Which trimmings and sides do you do with your big Bird!?

[TinselinaBumsquash]

I do a variety of side dishes each Christmas to go along side my Turkey, i am interested to steal know what you guys do i feel the need to maybe introduce soemthing new this year.
I currently do,

Steamed broccoli and carrotts (for Ds2 who likes blander foods),
Honeyed Nips,
Roast Spuds,
Shredded Savoy Cabbage with Chilli, Anchovy and Garlic Butter,
Pigs in blankets,
Cranberry Sauce,
Citrus bread Sauce,
Homemade Sausage Stuffing.

I have loved reading these - I promise I may steal some!!

My Nan who is no longer with us used to always do Yorkshire Puddings as a starter as said they should not be on the Christmas dinner plate! Its a tradition we have carried on!

The BEST xmas starter I ever did (well, it was more of an appetiser) was last year when I made cocktail sausages/cheese cubes/tinned pineapple chunks/picked onions on cocktail sticks, all stuck into an orange a la 1970's party.

Everyone LOVED them, and cue an hour of my mum and MIL repeating ooh, why don't we make these anymore, hmmm, these are lovely, oooh, why don't we make these anymore...

Was quite funny actually, since all my marsala and pancetta for the sprouts/turkey in a bath that cost £40 in spices etc were all topped by blimmin sausage and pineapple on a stick

Oooh, it makes me want to do the Christmas lunch in the evening now. I think it always makes it more special in the evening (as I remember from being a child, as we always do a big dinner on xmas eve in France).
But I never thought of doing a xmas dinner instead of lunch.

I love the dinner we have candles, cosy atmosphere with curtains drawn and nobody is hungry again later so I can put my feet up the rest of the night after a bit of a late walk.

We have our christmas dinner in the evening, too. I love it that way - like math, we have the candles etc and it's all very festive.

I find it gives us a focal point to look forward to, otherwise by 3/4pm really it's all over and I always got a bit of an anti climax feeling.

We have a little 'table pressie' as well mainly for DS benefit as it's the last little surprise of the day.

We are always out visiting family in the afternoon so I don't start cooking till about 5pm, we are a small family and I keep it VERY simple...but it's great!

We have just done an American Thanksgiving meal and I would heartily recommend sweet potatoes with cinnamon and --marshmallows.

Other than that, I religiously follow Delia for Christmas, which is basically turkey with stuffing and gravy, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots and parsnips.

Certainage, is the sweet potato marshmallow thing not unbearably sweet?

Looked at Nigellas recipe for it in her Xmas book last year, and was really intruiged.

I have to say, the marshmallow thing is sweet to the point of being dessert, imo. Also considered to be a bit Folksy, like Jello salad.

You don't mix the marshmallow through the sweetpotato and it is only a tiny layer. You can leave it if you don't like it. It is very sweet, though.

This year we are having roast beef, with Yorkshire pudding (wrong to have that with turkey imo), roast potatoes and parsnips, steamed carrots and Brussel sprouts (may glaze the carrots in the oven with some honey, but think I probably won't), and baked onions stuffed with parmesan and wrapped in bacon. We are having angels on horseback as a pre-dinner nibble, and afterwards we will either have chestnut meringues (meringues, chestnut puree and whipped cream) or hazelnut cake with marinated blood oranges.

Place marking.

NeedToDigOutTheListTiggaxx

we have prawn ring to start,turkey, stuffing, chesnut stuffing, sausages and bacon rolls,croquet pots,roast pots, carrots, sprouts, yorkshire pudding, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, parsnips. stuffing and sauces already made and in freezer. all veg plain, apart from passnips in honey/mustard. yum

When I saw this thread title ("sides" & "trimmings"),I thought it was another one about waxing & brazilians - and thought "Big Bird" was a euphemism for lady garden. Then I saw it was in the Christmas topic.

I don't like parsnips btw and have never considered them Christmassy anyway.

toffeeapple is there any reason you cant have dinner in the evening ? We do what we want as and when on Christmas Day so usually ave dinner around 5-6ish when we normally have it, with no stress at all