Does anyone here eat something other than a roast for Christmas Dinner?

[Xtraincome]

Was hoping to change the tradition of a big roast dinner at Christmas- I find them dull and uninspiring. If you cook another type of Christmas Dinner, what else do you cook and why?

If you have good remixes on a traditional dinner I would like to hear it too! Need inspiration.

We do a roast because we all like it and we (I mean dm and dsis) are really good cooks so it’s delicious. However I think as long as the meal is special to you it doesn’t matter. I don’t understand those people who claim to have frozen pizza and chips, but if an Indian takeaway is special to you, I think that’s great.

Yeah I have smoked salmon and ham with baked apples instead. This year I'm going to try a potato salad with accompaniments for lunch or dinner.
Some more alternative ideas
Biscuits, fish and tarts
Curry and yuletide cake with alcohol
Pork pies, ham sandwiches and mince pies
Christmas pudding, roasted potatoes and stewed pears
Roast chicken, spinach and leftover sausage rolls
Chinese style fried rice, soy sauce and won ton noodles
Quiche Lorraine, cookies and left over meat or fish
Pumpkin soup and cocktails
Baked apples with chicken and sweets for dessert
Salad and meat

This was a joke - yes? These are some of the weirdest combinations of food-stuffs I've ever seen suggested as a meal!

At first I thought maybe an American? (biscuits, yuletide, pumpkin soup) but surely too odd even then?

DD wanted crispy duck pancakes on Christmas Day last year. Followed by meringue with cream and fruit. Which I was happy to provide. All was very easy. We are not fans of turkey anyway. Or Xmas pudding. On Boxing Day I did a small roast but with leg of lamb. And Yorkshires. As I didn’t want to miss out altogether on the roast experience. Usually we are around lots and lots of family and full on Xmas dinner but COVID meant we didn’t do that and I enjoyed a smaller scaled down experience for once.

One year I decided to make 3 casseroles the day before. We had beef in red wine; morroccan chicken with almonds and apricots; and a chickpea/veggie tagine. On Christmas day, I then baked huge potatoes in the oven and we had a massive salad with garlic bread.

It was so good, I can't think why I've not done it again tbh...........

We have 'traditional' Christmas Dinner late afternoon on Christmas eve, then on the actual day we have left over cold meals, a cheese board, baguettes, chutneys, mince pies and all the other treats we fancy as and when throughout the day. So much easier and less stressful

We go out for Japanese. That is our tradition every year.

Gamerchick, we do the same, so much less stress, and not much washing up!

My Mum has had takeaway a couple of times but said it felt like Christmas was missing a bit.

So we do turkey but also beef fillet, a vegan option and there's a baked ham, usually cooked on the 23rd. With the number of veg and sides, you could have all sorts of combinations. Turkey with all the trimmings or beef with leeks in cheese sauce and braised cabbage or baked ham and honey glazed carrots with mash or cranberry and red pepper parcels with minted peas. I just put it all out and let people mix and match. There are usually 3 types of stuffing to complement the different mains, couple of different gravy options and sauces. I cater for a lot of people, do a lot of prep and my brother, Mum and DH also like to join in. It's really lovely.

Our best friends on the other hand have pizza!

@ShowOfHands that is quite epic! How many people do you feed? From 23rd to 26th December?

Quite a few! DH has 4 siblings, all with partners and children, I have my own siblings and nieces, 2 sets of parents, 4 grandparents, a great grandparent, an aunt, a second cousin, a couple of family friends and our best friends. We try and see them all across the days available to us.