Going out for Christmas Day dinner

[MsMiaWallace]

I know it's early but yesterday I noticed a menu in a carvery to Book for Christmas dinner.

It got me thinking & I think I'd actually quite like it. Yes it's expensive but no stress etc.

Does anyone else just eat out for Christmas Day dinner?
Do you recommend?

We've eaten out on Christmas Day for years. Usually at our local Indian restaurant. We can walk down, eat huge delicious portions, have a few drinks and relax.

Chain restaurant for soggy veg and reheated frozen stuff? No way.

Nice independent restaurant? Definitely.

We've eaten out on Christmas Day for years. Usually at our local Indian restaurant. We can walk down, eat huge delicious portions, have a few drinks and relax.

I would absolutely looooove to have a Christmas dinner tradition like that. But everyone else is very attached to the idea of a traditional Christmas dinner. I just really can't understand it at all. It's just one absolute faff of a meal to prepare, a total time sink on what should be a fun day, and all for a fancy version of the same roast dinner that we eat all the time anyway. I'd way prefer a really really good Indian meal, so delicious and not something I can really replicate myself. While also being reasonably confidant that I'm not ruining anyone's favourite family holiday because the staff/owners are not likely to have strong feelings about Christmas and appreciate the business.

I don't understand why people think Christmas dinner is such a faff. It's just a glorified roast, though maybe they never do roasts anyway. Though I can see it'd be a major faff if you absolutely must have 6 different veg and 3 different lots of spuds, plus Yorkshire pud on top.

I came on to suggest eating somewhere where the staff are likely not to do Christmas themselves. Probably better food and not hiked-up prices, and the staff won't (hopefully!) be grumpy.

Having said that, I worked not Christmas but New Year's Eve in a bar a couple of times in my youth and got double time/good tips/knocked off early, so the staff might not have it all that bad.

I don't understand why people think Christmas dinner is such a faff. It's just a glorified roast, though maybe they never do roasts anyway.

I was the only one to call Christmas dinner a faff and did so in the same sentence where I said we have roasts all the time, so............... It's just a roast dinner. It's a massive pain in the arse on the day where I just really want to enjoy my child and chill out. And tbh, in terms of culinary enjoyment, I'd prefer a tuna casserole, tacos/quesadillas, delicious comfort food that can be thrown together in 5-10 minutes with no need to worry about timings. No need to have one part of your brain thinking about when you have to baste, put on the veg, check the potatoes, instead of just being able to lose yourself in the moment.

And what do you get for your effort. A roast dinner. It's meant to be a treat but it's just a fancier version of the same dinner you eat twice a week. I do get just how special it was for my grandparents' generation and beyond. But now? In this time where we can eat whatever we want, whenever we want. How is a roast dinner any sort of treat? It just isn't. It's bog standard.

Totally agree trancepants
Same with buying tubs of shit chocolate at Xmas. It was exciting in the 60s to have a tin of Quality St but not now.

We did it one year, picked a particular table as F in Law can not hear with lots of background noise. Went to the restaurant and explained this.
Sat at our table that we had picked got moved to a room where f I law couldn't hear, as we were with another large family group 20 of them, four of us, so felt we were interrupting their party, ended up almost in a corridor.
Yes less faff by going out, but other people and bad service didn't make up for it.

I love going out for dinner on Xmas day, I go to our favourite Indian. I feel it breaks the day up nicely and the only time anyone has to go in the kitchen is to grab some chocolate.

Same with buying tubs of shit chocolate at Xmas. It was exciting in the 60s to have a tin of Quality St but not now.

I refuse to buy the big tubs of chocolate. Especially since Cadburys was bought by Mondelez and the chocolate went to shit. I last did it a few years ago and honestly, they tasted horrible and no-one really wanted to eat them. It sort of became something to do because you had to, rather than a treat. For the last two years I've just bought small packets/bars of treats that I actually really, really like. I put them in Christmas tins/jars and leave those out.

I tend to buy myself something really expensive that I love and would never buy all year, like dark chocolate truffles. (And hide them in my bedside drawer.) It's more expensive per gram than a tub of Miniature Heroes but much more enjoyable and special.

For those of you feeling sorry for the staff. I did waitress one Christmas at uni through an agency. It was very well paid and set me up for Jan so I wouldn’t assume they don’t want to be there.

Yes a pain to be away on Christmas Day but it is only one day.

I know the younger staff mightn't mind too much about working, though some will. But there needs to be senior staff on duty as well. I have a friend who is a chef and she works in a restaurant that does Christmas dinners. So at least every second Christmas, she has to leave her young children and go to work. This sometimes involves waking one of them on Christmas morning so she can see them get up and see what Santa brought. Then leaving quite soon after so she can get started on food prep before the customers arrive.

The dinner costs a fortune so a lot of the customers are mardy if they don't feel it meets their expectations so it can be a very unpleasant work day. She gets home in the evening exhausted but desperate to catch up on what she's missed with her kids. She hates it but it's a requirement of the job, so she feels stuck with it. So just because most of the staff that customers interact with are late teens/early 20s, it doesn't mean that they are the only ones working. Plenty of people are leaving their kids to come to work and it's a grim day for them.

I have never eaten out on Christmas Day as I’m always a bit concerned that the food and service can’t be guaranteed, particularly when you spend so much on it. However, I always order from M&S. No prep required and very little time in he kitchen means a lovely day with the family.

We did once. It was a gift from a family member who was celebrating a significant birthday. It was special to them because it was the first time they'd ever eaten out in a restaurant on their birthday and the first time in their lives that they'd been able to have something other than Christmas turkey dinner for their birthday meal. It was in a lovely restaurant, beautifully cooked and presented, and we all enjoyed it. The staff in the restaurant told us that they got paid triple time as well as a paid day off on Boxing Day (restaurant closes for Boxing Day) over and above their holiday entitlement. They said always more staff volunteered to work than not.
Would I do it again? Probably not, just because I like the relaxation of being in my own home, however, we don't usually have 'traditional ' Christmas dinner now, purely because I used to feel so much pressure to get that one roast dinner perfect that I ended up hating it. After our Christmas meal out, Dh noticed the difference in me that year and now we do what we want for dinner, not what everybody else seems to think we should do. X

Did this once with in laws and actually cried at the table it was so ghastly. However can see the appeal if you really like the venue.

Agree with the suggestion of buying everything as prepared as possible - either M&S or Tesco do loads as well. Quick Turkey crown and chuck all the other pre prepared stuff in for 30 minutes