a slightly more 'grown-up' christmas dinner????

[UnicornsShitRainbows]

dd's are at their dads for christmas, and we are having mil here. so there will be no children except 15 year old ds2. i want to make christmas dinner a little more grown up if i can, any ideas would be great. thanks

Do you normally have a starter? Pate or soufflés to start would be a little fancy.

it varies. quite often. most of them wont eat pate, and i have never tried making souffle in my life (i dont entertain much)

What do you usually do for Xmas? Which elements are you wanting to make more adult?

I made cranberry and brie parcels for starters last year and they went down well.

Buy the Christmas crackers from Lovehoney.

, baroness is clearly bored this morning.
Candle lit table, seafood platter to start followed by a traditional roast or beef Wellington for a change?

dh has requested roast beef which is fine. we dont often have a starter. we cant have seafood as dh and db wont eat it.normal fare is roast meat (changing yearly), goose fat roasties, sweet potato mash, boiled carrots, parsnips and shallots roasted, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, yorkshire pud, sprouts and broccoli all with gravy. the only things that cant be fiddled with are the pigs in blankets, sweet potato mash, roasties and parsnips and shallots. all the rest is open to ideas

Do you usually boil the sprouts and broccoli? How about doing a fancy sauté type thing with chestnuts and butter and bacon?

Roast beef - second the Wellington idea; bit more special than just a plain joint (although plain joint also beautiful).

Other, lighter, starters if you do want them - melon and Parma ham, grilled goats cheese crottins with an onion marmalade and small salad, tiny cup of alcoholic soup...

Or some boozy extras - nice breakfast with Buck's Fizz or whatever you fancy, mulled wine later in the afternoon, that sort of thing?

Think it may be just a very small group of us this year. I'm thinking about tiny personal crackers (if I decide I can be bothered making them!), or doing something special (not sure what yet though) for the table.

Grown up card or board game if that's your thing?

Lunch sounds lovely. We don't do a sit down starter here, we have a tray of canapés around 1.5hrs before our main and a glass of prosecco or a gin cocktail.

Another vote for canapes and something alcoholic to wet appetites before the meal.

We usually to do salmon themed ones on Christmas day but there are so many you could do avoiding seafood.

Last year I did a variety of Christmas themed ones Christmas fruit cake slices cut into a disk with a thin slice of creamy Lancashire cheese topped with a cider brandy chutney.

Another current family favourite is a slice of chorizo topped with a small chunk mozzarella then a peppadew pepper stuffed with cajun spiced chicken. All baked for about 10 minutes in a hot oven, so the mozzarella sticks the pepper to the chorizo and the chorizo crisps slightly - served hot or cold.

Not that the above two would go well together.

Tiny yorkshire puds stuffed with a blob of horseradish and a chunk of beef can be a lovely appetising bite but may be too similar to the main.

Nicer table decorations, glasses etc if the little ones aren't there to potentially break them.

Having a more relaxed meal, not rushing because little ones are bored

Maybe a (slightly) boozy dessert

the little ones are 10 and 11, so no worry about breakages or boredom luckily. broccoli and sprouts do get boiled, to be honest the only reason i do sprouts at all is because ds1 insists. no one likes them except him, although its a tradition now that we do all have to eat at least one.

definitely liking the idea of a boozy dessert as long as it isnt sherry trifle (i would be the only one to eat it)