Christmas Dinner Ideas

[Onionbhajisandwich]

If you don’t go down the turkey / roast dinner route what do you have for Christmas lunch? I’m looking for ideas to try and sway DH 😁

We do have turkey so I'm not a lot of help.

But we do "platter" on Christmas Eve - lots of different things (mostly cold) that are laid out on the table for everyone to help themselves in a relaxed fashion. Cooked and cured meats (ham, turkey, salami, parma ham, braseola, good corned beef, smoked duck etc), seafood (smoked salmon, cooked prawns, cooked squid rings, hot smoked salmon..), cheeseboard, veg sticks (carrots, peppers, cucumber), breadsticks or slices of naice crusty bread, dips (hummus, salsa, ...), bowls of cherry tomatoes and olives and salad leaves....sometimes some hot sausage rolls or a pack or 2 of M&S party food nibbles...
Basically whatever we have seen that looks good (we don't do ALL those every year - just a nice selection that is adequate for the numbers involved).

The year that is not mentioned at home, where DSiblings went to put the turkey in the oven and found it green on the counter, they thawed out steaks from the freezer in a hurry and BBQ'd those instead. Which has been repeated a few times since then, on purpose . (DDad is quite happy to light the coals in winter and wear a coat while cooking).

We have also BBQ'd a leg of lamb in the middle of winter, which was lovely. (You can get the butcher to bone it so it can be laid flat to help more even cooking).

I hate Turkey! We have Fillet of beef and also a roast gammon.

I hate roast dinners (yes, I know IABU) and DH hates Turkey. If there is something we particularly enjoy through the year we note it down as a Christmas day possibility and decide early December based on who is cooking and guests etc. As a household we enjoy cooking indian food from scratch and last year did a sort of hot indian buffet banquet. The vast majority of it was prepared in advance which made it so easy and enjoyable.

Pasta bake or pizza. I let my kids choose and that is their preference, which I appreciate as it means I don’t spend all day in the kitchen!

I also love a thanksgiving style dinner, with turkey but also mash, green bean ‘casserole’ , corn bread, cheddar biscuits and honey butter, sweet potatoes with marshmallows etc

How many people you are expecting to feed?

I have my Christmas menu saved still on my computer so can say that last year we had;

Christmas eve- beetroot, feta and walnut cheese tart for DH. (vegetarian)
Creamy scallop and prawn tarts for the rest of us.

Christmas day - brocolli and cauliflower cheese wellington for DH
Beef wellington the rest of us
roasted potatos; carrots with honey and sesame seeds; peas.

Boxing Day
-French onion soup with cheesy toast for all
-ham and cranberry sauce soft rolls for those who wanted it.

Sometimes we do a roast goose instead of another sort of bird. None of us like Turkey so I will do a roast chicken as well.

Were vegetarian so no turkey, we still have the rest (yorshire puddings, mash, root mash, parsnips + veg like cartots, broccoli, cauliflower etc...) and then cheesey pasta instead of meat.

Toby Carvery even now does Mac & Cheese as one of the carvery options so while it started by accident it really doesnt seem that wierd anymore.

Traditional turkey on Christmas Eve and Aussie seafood on Christmas Day.

We dont have anything specific for Xmas eve (honestly never knew that was a thing) or boxing day but for breakfast on xmas day we do pizza and spring rolls.

Xmas desert is vianetta.

No idea why or how these things started or became a tradition but we have been doing it as long as I can remember.

We have a Finnish Christmas dinner which is a big ham, beetroom salad and a variety of "casseroles" (baked mashed root veg dishes - always a potato one and a swede one and sometimes a carrot and rice one) with salted and smoked salmons, pickled herrings, and sweet dark bread.

I think it needs to be something as 'special' as a full roast with all the trimmings if you're trying to persuade your DH! I actually love a roast but have lived in a few countries that are either too hot for it (IMO) or don't have easily accessible ingredients for a traditional Christmas dinner.

I have in the past had:

• seafood platter (lobster/crab, mussels, clams, king prawns etc.)

