Is Christmas Dinner really THAT important to you?

[Hulababy]

Just curious, and following on from other threads.

You see, it isn't for me. We always have something nice. DH and DD are having fillet steak. I am having a fish in creamy sauce off pastry parcel thing (will prep day before). Serving it with lots of roasted veggies, and some prouts

But I don't spend ages over it, and it is a really small part of our day.

Maybe it is because it is just the three of us on the day.

We have chocolate for breakfast, chocolate for pudding and chocolate for tea . Well, maybe some soup and fresh bread for supper. And a decent, but easily prepared meal in the middle of the day.

i really do treat it as the one day where I am not prepared to spend half the day int he kitchen. I want to be inthe living room, drinking champagne with DH, watching DD open and play with her presents all morning instead.

Is anyone else in the lazy camp too?

I really love roast dinners so any excuse. Also its the one thing my dh regularly cooks so I can be lazy too. Any its just the 3 of us too.

No. But it is to my Mum and to the friends I usually have it with. So this year, yet again, it's a bloody turkey.

I have a friend who has chocs and bacon sarnies on xmas day and does the turkey thong on boxing day - good for her I think!

I was just about to post this thread when I saw yours Hula! I agree completely.

We have a fantastic "Christmas Dinner" at my mum's later in the week when the clans gather, but not on Christmas Day.

We spend the day just as a family (go to church in the morning), and we suit ourselves wrt food. Last year we had gammon, the year before we had curry I think! We dress the table up and have crackers and a proper meal, but not a feast that takes hours to prepare - because the boys will still only take 25 mins to eat it.

No but I have agreed to cook it at my mil house for 5 adults and 2 kids...

ooh dear, turkey thong!!!!! I meant to type turkey thing!!!! I have really weird images in my head now! I have had a little merlot! HEHE!

I am even cheating on Boxing Day this year. We have both my family and DH's family round. I normally put on this huge, elaborate buffet style tea - spend a fortune, takes ages to prepare everything, etc. This year I am making 3 big casseroles (one veggie; rest meat) and having them in the oven all afternoon, with loads of fresh crunchy bread and (Yorkshire Puds for those who want them). Can prepare in advance and requires so little effort!

If we didn't go to either my mum or my MIL we definitely wouldn't have the traditional christmas dinner. Roast, veg and potatoes is my idea of a meal from hell, I only get through it with a generous helping of Hellmans! Can't stand Christmas pudding or mince pies either - I must be the only person who actually eats less over the christmas period than at any other time Dh is happy with it, but Dkids aren't that keen either.

Soup and fresh bread sounds like bliss tbh!
This Boxing day is the first time we're going to have a day at home (MIL gone overseas to SILs YES!!!!) and we're having a nice help yourself 'picnic dinner', as the DSs call it - salad, cold meats, party bits and pieces.

I am just doing a normal roast dinner but cooking roast beef

I am sooo bah humbug-ish this year

no, b/c i'm usually drunk by the time it is served.

expat - that is half my reason. I have had at least one bottle of champagne with breakfast, and well on way with another bottle of wine. I can't do anything too complicated or that required timing!

I think you actually have to be drunk by the time it comes, because otherwise you realise it's inedible.

Like that scene once in the Simpsons where Homer is at a baseball game sober, and for the first time realises how boring it is.

We have turkey and trimmings but at the end of the day it's roast dinner with a few extras, nothing to get into a flap over and there are far more important and enjoyable bits to our Christmas

Well I think its nice but maybe that's because I've never cooked it! But we put ourselves out by being the ones who travel - we do both families on Christmas Day (alternating the order) and spend about 1.5 hours travelling. I don't really mind this because DD can nap in the car and it gives DS wind-down time when it all gets too manic.

But I do insist we stay at home on Boxing Day to give the kids chance to get into their toys - and so usually end up entertaining. Hula I have been considering doing your type of thing this year. What casseroles are you doing? Just think that kind of food is better for the kids.

I am doing one veggie casserole - loads of root veggies. Then the other two are just to be beef and root vegetables. Nothing particularly special, but wholesome and hearty.

DD loves casserole so I know it is something she will eat plenty of, especially with some Yorkshire pudding to dip into it.

I think it might be a nice change to all the rich food people tend to have over Christmas.

Have mince pies, some nice biscuits and some Ben and Jerrys ice cream for dessert.

my favourite things about xmas lunch are - sausages wrapped in bacon, bread sauce, brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce. oh and a really good locally produced honey roasted ham.

the turkey and potatoes are just vehicles for getting the sauces in my mouth.

but I would be very sad if I had xmas lunch without bread sauce which is why I do turkey every year and not eg roast pork or something which is actually much more delicious!

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actually I could just use the chipolatas wrapped in bacon to scoop up the bread sauce. out of the dish. standing up in the kitchen. washed down with a couple of lukewarm left over brussel sprouts to cleanse the palate.

that would pretty much be my ideal xmas lunch .

I'm with you Hula, we have loads of treats and good food, but left to ourselves don't have a roast dinner. I might sometimes do one during the following week but not always. It's such a lot of faff and not really our favourite type of meal.

Must admit I am quite pleased we are going to friends for lunch this year though, and they are doing a trad Christmas - well it does make a nice change once in a while

dh loathes Christmas Dinner (even though he always eats his) and would rather have a curry but I insist. This year (as last year) we are eating at my sisters and it will be a traditional turkey dinner which I love. So tough luck to dh!

I suppose part of the reason too is that I don't eat meat, so it would only be for DH and 3.5yp DD. And Dh isnt particularly keen on turkey at all.

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I like the tradition of it rather than the eating of it. Me and my best mate peeling sprouts and drinking sherry and talking bllcks, the kids happily playing, the DH's sitting watching us peeling sprouts and talking bllcks of their own.

Then sitting around the table, crackers with crap jokes, drinking wine, setting fire to the Christmas pudding, feeling stuffed afterwards.

It's a feel good factor meal and not one to get stressed over. Cut whatever corners you like, make your own traditions, enjoy the day.

I don't mean just what you eat here though. I mean the actual sitting down to a big meal. Most other days of the year this is important to me, but Christmas Day it just really isn't. I'd be happy for DD to not disit nicely at the table the whole time, and to get down early to play, etc. which Dh and me finish ours. Normally a big no no, but I just think - it's Christmas, let's relax and have fun instead.

I'm with you - see my earlier thread

it's just an effin dinner

ok, well that wasn't the exact wording....