If you aren't having a roast dinner on xmas day what are you having instead?

[YourHandInMyHand]

I can't decide what to do for Xmas dinner but I'm very tempted not to do the traditional meal. It's just me and DS, and DS is an extremely selective eater (due to his autism, more than fussiness).

I am tempted to just do a cold buffet. My sister recoiled in horror at the idea "but you have to have a turkey". Don't get me wrong I like a good cooked dinner but it seems like a lot of faff - I'd rather help DS build his lego!

So I guess I am looking for ideas of what else we could do food wise.

Ask your children what they would like for Christmas dinner or cook their favourite dinner?!

DS would eat Pizza. I don't mind pizza but seen as it's DS's staple food that he would happily eat 3 times a day all year round if allowed it's not tempting me! He''d love it though. [evil mother]

Well, my family has cheese and crackers, pork pie and mince pies for afters for breakfast on Christmas Day (sort of tradition), so could you have that? You could also put a ham in the oven on Christmas Eve, pick at it for tea and then serve it cold with a nice pickle (that you could make with your DS maybe?) the next day with your buffet.

If you're fussed about a turkey, get a small crown, cook it off on Christmas Eve and serve it up cold on Christmas Day with the ham.

Am I right in thinking that you don't want a constrained sit down affair if your son has autism?

I think in that case, a Christmassy buffet is most sensible.

Nowadays I have a roast dinner, but when I was little we used to stay in our Christmas pyjamas all day and eat tasty deli food from M&S: hoummus, guacamole, smoked salmon, tortilla chips, salad, olives, salami, crudites etc. I loved it.

Beef wellington this year

yami that sounds delicious

Nachos, chilli, refried beans, all the sides and blueberry ice cream. Has to be blueberry

Chicken curry, coconut rice, spicy potatoes, aubergine curry, okra and spinach curry, sambal, poppadums, salad and pickles. Yum yum! We used to do the trad turkey etc but we just prefer a spicy curry!

Last year we had a vote and steak, egg and chips won . I fancy the idea of a buffet this year

I didn't grow up in Britain so we never had the traditional British Christmas dinner. My mother loves to cook and we all love to eat, though, so we did always have a 'special' meal with three or four courses, made up of something we all liked. When I was small I was allowed to get down from the table in between courses to play with my new toys and my dad would help me assemble stuff. I have many lovely memories :)

Last year it was just me and DP for Christmas. Neither of us are particularly bothered about turkey and I'm not cooking a whole beast for just two people, so I got some venison steaks from the butcher, pan fried them like you would beef fillet steak, and served them with herbed mashed potato, pepper sauce, sprouts, and stewed pears. We had smoked fish as a starter and a (bought) frangipane tart for dessert. It was lovely, and felt special and Christmassy, both because we don't normally have a three course meal with expensive ingredients like that, and because I made an effort to set the table nicely with candles etc.

A cold buffet could be really nice if that is something both you and DS would enjoy! You could make it up of things you both like (and maybe even include a few slices of pizza ;) ), and set it out on a nice Christmassy table and eat it surrounded by Lego and Christmas telly. Sounds like a great Christmas memory to me.

Steak and chips for you, pizza for your DS, posh ice cream for pudding. Delicious!!

Raid m & s for everything prepared. Including a little turkey joint.

I used to do the lot from scratch. 2 days of cooking and prep. Now the most technical thing I do is rotate stuff around in the oven.

Mind you this year they may not even get that unless dp and dd suss out which appliance is which. Have an edd of 20/12 so could be too fat to care, feeding a nb or even in hospital still.

Expensive steak. Because it's a special occasion. And because there will only be two of us.

We do a cold buffet, it's great :) DS1 is fussy and has loads of allergies, DH and I are veggie so it's the easiest option and means Xmas Day isn't spent in the kitchen.

We have sarnies, crisps, mini quiches/pizzas, crudites/dips, smoked salmon, cheese & crackers, spring rolls, anything we fancy really!

Oh and the traditional centrepiece is my rapidly-becoming-family-legend cheese'n'pineapple hedgehog

Beef Wellington here. Curry on Boxing Day.

Ah we always have curry (takeaway!) on Christmas Eve :)

We're having beef Wellington too.

I'd be quite happy with a cold buffet too though. We're having one
on Boxing Day.

DH is a kiwi and he still doesn't care about the turkey. I'm ethnic Chinese. We have anything we feel like. Curries, Chinese, Japanese. There really is no need for turkey if you don't enjoy it.

We were talking about Christmas last night. I usually make the cake, mince pies,pate lots of things, But not this year. I'm going to Aldi and buying their goodies! Having a rest. Trouble is the family sort of expect more.

If I were you I would go for something really nice like an expensive steak and let DS have pizza.

Why not just make a special dinner with all your DS's favourite foods :)

Wow lots of replies thanks for all the ideas.

On xmas eve we go to the theatre in the afternoon and then either a pizza restaurant, or a chinese takeaway tea.

DS eats his favourite foods all year round. Seeing as he only eats about 10 things they are just constantly eaten anyway.

I am still undecided. I don't ever do a whole bird or even a crown anyway, last year I did one of those trays that has 2 chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, 2 chipolatas, and 2 stuffing balls with frozen roasts, YPs, ready made red cabbage, ready made sprouts and bacon, and carrots. It made 2 massive meals which I plated up and had one on xmas day and one on 27th. DS had sausage, potato and carrot waffles, raw carrot sticks, and YPs - he declared it disgusting like he does any other time I serve this meal.

I'm thinking either pizzas (though I'm not that keen) or picky buffet. I'd like a day without meal time angst/ fussing and less work for me.

He sits okay at the table but not for 3 courses in a row. We usually just have a main, then a rest followed by dessert.

There are just the 4 of us. We don't like turkey, so I usually do something like a lasagne which just needs heating though or shoulder of lamb which goes in the oven for hours and needs no attention.

I don't buy tons of food at Christmas...it actually sickens me to think of the huge quantities people gorge themselves on. Am I the only person not to buy Quality Street, mince pies and Christmas cake?

Christmas Eve we go out for dinner and Boxing Day we go out for lunch somewhere , so my food shopping at Christmas is just like any other day.

Do him a Pizza with a few mini pigs in blankets on it.

Do something you like.

We have a traditional dinner but without any pork and instead served with spring rolls.