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

@Hoolihan

Way too much food. Does anyone really want a bowl of soup before a massive roast?? Would lose the gammon, mash, peas and sweetcorn AT LEAST. Where's the bread sauce??

This. You're making life very hard for yourself. There is no need for a starter on Xmas day.

And 6 different types of veg, plus 2 types of potato? There's no need!

Keep it simple.

Definitely needs swede and ditch the sweet corn ! We never have a starter and a choice for dessert ie lemon tart,roulade and Christmas pudding!

@BelindaCinder

“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.

Exactly, I agree. Some people's food and drink choices look more like they are opening a Toby Carvery for the day.

I'm with the 'ditch the soup' crowd. I loooove soup, but we never have a starter before Christmas dinner. (Minimal) nibbles an hour or so before with drinks.

I also agree with others about the sweetcorn, but fair enough- you all love it! I've never understood the desire for mash as well as roast potatoes either. We only ever have Yorkshire puddings with beef and we only ever have turkey for Christmas Day, so I guess I would do them with your choice of meats.

I guess my main criticism is the un-Christmassyness of the dessert. Nothing very festive about STP. I do Christmas pud for those who like it and some kind of yule log for the rest (did a white chocolate and gingerbread one last year).

Until adulthood I had no experience of:

Yorkshire pudding
Bread sauce
Christmas pudding
Brandy butter
Anything with mint served with meat
Anything that looks like jam served with meat
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing made with meat

I'm not sure how much of this is because I'm Scottish and how much is just my own family traditions. We have oatmeal stuffing and thin gravy too, which were both new to my Scottish DP.

My mum always made a trifle, as did both my grannies but this might my family rather than a Scottish thing.

I'm Scottish but live in England. I never had bread sauce growing up, but love it now.

We didn't have turkey either (we had chicken, in the days when that was a special treat, not an everday meat), and therefore we also never had cranberry sauce.

Pigs in blankets were not something I'd heard of until recently, but we did have cocktail sausages.

Yorkshire puddings with anything other than roast beef seems odd to me. I love them, but they're very filling, and there's plenty of other filling stuff there already.

Not keen on red cabbage, so never have that.

Cauliflower cheese is lovely, but for me not really as a side dish with a very big filling meal, especially when time, energy, pans and oven space are at a premium, and it's significantly more washing up to do too.

For me, the essential vegetables are roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and carrots. I love roast parsnips but at a pinch could do without them. The others are the classics.

This is a lovely pud and quite festive, and dead easy, have done it on Boxing Day before. The kids loved it as much as the adults.

I poached the pears in red wine first though rather than using tinned pears.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/squidgy-chocolate-pear-pudding

Yorkshire puddings with Christmas dinner? You people are all mad.

@MorrisZapp

Until adulthood I had no experience of:

Yorkshire pudding
Bread sauce
Christmas pudding
Brandy butter
Anything with mint served with meat
Anything that looks like jam served with meat
Pigs in blankets
Stuffing made with meat

I'm not sure how much of this is because I'm Scottish and how much is just my own family traditions. We have oatmeal stuffing and thin gravy too, which were both new to my Scottish DP.

My mum always made a trifle, as did both my grannies but this might my family rather than a Scottish thing.

Until adulthood I never had a roast potato with Christmas dinner! We always had boiled as a kid. Miserable!

Are you me, gaspode? We never had turkey, we had 'two lovely hens' ie chicken. When we had cauliflower cheese it was a midweek main course, never a side dish.

We also had corn on the cob but that's just because it's my favourite :)

Mashed carrot and swede, plus extra mashed tatties.

Ditch sweetcorn and beef. Add red cabbage, Yorkies, gravy, cranberry sauce and either Christmas pud or trifle

Also ditch peas

Sounds lovely plenty of choice for everyone but I also would say more meat. Can’t believe you don’t like it next day. I don’t cook on Boxing Day it is a chose your own and either reheat 2nd Christmas Dinner or cold with salad/ sandwiches. Why not ask people to bring a plate then they can plate up left overs before going home cover in foil for BD. People on their own would love it, let them go first.
We always have turkey and gammon and lots of veg. I think sweetcorn and peas is ideal especially for the kids.

