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?

TBH I'm not quite sure what a picky bit is, but from the description this dinner sounds a bit half-and-half. If you're aiming for a buffet with finger food, don't do red cabbage! (I do like red cabbage, but once you need a knife and fork you might just as well have roast chicken.)

My friend does this, her whole family is vegan. She lays the table with beautiful decorations and puts out picky bits at lunch time and that’s lunch and dinner sorted.
Her whole family enjoy it.

Op, I could easily not have a roast dinner on Christmas Day but I’d never have a buffet type meal of party type food in its place. It just doesn’t appeal to me but I could easily have scrambled eggs or poached eggs on toast instead.

As for eating a roast without the meat - I did that today. I had a plate of vegetables and roast potatoes and enjoyed every mouthful. A nice gravy brings it all together and I didn’t miss the meat.

My daughter can be put off eating if she is presented with lots of food. She has requested duck and roasties this year. I shall probably give her sweetcorn as it is her favourite vegetable. Later on I shall cook asparagus and put lots of bits and bobs out. Bits and bobs for Boxing day plus maybe, a cheesecake.

What on earth are 'picky bits'? Sounds revolting.

@Christmas1988

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.

Wow this sounds like a helluva lot of work and way too much food!

@AutumnAlmanack

What on earth are 'picky bits'? Sounds revolting.

If you actually read the thread you will (a) learn what people generally mean by "picky bits", (b) see that the phrase has already been criticised by multiple others (but maybe you knew that and were just joining the pile-on) and (c) read an actual apology from the OP for using that phrase.

HTH.

We have a buffet lunch on Christmas Day, with salads, fruit, quiche, hummus, cheeses, etc. Then we stick the turkey in a low oven and go out for a walk round the loch for a couple of hours.
Once back home, we all muck in to get the potatoes roasted, turn the turkey up to crisp the skin, and heat the vegetables. We have the full roast meal in the evening. Best of both worlds!

We have our big dinner on Christmas eve and have cold leftovers on christmas day. Highly recommend it, no cooking needed and everyone just grazes. Bacon rolls on christmas morning.

Basically I make lots of extras on christmas eve. I often keep back a tray of pigs in blankets to heat on the day as however many I make on the 24th they don't make it to the 25th.

@Avarua

The term 'picky bits' reminds me of scabs.

This, Christmas scabs

@babouchette - thank you very much for the condescending explanation. I will make sure to read every single post before I add my comments in future.

We tried no Turkey once, just loads of sides. Even with substantial sides, it wasn’t quite right. All the protein was a bit salty.

Yup totally agree with the salty comment. We tried a Christmas Day once just with party bits and snacks and I nearly collapsed from dehydration

@PrinzessinCressida

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.

Haha, thanks.

A meal of sausages in bacon, stuffing, gravy, potatoes and veg sounds great and has plenty of meat in it!

Did this last year, all canapes rather than a dinner, and to be honest, it was more work. Sprouts on sticks went down a treat though, parboiled sprout, bacon cube and halloumi with a drizzle of honey, baked for 20 mins at 200 degrees, couldn't cook them fast enough. Doing a proper dinner this year. Less faff.

We do a sandwich buffet - hot and cold. Cold side is pineapple, pimiento cheese, cream cheese and deviled ham sandwiches with sides of pickles, potato chips (crisps to you) and fresh fruit on skewers. Hot side is BBQ sandwiches, buffalo chicken sliders, pigs in blankets, with sides of deviled eggs and hot artichoke dip. Drinks are hot apple cider or cold fruit punch. Lots of homemade cookies and candy for dessert if anyone wants a sweet ending.

We do "picky bits" every year. It changes from year to year and is generally whatever my kids fancy. It's my boys birthday on Christmas eve so he gets to choose that dinner. Then Christmas day can be anything from spring rolls and gyozas to seafood and crusty bread. Always a plate of roast potatoes to pick at while we are playing games. One year the kids wanted cheese on toast so that's what we had...obviously we had a mince pie for afters...we aren't complete animals!

So what are "chicken tenders"??? OP and a couple of others have mentioned them and I've never heard the term.

Lots of fresh seafood and salads here. We can’t stand turkey.

Kid 1 pizza,
Kid 2 chicken satay/teriyaki skewers
Adult 1 turkey sandwich,
I think I fancy a retro prawn ring
Add a few pigs in blankets & a salad & we will all be happy

@SWnewstart

So what are "chicken tenders"??? OP and a couple of others have mentioned them and I've never heard the term.

Aren't chicken tenders breadcrumbed chicken goujons? Can't imagine them tasting nice with traditional Xmas dinner sides though.

Just sounds like a roast but in bits that you can eat with your fingers 🤔, sounds like the same hassle (or more) than doing a roast.

I like the idea of having a roast (or whatever big meal you want) on Christmas Eve and then a buffet type thing on Christmas Day, maybe cold meats, crusty bread, cheese, pickle/chutney and some other nibbles?

We will be having Turkey 😬

@hotmeatymilk

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

What’s wrong with that?! We have ‘picky dinner’ regularly 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sprouts are bar snacks in NY???????

Yes, @Dozer it’s true!