Am I doing christmas dinner wrong?

[PizzaPasta]

I'm hosting for the first time this year. (For 12 )

Mil asked what the menu was and was shocked that I wasn't having mash potatoe or Yorkshire puddings.

I haven't decided about Yorkshires yet but if I do I will make them in advance, open freeze then put into a freezer bag.
They just need 4 mins in the oven as you're putting the food out and much much nicer than Aunt Bessie's

Good god do people really ask exactly what they are having for Christmas dinner, as a guest in someone else's house, on the 16th November ?????

Bloody hell.

To answer the question, when I have had guests at Christmas I have asked them "is there anything that you have for Christmas dinner that you just HAVE to have, ie, it won't be Christmas dinner without it?" because I want them to enjoy it. But I wouldn't expect them to tell me unasked and even if they did, not on the 16th of sodding November.

Mash is for pies, or with bangers. Yorkshire puddings are with beef. She is clearly insane.

Christmas lunch = Roast potatoes, veg of choice (eg sprouts, parsnips, red cabbage, carrots), bacon wrapped chipolatas, stuffing, turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread sauce. How on earth there is space on a plate for sodding mash and Yorkshire puddings beggars belief. Tsk.

Can I confess that I don't really get yorkshires? They just don't taste of anything?

Hate to say we do mash and Yorkshire puddings to go with everything else. Also do red cabbage and chestnuts as well

There's room on the plate for mash and Yorkshires because they are far nicer than parsnips, red cabbage and bread sauce none of which I would do if it wasn't for the fact that others like them.

We have seasoned puddings for starters (add chopped onion, sage and thyme to Yorkshire pub batter, then cook as Yorkshires) with gravy.

My mum (from Yorkshire) always did these with pork or chicken etc.

Yorkshire were only with beef, and lamb - just mint sauce, etc, and only in the Spring!

Calling Yorkshire puddings, yorkies is just wrong. It jars and sounds effected. I think it is a MN thing and not something that anyone says in real life.

I do mash and roasties on Christmas Day but would do Yorkshire puddings if not doing too much else as in everything is going well and is under control, but I don't do them every Sunday either so it is on a day by day basis.

We had toad in the hole today for lunch

You are not doing it wrong at all.

The essential components are as follows:

turkey, chipolatas wrapped in bacon, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, sprouts, carrots.

Optional extras are as follows:

a third or fourth veg, one of which might be braised red cabbage, and bread sauce.

Mashed potatoes are completely superfluous unless you are American/Canadian, and Yorkshire puddings with turkey and stuffing are an abomination. Seriously, how many carbs do you need on one plate?

HTH.

Well, they do taste, but you soak them in gravy, pizza. They're all lovely crispyness against beef gravy. Mmm ...

See, if I were doing a big joint of beef for Christmas, they'd be right there. But beef doesn't make a crispy skin the way non red-meat roasts do, so it needs a bit of contrast.

Oh my god I forgot the parsnips!

they are on the essential list, obviously.

that sounds lovely...more than enough.

everyone here loves roasties so we always have them. I tend to fancy up the veg a bit for christmas so we do have mash, but as colcannon

then it's cheesy leeks, sprouts, some sort of carrot, roastie parsnips, cauli, maybe broccoli and some nice savoy cabbage (if i haven't gone with colcannon)

also all the bacony sausagey stuffingy things i can cram into the oven

and turkey (usually a crown) and roast pork, with crackling!

How do you do bubble and squeak for breakfast the next day if they isn't any left over mash? Always mash whatever the roast in our house. Christmas dinner will probably consist of the following

Turkey
Pigs in blankets
Sprouts
Roast carrots and parsnips
Cauilflower cheese
Roast potatoes
Mashed potatoes
Cranberry Sauce
Stuffing
Gravy
Gaviscon

No Yorkshires (I'm from Yorkshire), but the mash is non negotiable.

i forgot the cranberry sauce and the bread sauce.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE a christmas sarnie, jam packed with thinly slicced turkey and ham,cranberry sauce on one bit of bread, light slick of gravy on the other, and a spread of bread sauce between the turkey and the ham

.....drools

and a cold roast potato.

Well we will be having mash and Yorkies but that's because we are having beef this year.
I will still do everything else the same as the turkey dinner minus the bread sauce (yeuch) and the sprouts. Oh and probably no cranberry sauce! Although....it might be nice

Here's what I do:

Turkey (or goose):
cranberries and orange with turkey or apple sauce with goose.
Roast potates
Sprouts with chestnuts (bleugh) and fried almonds (lovely)
Carrots
Stuffing - with prunes and parsley with turkey or apricots with goose
Meat stuffing - pork and herbs with both
Gravy
Roast parsnips (my dad has to have these)
Roast baby onions
Possibly red cabbage stewed with spices with the goose.
Pigs in blankets, always with turkey but not always with goose
Chipolatas (again, with turkey but not goose as it's so much richer).

I cook with my mum, and whichever of us is taking the helm will always end up negotiating for more veg, so every year we have other things too, but only veg-wise.

(I'm purely posting this to get myself in a Christmas mood a month and a half early, not because I think it's in any way definitive).

We have to have sauerkraut at ours because DH and SIL's DF was Latvian.
All fine and dandy but do not steal all my crunchy bacon from the top of the bird to put in the vile stuff.

at the gaviscon, liver.

Gotta admit, I don't like eating too much at Christmas, and at my mum's, we'd always have a very minimal breakfast, then not much lunch, then very late dinner (sometimes with tea served on the table with a tablecloth - very posh! - in the middle). I always thought this was a wise choice and evidence of much forethought.

Turns out it was mum stressing out every year, but still ...

I've picked up the habit and quite like it.

OP your dinner sounds lovely - I love dauphinoise potatoes and would have them over mash any day (as long as I didn't have to cook them). Do what a pp suggested re the yorkshires and make them in advance, freeze them then just heat them up (4 mins at gas mark 6) on the day on a baking tray. I always have a stash of yorkshires here in the freezer and it works really well.

and a cold roast potato.

Cold roasties are the bee's knees. I always 'accidentally' make 'too many' and snaffle one or three every time I go to the fridge after Xmas dinner.

Your menu sounds great. Agree with mashed swede as standard.

Think cauliflower cheese doesn't go and is excessive but I guess you're trying to please someone with that. Also find dauphinoise with a roast and gravy a little odd - don't think creamy things go with gravy - but, they're very nice.

Our limiting factor is oven space. we have a normal oven and a half sized oven and wouldn't have space to do yorkies. I had no idea why you would want a second type of potato until I saw that yours was dauphinoise. I love dauphinoise, but haven't ever made it.

Yes to yorkshire puds with christmas dinner in this house!

We normally have:
Roast potatoes
Roast parsnip
Swede and parsnip mash
Sprouts with chestnuts and bacon
Braised red cabbage
Stuffing
Carrots
Minty peas
Turkey
Yorkshire pud
Gravy
Pigs in blankets
Cranberry sauce
Bread sauce
Mayonnaise for dn who is just weird!