Please share your Christmas dinner menu...

[LokiBear]

Disclaimer - I'm posting this on the Christmas thread. If it pops up on your active posts then please accept my apologies, roll your eyes at me and move on :)

I mentioned on another thread that it is our first time hosting Christmas and people gave some excellent suggestions about preparing good and freezing ahead of time. I'm going to have a trial run of preping and cooking in a few weeks - coinciding the practice with a special birthday dinner. Would you please share your menu? As a veggie I am most interested in the non turkey bits and the starter, as we do not normally have one.

Many thanks in advance :)

I'm in Australia.
Breakfast will be a full 'Australian' - which is basically a full English cooked on the BBQ and eaten outside.
Lunch. Starter will be oysters and smoked salmon blinis. Main course will be BBQ-ed - prawns that will be half the size of lobsters, steak, potato kebabs and a choice of 3/4 salads and home made bread. Pudding will be a massive batch of Christmas pudding ice cream.
Tea will be cheese and crackers and left overs.
Mum and Dad are coming over for December and I'm already excited about it!

Tricky this year. There will be 7 of us in the house for two weeks and one is a vegan, so have to think about christmas dinner. I don;t want her to be the odd one out having something different, but make some vegan and meat options that we all can share. We have some die hard carnivores too, Goose fat potatoes willb out.

I'm veggie, dp and dds not, and dp has crohn's disease and on a no sugar low fibre diet (pretty much just meat, bread, cheese and potatoes that he can eat). We normally have a shared starter of melted camembert with sliced bagette to dip (very easy to prep, just stick some garlic and rosemary in to the camembert and stick under the grill, and we use part cooked frozen bagettes).

For the main we'll have whatever meat dp wants, and he cooks that and yorkshires (not traditional but I like them - obviously made with veggie fat). I do the veg and I normally use the Delia Smith vegetarian book. My favourite is the roast veg and pecan strudel, and I also do mustard and honey parsnips, brussels (steamed in a bag in a microwave so they are still firm and not soggy), coriander carrots and roast potatoes. Everything can be prepped the night before so not too much to do Xmas morning.

Dp can't have pudding really so I generally have something premade and minimal effort, like hot choc pudding and cream.

Roasted squash and sweet potato soup with blue cheese sauce to start - massive hit last year
Prawn cocktail for those who don't like soup - DH's fussy younger brother I'm looking at you!
Turkey, rib of beef, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, maple roasted parsnips, carrots, sprouts (possibly in bacon this year), red cabbage, homemade cranberry sauce, make ahead gravy, maybe more veg, 3 types of stuffing (gingerbread, sage and onion and sausage meat)
Homemade Christmas pud and brandy sauce for dessert, and will need to find an alternative for those who don't like pud!
I'm already ridiculously excited about it!

attheendof

In our house, DH and I are vegetarian, I have a gallstone (which should be gone mid Nov/Dec all going well) and Ulcerative Colitis.

So no meat/fish/chicken (my choice and I have been vegetarian for 34 years) and no fat (aggrevates the gallbladder, probably even after it's gone)
No idea what hacks off the colitis - everything else I reckon >

So my lovely Christmas Dinner seems to be shrinking before my eyes-

yes I could say "It;s once a year, body I will control you not the other way round"
and end up writhing (on Christmas Day, no thanks)

Baked camenbert is gorgeous, but alas . no.
Same with roast potatoes and the spoonful of butter in the pureed swede.

Spending Christmas at my brothers in the US with my mum and two other brothers. This is our traditional meal we do every year (we alternate where everyone stays, last year it was at ours);

Whilst opening presents;
A cup of coffee or tea
Posh Champagne- yummy!
Chocolate supplied by host
Family's traditional mince pies homemade by me and my mum

Brunch;
Pancakes with fruit and maple and blueberry syrups. (Traditional for the kids)
St Lucia saffron buns (I'm quarter Swedish but feel more Swedish than that)
Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and chives (for the grown-ups)

Late lunch;
One main turkey, pigs in blankets, two stuffed partridges, a duck, brussell sprouts, carrots, swede, parsnip, kale, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, mum's homemade stuffing, roast chesnuts and a massive boat of gravy.

Pudding;
Christmas pudding for adults and chocolate pudding with chocolate sauce, raspberries and ice cream or double cream. Stewed apple and the gingerbread castle also avaliable.

Evening;
Leftovers if anyone's hungry, chocolate and hot chocolate.

All foods homemade, some premade and very hard work!

Breakfast: bacon sandwiches and/or cereal
Starter: Thomas pasta microwaved by my 2 year old
Main: some Turkey thing
Homemade veggie sausages in toad in the hole (I will do extra batter)
Roast potatoes
Mashed swede and carrot with nutmeg or cinnamon in
Roast parsnips
Pigs in blankets
Cauliflower cheese
Red cabbage
Sprouts done like what someone up thread suggested, sliced thin and sautéed with leeks
Stuffing
Pudding: Xmas pud, and whatever the toddler makes with his dad on Xmas eve
Tea: indoor picnic with leftovers and bubble and squeak