Christmas Day Menu

[FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee]

I usually go to my mum's for the day, where we have prawn cocktail/Turkey/pudding but I want to make the day my own, not recreate hers.

So, what's your menu on Christmas Day? I'm looking for inspiration (especially starters).

Thank you.

We used to have prawn cocktails but since I've started hosting we do cocktails and canapés instead while we open presents. It's so lovely

I love Christmas - so go to loads of effort, but also try to make the day easy and simple. I don't do starters anymore - I find it annoying when trying to cook the main meal and open presents ! We do canapés at about 11am - my family love seafood, so the seafood platter from Waitrose (so easy) with french toast, smoked salmon blinis & sushi. If we have non 'fish' people, also mini toasts with pate and slow cooked pork squares (cooked the day before and heated)

Then the main meal around 2pm-3pm. The last few years it has been Venison, Duck and a Turkey Crown - so everyone is happy. All the standard sides - roasted veg/roast potatoes/leeks in cheese sauce/shredded sprouts with pancetta/red cabbage/pigs in blanket / stuffing balls. And proper gravy. And my youngest loves Yorkshire puddings. Desserts are Christmas Pudding, Pana cotta and Cheese board - which we tend to eat about 7pm instead of Christmas tea as everyone us too stuffed.

Also, while we’ve had small children, I’ve started using M&S Christmas food. It’s mostly pre-cut, pre-boiled, stick in the oven without too much faff.
It always tastes amazing (especially the lamb) but it means I’m not missing out on Christmas with the kids because I’m stuck in the kitchen x

Breakfast is always bacon and mushroom butties with mimosas.

We've had this gravadlax starter for three years now as it was such a hit and requested.
We always do sprouts, parboiled and shredded, with lardons, chopped chestnuts, sage and lots of butter as one of the sides.
If you do a cauliflower cheese, steam your cauliflower so water doesn't ruin your cheese sauce.

We always get a supermarket dessert and never make it to the cheese board because we're too full 😂

We switch the main up every year but the rest of the day is consistent. Last year we had COVID :( but the year before we did:

Smoked salmon bagels and fizz for breakfast

No starter, no one has room
Porchetta for main (https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/porchetta/)- prepare in advance and freeze, then just defrost over night and bung in the oven on the day but comes out really impressive. With roast potatoes, cheesy leeks, Yorkshires, pigs in blankets, roast carrots and (yuck) parsnips, red cabbage, fried bacon sprouts, bread sauce, gravy

We then all need a lie down so everyone just has a mince pie to keep them going and then we have a pudding and cheese buffet around 6 with Xmas pud, something chocolate, some kind of cheesecake, and cream/brandy butter/white chocolate baileys cream/ice cream.

I can thoroughly recommend Nigella Lawson's Gingerbread stuffing - very christmassy.

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/gingerbread-stuffing

No starters here either.

I do breakfast around 10am, always Eggs Royale.

Lunch is always late for us due to family logistics, about 5pm. I usually do Beef Wellington, dauphinois, green beans, carrots, parsnips and sprouts.
Pudding is either Christmas pudding or some kind of chocolate torte. Usually both! Maybe cheese and crackers later in the evening.

I do love the Christmas bits though so I do a Boxing Day buffet with a turkey crown, stuffing, pigs in blankets, pickles, salad and bread.

Another house here that doesn't like turkey and does a rib of beef instead.

Starters vary but I always want something fairly simple and cold so I can just serve, so as to keep my concentration on the main event.

So typically:

• pate (can be fish or chicken liver)
• smoked salmon
• nice charcuterie such as iberico ham

I buy a bag of watercress and dress it, plop a bit on each starter plate with one of the above and with some nice bread.

Equally we don't like Xmas pud, so I make a pavlova (well the components the day before) so I can just put it together on the day.

It's become tradition to guess what flavour pav we will have each year .

Ok, I am widely known as the queen of Christmas by my friends hahaha, and like you 15 years ago I set out to make my own traditions for my own family.

for me there is no greater celebration meal than the beef Wellington, I serve that with all the usual trimmings. A beautiful table set with nuts and fruit, scratch cards and cocktails.

no starter, no need for us, and pudding comes out a good couple of hours after dinner when having a break from the board games, usually a cheese board, fruit and whatever seems good in the lead up it changes cheesecake, chocolate cakes etc etc

here is my beef welly from 2022, I’m already excited for this year!

Sorry me again lol, a beef welly can also (and is by me) totally constructed on Xmas eve, I am literally in the kitchen for a maximum of 30 mins Xmas day.

Jamie Oliver Butternut squash Wellington 😛, very easy to make vegan!

It would never occur to me to have a starter (apart from a gin & tonic which is essential) We nibble on bits & pieces through the morning. Turkey with sausagemeat stuffing; roast potatoes, roast parsnips, roast carrots; sprouts: apple & prune sauce/cranberry & orange sauce (both made the day before). gravy made with giblet stock made the day before. Followed by xmas pudding with brandy sauce & brandy butter (all homemade).

We do prawn cocktail/haggis Bon bons with whiskey sauce (can tell I'm Scottish lol) full turkey dinner but everything's in trays like a buffet so people help themselves then we everyone brings a selection of puddings and nibbles for the evenings I tend to have a bit of every pudding xxx

I do smoked salmon salad as a starter, ham for DD2.