• an Indian banquet (twice - once cooked by a chef housemate and once from the local Indian restaurant)

• a picnic spread/charcuterie type platter along the same lines as @BiddyPop

• really good steak

• BBQ with loads of sides and different types of meat etc

No no no it's not Christmas without the turkey!
But I've had partridge and goose instead a few times, but they are the same thing (a roast with a different bird).
Could go totally off piste and cook a fabulous curry? With all the sides.

Turkey is awful. Sometimes we do a traditional roast but with beef or lamb. This year we're doing seafood on Christmas eve and Korean hotpot/kbbq on the day.

I think a sea food platter offers the same spectacle and sense of occasion that a Christmas dinner does. Lobster tails, seasoned oysters, king prawns, scallops, - with small roast rosemary potatoes and a winter salad with endive and bitter leaves. Or full side of salmon- cured or poached, again with a salad of shaved raw beetroot, rocket, and roast carrots.

I'd search for Australian Christmas ideas- as it's summer there the roast is not king at Christmas.

Or perhaps go for a full Middle Eastern style spread? An ottolenghi Christmas? Lamb shawarma and a host of paired mezze and salad?

This year I'm making a celeriac and garlic tart for the vegetarian option https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/celebrationceleriaccand33665 recipe here that I've had my eye on a while.

We love a traditional Christmas dinner 😳. However, a go to Hogmanay meal with friends is warm seafood platter of 1/2 lobsters, langoustines, scallops and mussels with sourdough, sliced rye bread, good salty butter, salad, crispy crushed potatoes with rosemary and 1/2 roasted lemons.

TheShoeLady
I've cooked a Thanksgiving style meal before instead of the usual Christmas lunch, it was lovely and made a change.
Pizza or pasta sounds like a great idea but I don't think the others would go for it.

We never have turkey, in the past have had steaks, salmon, balmoral chicken & have been out for Chinese & Indian. So basically just whatever we fancy!

We go out for a curry.

We always have the traditional roast but with lamb rather than turkey. None of us particularly rate turkey but we all love lamb. Because lamb is getting more expensive we only have it at Easter and Christmas so it's a treat for us.

We just have whatever we fancy, only me, DH and DD. Last year we did a roast but year before is was slow cooked pork with teriyaki glaze and udon noodles, the year before we did big American style breakfast feast with pancakes, waffles, French toast, crispy bacon...

We generally think of it as an opportunity to have a big special nice meal together that we wouldn't usually have the time/inclination for rather than a need for a traditional menu.

We have a roast turkey but I order it from a 5 star hotel in the nearest city. It comes fully cooked and hot with gravy, DH collects it while prepare the sides.
being cooked in a professional kitchen it is amazing moist and full of flavor. After we had the first one I vowed I would never cook a turkey again but we still have one every year!

I started the tradition of Christmas lunch being a cold buffet (cold meat and salads) about 3 yrs ago and it has been a roaring success (for me at least! 😂) No more spending hours in the kitchen getting stressed AF on Christmas Day for me! I do so the traditional turkey (and vegetarian haggis for the vegetarians) on Boxing Day though - buy in a shove in the oven turkey from M&S but do all my own accompaniments. Don't do any roast dinners leading up to Boxing Day so it's a stand out event.

Oh wow! Lots of nice ideas on here! I particularly like the curry idea! A mild chicken one, a spicy lamb one, lots of fresh naan and a load of bhajis. We will have a roast at some point - maybe the day after Boxing Day? DH loves turkey - me not so much. Thanks all 👍

When it's just us as a four, fillet of beef, or my kids favourite a grazing buffet that lasts all day.

When hosting everyone rob of beef.

I hate turkey!

I came in to ask the exact same question, no idea why I'm thinking about it in August. I love a roast...when someone else cooks it. I never bother to cook them except at Christmas and I'm really not very good at it so it's a lot of effort for something that comes out a bit meh!

So far my ideas have been a really nice cut of steak with triple cooked chips and some sort of veg if we have guests or a dominoes if it's just me, DP and DS. Are they open Christmas day?