aghast for about 4 years straight that no one in my family liked turkey so we had beef for Xmas. His mother called my mother to clarify it was true (after a drink) and I’d go round to theirs over the Christmas period and the whole (large) family would be saying things like “I can’t believe you don’t have turkey on Christmas dinner.” “It’s not Christmas dinner without” “without turkey it’s tasteless” (????) “you must buy a turkey and a ham for Xmas even if it doesn’t get ate its tradtition” from the same people who buy 3 turkeys (Xmas day, New Year’s Day redo, then another on Easter(!!!!))

anyway I digress, I loathe it!

A friend of mine mother was so upset that I did not have turkey on Christmas day that she plated up a dinner and dropped it to my house. She genuinely was upset that I would miss out despite my friend telling her I did not like turkey.

Very tongue in cheek and not personally directed in the slightest, apologies for coming across that way - there's a misconception that turkey is a recent dinner brought over from America since WW2.

I actually really like turkey. It’s not dull if you know how to cook it. I use a delicious family stuffing recipe, homemade gravy and Delia Smith’s fresh cranberry relish.

We don’t always have it - sometimes we’ve had partridge, quail, pheasant, goose, and we always have a ham on Boxing Day.

Pigs in blankets are small sausages wrapped in streaky bacon. I make my own - half a chipolata in half a rasher of streaky. Very quick and easy and they freeze well. Essential for 🎄dinner here - they always disappear.

But why have it at all if you find it dull and bland.
I don't like lamb so I never eat it , even at easter when it seems to be traditional.

No no no!

We are having beef this year.
I am retired, and others may be surprised to learn that when a child our Christmas dinner was actually chicken. It was then an expensive meat, and therefore a speciality for Christmas.
I admit our large family were not very well off, but we always had a roast lamb every Sunday, so the roast chicken at Christmas was definitely special.
In 'A Christmas Carol' the traditional food was depicted as a roast goose!
I personally (when hosting) have tried different times, from around 2.00 pm, to another year, eating at 6.00 pm, but preferred the 'lunch time' slot, even though we call it dinner. (I think this stems from school 'dinners' eaten at lunch time!)
Frankly, whoever is hosting can do as they please, as long as any guests know what time you are eating etc, when to arrive, what to bring, etc.
Although one cannot cater to every single whim, there is usually enough different food to please everyone. My exception is that if I have any vegetarian/vegan (one year lactose intolerant), then I would make sure there was an additional main food that they could have.

You can eat your Christmas dinner at lunchtime if you like, but it's still your Christmas dinner.

The main hot meal of the day is your dinner, no matter when you eat it. That's why a plate of roast meat, roast potatoes, various veg and gravy is always a "roast dinner" and not a "roast lunch", even if it is regularly eaten for Sunday lunch.

I like bread sauce but it's really hard to argue against its similarity to wallpaper paste.

I always think back to the Victorians and Georgians etc for this one. Wasn’t dinner whatever was the largest meal of the day, which was at some points early afternoon for the upper classes, but then moved later, so that it became ‘posh’ to have dinner in the evening, hence lunxh at lunchtime. I can’t remember the details of it but it’s something like that. I generally have lunch in the middle of the day and supper/dinner/tea in the evening, but I do have sympathies with those calling it Christmas dinner, whenever it’s eaten, because it’s definitely the biggest meal of the day! I still call it Christmas lunxh because it’s a habit, but I find the origins of these things quite interesting

I just do me and let others do them as christmas is what we make of it. Last year we had a full on buffet for christmas day. The year before that we had a Chinese. This year will be a huge steak pie with all the trimmings like Brussels, roast potatos, parsnips, cauliflower cheese, mealie, gravy, pigs in blankets and yorkshire pudding. Soup will be put out at 1pm ish, main between 4 and 5 pm and dessert whenever we feel like it. We may get dressed or may have a pyjama day but will be going with the flow as I usually do.

If you're that posh then it's luncheon.

