What will be on your plate Christmas day?

[Renovirgin2018]

We are hosting for the first time. There will be 8 of us in total. We usually have m&s turkey, ham, pigs in blankets, red cabbage, carrots, roasties and roasted parsnips. In all honesty I have been a little underwhelmed by m&s when taking in to account their prices so was wondering if there is a better alternative?

So please tell me, what's on your plate and where do you buy it?

Whatever my parents buy 😂 no this year it's just gunna be my parents and me and my bf xmas day. My mum's veggie and my bf is pescatarian. I think theyre having some kind of fancy veggie filo pastry pie type thing and I imagine my stepdad and I will have duck. Plus all the veggies and trimmings.

We usually have beef. For 8 we go for a whole fillet (from our local farm shop butchers).
With it we have:

• Roast potatoes and parsnips.
• Pigs in blankets, yorkies (my son would just have the pigs in blankets and the yorkies if we let him)
• Carrots, Savoy cabbage, maybe red cabbage and apple if we were organised enough to make ahead. Ditto mashed carrot and swede.
• A fancy nut roast stuffing thing with chestnuts and cranberries in both as stuffing and in case SIL decides on the day she’s suddenly veggie. She is Apparently a “flexitarian”, which is much less annoying now we do the nut roast/stuffing, I really don’t mind genuine dietary requirements, whereas I really do mind prepping a veggie meal purely for someone who then tucks in to the beef...
• horseradish sauce

The veg are all local veg box (they deliver, similar price to marks or Waitrose and fresher and all organic). Pigs in blankets same Farm butcher as the beef. Store cupboard stuff is all Aldi.

Agree about the side dishes from m&s but their turkey is the best. I get the stuffed crown as no-one eats the leg, and bigger than needed for leftovers. Red cabbage and sprouts were from Sainsbury's last year and were great!

I make my own so veg etc from asda prepped however I fancy. I wouldnt usually buy side dishes as they can be made in advance and the heated, just as you can heat m&s braised red cabbage you can heat your own. However I have leafed through the "cook" catalogue and some of their bits do look tempting!

Turkey, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, roast carrots, parsnips, sprouts, stuffing, cauliflower cheese, gravy, cranberry sauce. Now I've typed it out it sounds a bit much 😬 might have a bit of mash as well.

Oops sorry...forgot to say where from. I buy the turkey and pigs in blankets from the local butchers and get the veg from Tesco. I always prep it all from scratch but I'm tempted to try some frozen roast potatoes this year...I have 12 coming and limited oven space.

*Sainsbury’s slow cooked turkey
*Pulled gammon (I make this the day before in the slow cooker with full fat coke, bay leaves, star anise, and a chopped onion)
*Garlic and rosemary roast potatoes
Yorkshire puddings (M&S)
*Pigs in blankets (M&S)
*Sausage meat, sage and chestnut stuffing (I get my sausage meat from the local butcher)
*Cauliflower cheese (M&S)
*Red cabbage (M&S)
*Broccoli
*Sprouts
*Mashed carrot and swede
*Bread sauce and cranberry sauce (M&S)
*Gravy

We will be in America. Surprisingly we do the food shop just a couple days before. Turkey, parsnips, carrots, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, roast potatoes, beans, cranberry sauce, bread sauce (not normal for America), stuffing. Missing are pigs in blankets (again not common). For starters I think I'll make chicken and pork terrine with pistachios and cranberries, served with toasted pita. Dessert will be Christmas cake (brought over from here) and apple crumble. We'll have a ham on Boxing Day (not a holiday there).
It's my favourite meal of the year, if I was there we'd have the same on Thanksgiving.

Roast lamb, potatoes, Yorkshire puddings (lots!) Peas,carrots, sprouts, courgettes,cabbage, mint sauce and LOADS of gravy

Too much.

There 5 adults and 4 kids in our house.
We have Turkey (usually frozen from any random supermarket). It always tastes the same imo if you cook it properly (sniff)
Stuffing. Old family recipe. Breadcrumbs and Paxo.
Jamie's get ahead gravy, going easy on the star anise.
Boiled ham, done the day before.. Half served as is, half roasted with honey and cloves/mystard/maple syrup.
Potatoes. Gratin. Roast. And used to be boiled, before the game changer, those microwave bags of baby pots.
Plain green cabbage. Dont bother with sprouts anymore since the time MIL caught me cursing and banging and helped me tip them into the bin laughing that no one likes them anyway. Plus my crew like something plain and simple seeing as everything else is tarted up.
Roast carrots and parsnips.

Before I heard the concept of 'resting' your meat, it was like a slapstick show in the kitchen. But no longer. When the Turkey is cooking you prep everything else. When the Turkey is 'resting' you cook/roast all the veg. And the resting makes all the bloody difference, the turkey always lovely and moist.

I've done it 5 or 6 years now. I'm at the stage now where I can make a nice Christmas dinner while teetering on drunkenness.

It's easy for me as no one has dietary requirements or simmering undercurrent resentments.

