Christmas Day meal of "picky bits"

[PrinzessinCressida]

Do any of you do this instead of a full roast? What sort of things do you have? I've never done it but the idea has taken my fancy this year. I'm thinking stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, maybe even red cabbage or sprouts... so I guess most of the trimmings but not the meat. Is this a silly idea? Are there any other things that would go well, perhaps chicken tenders?

I think I’d find it a bit weird the way you suggest in your OP. A general buffet/ party food is a great idea though and we often do that. This year we are having a festive afternoon tea as our main meal

The term 'picky bits' reminds me of scabs.

Your thread title is deeply upsetting. Give us all the Christmas gift of never saying “picky bits” again

Just choose what you and your family/guests like to eat ... I have never seen sprouts on a buffet ...

Yes I think chicken tenders with roast potatoes and vegetables sounds naff.

I do a beef rib in the slow cooker overnight, served with some lovely bread. We also have stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, veg crudités, dips, crisps, nuts, pork pie, tempura prawns, chicken satay sticks, mozzarella sticks and a cheese board.

I used to do a full roast but after a few years of MIL being frankly rude, and one year encouraging DD to open her gifts while I was popping the oven on and making coffees I now refuse to!

We do afternoon tea.

Turkey and stuffing sandwiches, brie and grape sandwiches, mini brie and cranberry filo tarts, tomato and mozzarella salad arranged in a candy cane, sushi (bloody kids) etc. Then I do a minis platter of desserts, so mini mince pies, mini stollen bites, mini Christmas cupcakes.

It'll be more than that, but I just can't think that far ahead. I get out my cake stands and display everything.

Them in the evening, I just get out what was left and add in a cheeseboard. And a semi freddo for dessert.

We love it. We usually have our proper Christmas dinner on the Sunday afterwards, but when it falls on boxing Day, we do it on Nye, about 7ish. Lines the stomach well enough and we can sit round the dinner table playing games till 11 ISH when we then make a couple of cocktails.

Picky Bits = bogeys, scabs and toenail clippings.

And, yes, all the sides without the meat does silly to me but, honestly, only your own family’s opinion really matters here.

I suppose the question is- are you doing the "regular" sides or doing them with a twist. For example, there's a great recipe in the green roasting tin for roasted sprouts/brocolli/halloumi with harissa. Obviously no one messes with the roast potatoes (perfect as they are) but you could do mini baked potatoes too?

Sounds great to me.

Roasted sprouts are in fact bar snacks in New York, so definitely can be part of a buffet!

I’d do either a roast or buffet food not a weird concoction. We do a Christmas Eve buffet lunch with standard M&S party food, whatever takes our fancy paired with salads and breads, we have a full roast of Christmas Day then for our Boxing Day party I do a huge roast turkey, crusty rolls, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salads and a pork pie.

We always do this and have for years. We just buy what we like (mainly seafood and fancy cheese) and have a blow out buffet as our main meal on Christmas Day.

@Avarua

The term 'picky bits' reminds me of scabs.

Me too, put me right off ha ha, though I don't think the concept is a bad one - I'd include meat as well, but not the traditional 'roast' (maybe cooked chicken breasts or drumsticks).

Picky tea to me is things like mini sausage rolls, chicken dippers, chicken nuggets, mini scotch eggs, pineapple and cheese on a toothpick, bowls of crisps, bit of quiche. etc.
All the best bits from wedding or other celebratory buffets of my childhood.
Cooked and cooled and put out for people to pick what they want.

@hotmeatymilk

Your thread title is deeply upsetting. Give us all the Christmas gift of never saying “picky bits” again

Let me add my plea to this.

No idea why not, OP. We're vegetarian, though we host family who aren't, and after having lots of different 'centrepiece' dishes down the years, we've semi-settled on having lots of the things traditionally considered side dishes -- in our case, beans braised in cider, roast potatoes, homemade slaw, roast, glazed parsnips and carrots etc.

Good grief. Quite a few replies. I am EXTREMELY sorry for using the term "picky bits". I hate it, personally. But I wasn't thinking and wanted to get the question out and the post done, and I thought it was the sort of term that would most clearly depict to mumsnetters what I meant.

How wrong I was. I cannot apologise enough. I promise never to use the phrase again.

Not sure this is helpful, but we have a roast (although chicken rather than turkey) on Christmas Eve, then leftovers on Christmas Day along with nice bread, pickles, salads, cheese, crisps etc.

We have our main Xmas meal on Xmas Eve (non traditional because I'm vegan and we have pie as the centerpiece, really amazing local pieminister ones) and then Xmas day and boxing day is all about the buffet! Cheeses, crisps, dips, olives, oven party-food, vine leaves, nice bread. All our favourite stuff. DH family grew up doing it this way and I love the idea of getting to have Xmas dinner without missing loads of Xmas day cooking it!

Thank you for all the replies and some great suggestions! Good to see a few of you do this and the general drift is treat yourself and get what you like as a family.

Your comments have made me realise that at the root of this is the fact that I am not bothered at all about having turkey or roast chicken or gammon, but it would not feel like Christmas day to me without red cabbage and sprouts with pancetta and chestnuts - hence the hybrid some of you are finding weird.

I'll get DH and DC on board and get planning!

And a semi freddo for dessert

For a fleeting moment I thought you meant half a Freddo frog. I really need to get more sleep.

@OnAWinterMorningFarAway

And a semi freddo for dessert

For a fleeting moment I thought you meant half a Freddo frog. I really need to get more sleep.

I can think of worse tired-brain interpretations of the words ‘freddo’ and ‘semi’ 😝

I don't like turkey so just roast a chicken! We all like chicken...we have lamb too. What you're describing is just a Christmas dinner minus the roast meat...which is no effort really. I thought you were going to say that you'd be having cheese, crackers, olives, prosciutto etc....

Myself and dd don’t enjoy roasts or eat meat really! Not as a rule just don’t like it that much! So we have agreed to make pizza Christmas Day and buy all of our fave treats like cheese and crackers, fruit smoothies for her and wine for me!

That just sounds like a roast laid out in buffet style! I'd quite happily just have pigs in blankets but with big sausages & bacon and all the other trimmings for the Xmas dinner.

@Avarua

The term 'picky bits' reminds me of scabs.

Exactly this.

If someone told me I was having “picky bits” for my Christmas dinner I wouldn’t be coming.