Ha! Snap! (See my comment above)

If I bring my own chair , plate , knife fork , spoon and bowl and most importantly a wheel of 2 year old Stilton can I join you please ?

I was considering making individual 'toads in the hole' (or toad in the holes?)
with the leftover pigs in blankets. Trying to come up with some creative ideas for the leftovers to make a hot/cold buffet.

I might start a left overs thread.

I need someone to police mine. There will be 10 people there. I don't eat meat but everyone else does. Lamb is the popular choice. I didn't even know what size leg to order and now I have been advised on that I'm not sure the bloody thing will fit in the slow cooker for the recipe I had found!

In a Christmas Carol, when Scrooge is shown the Cratchits' Christmas dinner by the spirit they are indeed having goose, which has been cooked in the oven at the baker's. But this is depicted as a bit of a meagre option. Its "cheapness" is the subject of "universal admiration", and when the family behave as if it is something special this is presented as a sign of their poverty:

Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the rarest of all birds; a feathered phenomenon, to which a black swan was a matter of course—and in truth it was something very like it in that house.

But when Scrooge changes his ways and wants to provide something truly special for the Cratchits, it's a turkey!

“What’s to-day, my fine fellow?” said Scrooge.
“To-day!” replied the boy. “Why, Christmas Day.”
“It’s Christmas Day!” said Scrooge to himself. “I haven’t missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow! [...] Do you know the Poulterer’s, in the next street but one, at the corner?[...] Do you know whether they’ve sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there?—Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?”
“What, the one as big as me?” returned the boy.
“What a delightful boy!” said Scrooge. “It’s a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck!”
“It’s hanging there now,” replied the boy.
“Is it?” said Scrooge. “Go and buy it.”

It’s true that us common people ate Chicken for the Xmas Day lunch, in the 50s & 60s. Turkey began to get popular when money wasn’t as tight, probably 70s/80s.
Being Mrs Scrooge, I can’t understand why Xmas Day lunch has to be so endless.
One MN poster last week had three types of potato, probably six plus types of vegetables. Additionally different birds & gammon. A bit like Henry V111 actually.

Hilarious. Goose in Victorian times. Prior to that, wild boar, venison, beef, mutton , fish, . Sometimes it was a feast with multiple meats…and even badger, peacock, woodcock , blackbird were eaten . Pigeons and partridges..how could I forget those as we had those with rabbit and venison , pheasants
made into a huge game pie

Weird isn't it. And turkey etc is so modern a 'tradition' really.
We have chicken – on Xmas Eve (gasp!) – and roast potatoes BUT served with quinoa with pine nuts/almonds, raisins, sour cherries and herbs, and minty yoghurt instead of gravy.
Police haven't been round yet.
For years we didn't even do a particular dinner and DP's late mother used to get agitated, not so much that we weren't seeing her for Xmas but more that we weren't 'doing' Xmas. Weird that some people care so much about what other people are eating.

It’s a bit hypocritical to criticise the food police and then you police what it should, or should not, be called.

I do agree that it’s silly to say you shouldn't have this or that on it. I’ll have Yorkshire pud and even cauliflower cheese with it if I want, or if anyone else wants. I’ve never served a starter either.

Also having chicken (and gammon) instead of turkey for the first time this year.

I haven't had turkey on Christmas Day for years. Probably 10 years plus. We do a chicken. Tastier, cheaper, easier to cook, and comes in a range of sizes more suitable than "massive".

I’ve never thought sprouts were bitter. Interesting because I’ve always sai, we don’t know what other people are tasting so I never criticise likes and dislikes, especially in children, who definitely don’t taste things the same as adults. Anyway, you reminded me..we used to put sliced carrots, sprouts, parsnips (bleurgh ) and other veg like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus into a roasting tray and drizzle honey over them before roasting .sorry wrong user quoted

That’s fine if it’s just one or two of you but I’m not cooking ten (or whatever number) steaks on Christmas Day.

When did chipolatas stop being called chipolatas and started being cut in half with bacon wrapped round them and pronounced 'pigs in blankets'???