If they all like sticky toffee pudding then fine or you could make a trifle a day or so before.

If you go for Christmas mug or small bowls look at Portmerion Holly and Ivy. Good size for little ones. The small bowls could be washed up between and double up for sticky toffee pudding. I make mine as a tray bake in a Mary Berry tin as it is mark for portions. If you don’t want to make it buy Cartmel Sticky Toffee pudding, original. They won’t be able to tell unless they see the packaging. You can buy different sizes including large and they make others too.

A few years ago I wrote all the sizes/ amounts of meat and veg, fish etc in a journal and then comments of what the butcher had, too many, not enough. I can recommend it.

Have a lovely day.

@HarebrightCedarmoon I was speaking generally. Obviously I don’t know your dc. Lots of vegetarian alternatives to pigs in blankets exist and 16 and 12 are the perfect age to be helping parents help with cooking. It sounds like you do too much.

I think soup is totally fine as a starter (spiced parsnip is also a good choice) but I would serve in a soup plate not a mug and wouldn’t add the creme fraiche so that it’s less filling.

I think 3 meats is unnecessary work for you. I’d ditch the beef and stick with bigger joints of turkey and ham, that also means people will stop mentioning Yorkshire puddings!

Veg wise it needs red cabbage and cauliflower cheese.

Don’t any of you like Christmas pudding? I would do that as the default pudding and STP for anyone who doesn’t like it.

Sweet corn on a Christmas dinner? Tell me, do you put ketchup out on the Christmas table too? 🤭

I’d be disappointed with soup as a Christmas Day starter it’s a bit depressing, same with the dessert. Do a Google image search for ‘Traditional Christmas Day dinners’ for some festive inspiration.

It's so interesting to see what everyone's 'norms' are.

Glad I started the thread, I will definitely be serving the soup in little mugs an hour or so before the main so that was a great tip and I will get another option for dessert.
I might consider ditching one of the meats but honestly for me I'd ditch the Turkey as I think it's really overrated, but I think people will expect Turkey.

I can understand the peas and sweetcorn if they’re for fussy kids who won’t eat other veg, otherwise I’d ditch those.
And the mash - surely roast is plenty, as long as there are enough?

2lb joints are pretty small anyway, and will shrink in cooking and IMO look decidedly stingy on the table. I’d go for 2 bigger ones instead. Small joints are also a PITA to carve.

To me a Christmas dinner must include a Christmas pudding, brought to the table in all its flaming glory. Plus brandy butter. So much as I like sticky toffee pud, I wouldn’t be happy about that.

Far too much for me. We don't have a starter as it fills us up. We do roast chicken and Xmas pud later in the evening.

But i suspect we're in minority!!

@Hdhdjejdj I do make a lot of effort with the food at Christmas but absolutely love doing it.

@lawofdistraction

I think I would feel genuinely upset at the sight of sweetcorn and peas at Xmas lunch

For the love of goodness, why? The OP is providing quite a lot of choice, and some of this is probably as a result of special requests from the kids and their parents. Good on her for catering for all tastes.

Bet she's regretting asking for opinions now!

I wouldn't want the soup, if I'm having a starter I like it light. However, my grandfather used to always insist on a soup starter at Christmas.

I always have Brussel sprouts, Yorkshire puddings, sausage meat and a choice of puddings. I like sweetcorn but not with Christmas dinner unless my children want it.

I'd lose the beef (controversially) and have more turkey and ham.
Both these meats go well with a lighter gravy, spiced red cabbage, bread sauce, cranberry and all the other accompaniments you have already included whereas beef needs a deeper gravy, horseradish, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire puddings to make it traditionally festive.

I agree that the soup is more filling than than required but a choice of puddings would be nice. Consider a wandering canapé or amuse Boucher instead of a starter for adults only before you get to the table so that the dc don't fill up before the main event!

It looks delicious! I really must start planning our own!

Well apparently there's going to be a turkey shortage this year so don't worry OP, that decision might be made for you!

I agree that one big roast, good quality and beautifully cooked, with really lush sides, is more appealing than a huge number of dishes you'll go crazy trying to cook all at once

I love the idea of a wandering canapé*

*What is a wandering canapé?