Come and Critique my Christmas Menu

[Kendodd]

Breakfast
Fruit salad, croissants, yoghurt, coffee and posh juice.

Mid morning snack ???? Ideas please

Lunch
Starter- Not sure, maybe prawn cocktail in a filo pastry case with some salad leaves, any other ideas?
Main- Roast turkey, home made stuffing, roast potatoes and honeyed parsnips, sprouts with chestnuts, mashed carrot, swede and garlic, red cabbage, pigs in blankets, gravy, white and cranberry sauce.
Pudding- Christmas pudding with the usual sides.

Evening snacks- Cheese board, gala pie, chocolate log, mince pies, fruit, nuts

Sounds pretty boring actually.

Any suggestions for a starter? What are you having?

[InTheRedCorner]

Wtf is a firepit?

[Confusedbyyou]

A glorified bonfire

[CressidaMontgomery]

Howling at port for the men

[DisappointedHorse]

Breakfast: Eggs Benedict & Prosecco
Pick at Christmas sweets during the day
Dinner: Fillet of beef Wellington (rare)' sprouts and chestnuts, stuffing, carrots, red cabbage, roast potatoes, gravy, pigs in blankets for those that want them. Followed by Christmas pudding and cream.

I usually do dinner late so SDD can eat with her mum too.

Port for everyone!

[InTheRedCorner]

Arf

[Mellowandfruitful]

Bacon and egg sandwiches and bucks fizz (for adults obv.) for breakfast.

We don't do starters before lunch but I like the idea of spreading out the courses so have the starter at 12 then the main at 2. We have done this when hosting other meals (e.g. friends over for dinner at weekend).

Evening is turkey sandwiches for those who want them, picking at the remains of dinner (cold roasties and mayo, mmm) and cheese and biscuits plus the selection boxes.

[HeyJudith]

Inthe issa little flat round metal outdoor coffee table thing that burns charcoal....

For the evening eaters - I have always liked the thought of it but on the one year we did it, it seemed as though we spent all day waiting for the "main event", then by the time it arrived, people were a bit fed up waiting by then, plus had snacked during the day so the appetite wasn't there for a big meal.... nobody felt like pudding etc.... so the following year we went back to our 2pm meal leaving plenty of evening time for picky bits and charades, and then coffee/hot choc and tin of chocs and Christmas night TV... ahh perfect :)

[Bunbaker]

I agree HeyJudith. We have eaten Christmas dinner in the evening a couple of times and it always felt a bit of an anticlimax, plus we were too full to enjoy a decent night's sleep. I hate going to bed feeling absolutely stuffed.

[tracypenisbeaker]

noone has mentioned mulled wine! i've never tried it

[Bunbaker]

OH thinks that mulling wine is a waste of a perfectly good bottle of wine. He hates mucked about wine. On the other hand IMO you can't beat a nice mulled wine at a bonfire party

[Hinty]

In the last few years I have made this winter fruit compote for Christmas breakfast to go with yoghurt. Makes a nice change from fruit salad. We might also have toasted pannetone.

We'll be having smoked salmon blinis and parmesan biscuits and maybe some other canapes with bucks fizz at about 12pm.

Main meal will be at about 5pm - some sort of pheasant/partridge casserole with all the classic Christmas dinner trimmings. This is an attempt to make the whole dinner slightly easier because it already comes with gravy. Then Christmas pudding.

Various chocolates throughout the day.

Cheese and biscuits later with port for everyone, even the ladies.

[campocaro]

When I was a bolshy teenager at the end of Christmas dinner my uncle asked in a very posh voice "Would the ladies like to withdraw?"
I said no, I´ll have some port please
Awkward

[campocaro]

Love the idea of pheasant casserole
None of us like turkey
Each year DH, DD and I cook one course each.
It has been intersting but fun and usually delicious over the years.
DH always cooks duck for starter or main.
DD once did macaroni cheese. She did a beautiful quality street torte last year.
This year Duck breasts in bitter orange sauce for starter (DH), Main-DD hasnt decided yet. Pud Jamie Oliver´s panettone chocolate and ice cream bombe here

[Kendodd]

Don't you lot be disin my gala pie, it is the hight of sophistication I tell you, the hight!

[BeaLola]

We have croissants and champagne for breakfast sometimes with smoked salmon and scrambled egg -DS is allowed his choice - last year he went for a chocolate spread sandwich (he was 5) which my DH christmassed up by cutting into very small canape size squares and dusting with edible gold gliter - DS loved it.

Mid morning is more champagne as family arrive.