Turkey
Roast potatoes
Parsnips
Sprouts
Bread sauce made from packet mix
The following ready made
Sage and onion stuffing
Pigs in blankets
Red cabbage and apple
Cranberry sauce
Bisto

Pudding
Ready made Christmas pud with brandy cream
Another option for non xmas pud eaters

Turkey - probably a local butcher or supermarket as we haven't ordered anything this year - might end up being a duck or goose
Stuffing - HM involving breadcrumbs (already in freezer from ends of lovely crusty loaves), superquinn sausage meat (from local supermarket), onions, garlic, (already have both), herbs (supermarket visit weekend before)
Roast potatoes in goose fat - supermarket and already in fridge
Roasted carrots, parsnips and onions - supermarket online order, already have honey, need a clementine and some herbs from walking into supermarket and local delis weekend before
Brussels sprouts with bacon lardons - online order and Lidl
Gravy - bisto powder (already have), turkey stock (HM, in freezer), splosh of wine
Maybe some petits pois peas (already in freezer)
Possibly some mashed potatoes (DD is going through an "I hate roast dinners" phase again - supermarket potatoes, butter, cream/milk, seasoning) - or something else to make sure DD will eat a dinner (possibly involving local deli or M&S)

Cheese board - local cheesemonger, local deli, (and maybe one from a work trip overseas next week) and already have crackers from a nice deli a couple of weeks ago

Dessert of some sort - M&S, local supermarket/deli, or from my kitchen cupboards....

I have the general, normal weekly shop organised as an online delivery for 19th, and that includes enough veg etc for the Christmas period. I will probably get a sack of potatoes this coming weekend when I brave an actual shop.
We have some lovely delis local to us, which are very busy but we have time to visit over the weekend before Christmas.
I have to go to work on 24th, DD will come with me and DH will meet us afterwards, which is right next to a large M&S with a large foodhall that is manically busy early on 24th but surprisingly quiet from mid-morning onwards (we've visited it many, many Christmas Eves to know this!!) so we have often got some lovely things then when we are in buying DD's birthday cake (I am NOT baking cake on 26th!) and party nibbles.

Turkey- either m and s if I can be bothered to go or asda.
Stuffing - regular and gluten free, probably paxo mixes, fried!
Pigs in blankets, ton of, asda extra special so gluten free
Broccoli, cauliflower cheese (last year I forgot about it and left it in the oven, only remembered half way through dinner)
Honey Roast parsnip and carrot
Roast potatoes- homemade in goose fat

Pudding will be kept in the middle chocolate puddings or Christmas pudding.

Christmas cake and cheese board. Not sure if starter or not, probably not.

Think there are 7 or 10 of us depending if mil, fil and bil decide to come, they haven't confirmed yet.

Turkey crown wrapped in bacon
Roast potatoes
Roast parsnips
Carrot barons
Peas
Cauliflower cheese
Braised red cabbage
Homemade gravy
Bread sauce
Homemade cranberry sauce
Pigs in blankets

Pudding is trifle and Christmas pudding

We get our goose frozen, from Aldi or LIDL. Just as good as the expensive fresh ones we used to buy. We also do a glazed ham; we buy that wherever we find one that appeals - Sainsbury’s, more often than not. Most of the trimmings are bought from Aldi as that’s where we do the majority of our shopping, but we’ll pick up bits and bobs at whatever supermarket we decide to shop at in the weeks leading up to Christmas. This year we aren’t shopping at M&S because we’re boycotting, which is a shame because I do like them for some of our festive food. Waitrose is also off the table so we’ll have to see where we’re going to get whiskeys/brandy/etc from.

This year we’re actually buying very little in the way of snacks/treats and instead we’re baking our own treats and preparing even more of the food than we used to (we used to get at least one or two prepared sides such as pigs in blankets and braised red cabbage).

On Christmas Day it will just be me and my OH so we will have steak with duchess potatoes and a Brussels sprouts side. We’ll do the ham as well so we can have that to nibble on with cheese, chutney etc. We’re doing our big feast on NYE which will be a goose with apple and prune stuffing plus a load of sides, at least four or five veg, although we haven’t decided on the specifics yet. If we do turkey we much prefer just the standard sage and onion stuffing, but we usually upgrade to a fancier one.

2 adults and 2 DC and we're having a Poulet de Bresse chicken with roast potatoes, honey roasted carrots and parsnips, Brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings and gravy.

Pudding is a Waitrose chocolate torte.

Lamb, butchers
Roast potatoes, a la me!
Roast carrots and parsnips with mustard and honey, me
Boiled carrots
Little sausages with bacon, Aldi probably
Savoy cabbage maybe
Brussels sprouts and bacon
Red cabbage and apple
Pickles onions (Christmas must for me)

Roast turkey,
glazed ham
traditional stuffing (bread, onion, herbs and butter, i cannot stand sausagemeat in stuffing )
roast potatoes,
marrowfat peas (it's the law!)
spiced red cabbage
maple roast parsnips
glazed carrots
homemade cranberry sauce
gravy

Dessert - sherry trifle (again, it's the law!), Christmas pudding, some chocolate thing (for dd)

Relishing this year as although hosting for 10, there are no under 13s or vegetarians or gluten free etc which we usually have.

So number 1 - we are eating later at about 5. Plan to be shitfaced by then. Will do some homemade sausage rolls, mince pies and seafood nibbles to line the stomach a little.

Number 2 - have put talented chefs MIL and SIL to good use and they are bringing homemade contributions:

Turkey
Gravy
Cranberry compote (v boozy)
Bread sauce
Roast potatoes
Roast parsnips
Sprouts
Carrots
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing balls

Christmas pudding
Brandy butter
Yule log/similar for teens

Cheese later 9ish

Sigh this thread makes me so happy.