We don't do starters,

We have a big breakfast after opening stockings (homemade sausage and cheese mcmuffins, or pastries and fruit, bacon sandwiches or eggs Benedict etc obviously we just pick one option not all of them 😂)

Then open presents and pick at snacky bits if we're at all hungry at lunch time but we often aren't.

Then we have our Christmas main quite late at about 4/5pm (last year was lamb, or chicken, pigs in blankets and then the usual trimmings)

And then cheese and chocolates available in the evening for anyone who wants any - we tend to have a Yule log and christmas pudding in but noone fancies it on Christmas day itself so we always end up having it on boxing Day

Other food related traditions we have are:

McDonald's drive through on Xmas Eve on way home from swimming or a long walk around a country park (to tire the kids out)

Buffet snack foods on boxing Day (including a gammon, sausage rolls, cheese board etc)

And we for some reason always have an Indian takeaway the day after boxing day.

Cuppa tea and biscuits for breakfast- a tradition passed down from my grandmother.

pork belly with roast potatoes, Brussels, savoy cabbage, carrots, peas and sweetcorn, sausage meat stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, pigs in blankets and thick gravy.

black forest gateaux is a must!
baked apple and caramel tart
trifle

Never have a starter, I want to be hungry for the main!

Turkey, pigs in blankets, sausagemeat stuffing, roast potatoes, honey roast carrots and parsnips, stir fried sprouts with bacon, broccoli and cauliflower cheese, gravy.

Pudding will be a choice of apple and mincemeat crumble or Christmas pud.

Sorry, have I just awoken from a 3 month coma?

If you want tips to make it easy -
prep the roast the night before
write out all the dishes and timings
set Alexa with all the reminders and timings (stops me clock watching) When my children were little the rule was they had to stop opening presents if I wasn’t in the room.
Also delegate, give people different responsibilities- drink provider, dishwasher emptier, table layer etc!

We have brunch about 10.30 smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on bagels with bucks fizz. Then lunch about 3 o'clock and no starter, Christmas Dinner and Christmas pudding.

Canapés to start - often those little crispy cups (ikes sell them) with Stilton and pear pate, or cream cheese and cranberry sauce; gammon (cooked the day before and then just glazed on the day) pigs in blankets and stuffing (both pre-made by farm shop) with cranberry sauce and bread sauce, roast potatoes, sprouts, creamed parsnip and turnip, red cabbage; then nigella’s chestnut chocolate pots with posh biscuits. Everything made in advance, parsnip/turnip, cabbage and bread sauce all done week before and frozen, pudding made day before and veg prepped then too.

I have mostly experimented with different prawn or salmon starters, but we have had this 4 times now, it is lovely:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/smoked-salmon-prawns-horseradish-cream-lime-vinaigrette

We have turkey, ham, stuffing, toasties, mash, cauliflower cheese, roasted parsnip and carrots, pancetta and chestnut sprouts and red cabbage with gravy.

Then pavlova

Then cheese and crackers.

We start at 3 and after the main we finish, have pav about 6 and crackers about 8.

We have a sort of smoked salmon - so a swirl of smoked salmon, smoked salmon mouse with a quail egg and a bit of (cheap caviar on it) a prawn and some lettuce underneath). Kids picked at some bits over the years and my MIL always complained no matter what we did. (These days we ask exactly what she’d like on her plate before hand)

Main is turkey, stuffing, parsnips in honey, Yorkshire puds, sausages, roast pots in goose fat, carrots, sprouts, gravy, bread sauce and cranberry.

Melon or pate on toast for a starter. (Brussels or Mushroom pate)
Roast turkey with bacon over the top of it, roast and mashed potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, sausage meat, Yorkshire puddings, carrots, peas, Cauliflower cheese, cranberry sauce, roasted onions and parsnips for those that want them and lots of thick wine gravy.
DH is a vegetarian and has the Holland and Barrett not turkey dinner and cooks a few extra meatless cocktail sausages to go with it because they give you only one. He eats all vegetables on offer. I offer several desserts but we tend not to have them immediately after lunch but about 2-3 hours later. Lemon cheesecake, tiramisu, raspberry pavlova, mince pies and ice cream with toffee sauce and a flake. They are all shop bought desserts though not homemade ones. Then fresh coffee (adults might have a shot of Amaretto in it) and mints. In the evening I bring out a huge cheese board with about 8 different cheeses on it, grapes, olives and a good selection of crackers. Xmas Eve we always have boiled ham. Last year my son invited me to his house (his first Xmas in his own house) I paid for the food and he and my younger son cooked it and it was lovely. Me, DH and DS gf sat and chatted and ate chocolates. He didn't let me get out of my armchair all morning and put a couple of good bottles of red next to me too and some glasses. This year my younger son moved into his new house so not sure where we will all spend Xmas day this year or even if all will be together because DS's gf might want to spend Xmas day with her family, but I will pay for the Xmas food delivery I'm just hoping one of my son's offers to host and cook. They are both excellent cooks.

Oh yes, I do cook 5 Brussels Sprouts for DH and DS's gf likes 3 too. I forgot those.