Lunch - 3 courses spread out -for starters usually seafood - last year DH made a crab bisque which was scrummy. In the past have had garlic and ginger prawns, salmon mousse , oaked smoked salmon. We have turkey with all the trimmings and for desert a slither of christmas pud with a mini mince pie or cheese and. Biscuits. After lunch which finishes at 4/5pm we have champagne cocktails made to my Dads honed recipe and later in evening after present opening if anyone wants anything it is turkey sandwiches or picky things.

[Bunbaker]

Compared to most of you we seem to eat very sparingly (although it feels like a lot to us). As there are only three of us having a choice of starters/puddings isn't worth it.

[HeyJudith]

tracy we do mulled wine at our pre-Christmas drinks and canapes get-together, but never on Christmas day itself - that's champagne cocktails, wine and port :)
N.B :
If I was reading about someone else's mulled wine at their pre-Christmas drinks and canapes get-together then my teeth would be itching at how pretentious it sounded.... but it is actually what happens and it's not pretentious (honestly)!

[HeyJudith]

PS The champagne cocktails are a special request from my 95 year old grandmother every year! She doesn't drink any other time of year but she is partial to a champagne cocktail on Christmas day! She's a game old bird :)

[smellylittleorange]

I'm gonna buy some Port this year just so I can sozzle half the bottle in a kind of rebellion against Port for Men - pah !

Breakfast - chocolate ( selection box) , pain au choc etc DH has cereal incase he "ruins" his appetite for dinner , Clementines

snacky bits before dinner usually japanese crackers/nuts etc

Dinner usually at MIL includes lots of different stuffing balls - Starters I do in past have been , prawn cocktail, potted crab, duck pear pomegranate and walnut salad, smoked salmon in honey mustard dressing. Last year we had a lot of kids around so I did Mozarella with Cherry Toms on Pesto spread bruschetta - you could even cut them into christmas tree shapes!

Pudding - Heston hidden Orange with lots of Booze , cream and butter !

Long walk by the sea then in evening Turkey Sarnies with Crisps etc - far too much really.

Kendodd I love Gala Pie

[beanandspud]

Loving the port round the firepit

We have bacon rolls, fruit and coffee for breakfast.

Champagne whilst opening presents and then mince pies or nibbles.

Walk in the afternoon, possibly via the local pud for a quick drink!

Dinner is at 5pm so that it's dark (I love candles at the table and the curtains closed etc.) but early enough for DS to not be shattered. No starter but Christmas pud afterwards even if it's just a small token helping.

We play games on Christmas evening so usually have cheese and biscuits around 9pm for anyone that wants a snack and hasn't polished off half a tin of celebrations

[QuickQuickSloe]

Sorry kendodd I was just imagining more bunting or something.

[OctoberMoon]

Oh love this thread!

OP, your menu sounds gorgeous, besides christmas pud, I don't like it.

Breakfast in our house is sausage sandwiches, pain au chocolat, croissants, fresh fruit & cream, tea/coffee/pure orange and champagne. Will also have some mulled wine on the go.

Dinner, served around 3.30pm is Jamie Oliver turkey and Jamie Oliver pork and chestnut stuffing, garlic & rosemary roasties, yorkshire puddings, mashed potatoes, honey roasted chantennay carrots/parsnips, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese, broccoli, peas and turkey gravy.

Dessert is a chocolate based cake with bailey's pouring cream. Thinking of getting those M&S chocolate christmas tree desserts this year.

After dessert I get the cheese board out and also the baileys.

Around 8.30pm I do a little M&S buffet.

[GoldenGytha]

Up until last year, the DC and me always went to my parents, and it was usually awful,

Starter: Bowl of Broth (which I hate)

Main : Roast Beef (which I love) but my mother carefully measures the slices, to make sure her and my dad get the biggest ones, carrots and peas (tinned) Yorkshires, and the thinnest most watery cheap gravy you could imagine. Aunt Bessie's Roast Tatties.

Dessert : Christmas Pudding for me, trifle for parents and DD2, Ice Cream for DD1.

And that's it, the portions are miniscule, we always come away from the table starving, no other veg is allowed, my mother tried parsnips once, and my dad told her off for buying "That weird stuff, Dinna gie mi that again, weird forrin stuff"

No other food was was ever offered, and don't dare ask for an extra slice of beef, which is quite easy as the stuff she buys is often like a scrag end full of gristle.

My parents are very wealthy, but Christmas Dinner in their house is an ordeal.

OP, I'm coming to your house this year, I wouldn't eat anything fishy, so prawns and lobster are out, and I've never had Roast Turkey as a meal, so might be something different.

I love Gala Pie too

[JerseySpud]

i love port especially with brandy in it!

[EverythingUnderControl]

Port with brandy in it? Blimey that sounds nice like rocket fuel.