Critique my Christmas dinner menu

[shouldistop]

We'll be feeding 8 adults & 4 children aged 1-7.

Starter: sweet potato & butternut squash soup (people can add chilli flakes or crème fraîche)

Mains:

2lbs Roast beef
2lbs Gammon cooked in cider
2lbs Turkey joint

Pigs in blankets
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Roast potatoes

Broccoli
Carrots
Parsnips
Sweetcorn
Peas
Sprouts

Dessert: sticky toffee pudding with either custard or ice cream

We usually have two meats then
Mash
Roast potatoes
Yorkshire puddings
Roasted carrots and parsnips
Cauliflower cheese if I can be bothered as only I like them
Sprouts with bacon lardons and chestnuts
Red cabbage if I remember
Probably another three veg
Stuffing
Gravy
Bread sauce
Mint sauce as DS likes it

Mince pies and cream, usually later
Christmas pudding
Pannetonne

And pigs in blankets of course. Already ordered them!!

OP much of this sounds great and of course have sweetcorn in you want and no Yorkshires (tho I would).

On the meat tho - yes, 6lb will feed 12 comfortably, but what if more than 4-5 ppl want turkey? IME they will. I would ditch one meat (I would make that the beef as cold gammon is always good to have around) and up the quantities of the other two, maybe 3lb gammon (that's only 1.5kg after all) and a 4-5lb turkey joint (if that's possible? I have only ever bought a whole bird) so there is for sure enough turkey for everyone, then gammon as well. If you have lots of gammon left, no bother, as I say, cold in sandwiches or salad, or yummy hot in a pie.

You may know that several people will have beef and not turkey etc in which case ignore me.

Forgot the Yule log. That as well and I will buy a small Christmas cake if ds2 wants it.

It’s not very festive. That could be any old roast 🤷‍♀️

Not sure what sweet corn or mashed potatoes are doing in there. And a thick soup would be too much imo.

That’s very little meat weight wise.

I'd have this www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/braisedsavoycabbagew_68087 or cauli/broccoli cheese (I'm lying, I'd have both) and I'd definitely get rid of the sweetcorn (?) and peas. This is supposed to be the best roast dinner of the year.

Baffled by all the people saying ditch the sweetcorn and peas, when the OP clearly gave the children's ages and she will obviously know what veg they like! We always have peas with Christmas dinner because when they were little neither of our children would eat sprouts, but they would have peas, so it gave them something green on the plate. We carry on by tradition.

Sounds fine, OP, if you've made a conscious choice not to have leftover meat. I like to have lots of that as I enjoy sandwiches, salad, pie, soup etc etc for ages afterwards, and I make sandwiches to put in the freezer for the New Year too, but that's what works for us. I wouldn't buy lots of meat if I wasn't confident it would all get eaten, as that would be wasteful.

Scrap the sweet corn, carrots, peas, gammon. Add in Yorkshire puddings, spiced red cabbage, cauliflower cheese

Christmas dinner is such a personal thing I don't think it's possible for other people to critique it.
We are in Scotland too and would never have Yorkshire pudding or Cauliflower cheese at Christmas. Bread sauce is not that common either - I've done it once but hate it. Surely the point of the meal is to make things that you know the people who are coming want - so if that's peas and sweetcorn then that's great. My ds does not like julienned carrots so I make some carrot rounds for him. To me that's what Christmas is about - catering for those you love.

Why do people order pigs in blankets? They are so easy to make.

I’ve never eaten a Christmas dinner with bread sauce. I think it’s a regional thing.

Because they want to?

Am I the only one thinking 3 kinds of meat, 2 kinds of potato, and 6 kinds of vegetable is crazy?

How big is your oven?? How many pots and serving bowls do you have??

I would scale down everything : )

Your dinner sounds really good. When I go to my parents its homemade soup for starters or melon or prawn cocktail. Turkey and gammon with toasties and various veg then trifle or cheesecake for pudding

Roasties not toasties but there's an idea for you

PP is right, you should have posted in the Scotsnet section, then you wouldn't have had all these posts about the waste of time that is bread sauce!

Oh I see you don't like cold meat. Humpf. Surely that's the whole point of Christmas?

Sounds lovely but where are the mince pies, Christmas pudding, whipped cream, brandy butter etc....

And much as I love cauliflower cheese, not with so much other filling food. I don't like it with gravy anyway.

I agree that it's a lot. We don't have so many different items and still have a lovely meal.

Why do people order pigs in blankets? They are so easy to make

Because as I'm making everything else from scratch I don't particularly want to spend time wrapping bacon around little sausages when the shop bought ones are exactly the same as if I did it myself. Plus I hardly ever eat meat so I don't particularly want to handle it more than I have to.

@clary

Oh I see you don't like cold meat. Humpf. Surely that's the whole point of Christmas?

Not if you don't eat meat. The point of Christmas to me is the cheeses. Little baby cheeses...

@HarebrightCedarmoon

Kids love making pigs in blankets. Train them to do it.

[quote Hdhdjejdj]@HarebrightCedarmoon

Kids love making pigs in blankets. Train them to do it.[/quote]
Mine are 16 and 12 and vegetarian. They really wouldn't love making pigs in blankets.

“Hmm maybe we'll get a second dessert but was planning to have chocolates later in the day. Maybe a lemon thing.”
Don’t listen to them. Have one pudding. It’s a family meal. The choice of puddings just builds up for a day or two as there are more and more leftovers.
It’s never occurred to me to do more than one pudding.