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Original poster

Is Christmas Dinner really THAT important to you?

106 replies

Hulababy · 19/12/2005 21:22

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?

OP posts:
KVGIsComingToTown · 21/12/2005 13:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Kelly1978 · 21/12/2005 13:32

Christmas used to be a big deal, full of food that we would never eat the rest of the year. Xmas was the only tiem of the year my mother would do a proper roast. But we have them regularly and the only thing different for us is those sausages with bacon round them. Nobody likes turkey, so it's chicken again. It's so hard finding food that is special for christmas when now, you can get nice stuff all year round. And I don't see y anyone has to spend half the day in the kitchen - how long does it take to make dinner?!
I'm actually looking forward to new years day more - roast lamb, which is a bit more unusual for us.

saltire · 21/12/2005 14:23

In previous years we have always had visitors, so have always gone for a"traditional" Christmas dinner which is much easier to do ever since my BIL Chef told me to cook the Turkey on Christmas Eve so can sit and join the fun in the living room.
This year will just be the four of us and i have bought some boneless turkey fillets from my butcher and have bought ready prepared chipolata/bacon rolls and stuffing. Then just need to do the veg.
I like us all to sit around the talbe though and the TV always go off except if we eat late and the Queen is on my MIL and my Stepdad like ti listen to her. My stepdad used to be in the Scots Guards and he always stands when he hears the National Anthem and shouts at my Forces hubby who doesn't!!
Have just realised I'm starting to waffle now so will stop

GeorginaA · 21/12/2005 14:51

CHEESE!

F*ck ... knew I'd forgotten something...

bosscatsroastingonanopenfire · 21/12/2005 14:51

Its a huge deal in our house, I make everything from scratch. We used to go away on Boxing day somewhere cold and snowy but this year we're at home so I'm really looking forward to all the leftovers too. I've worked out actually I'm cooking on every day between Christmas and New Year as we have guests every day. I've got 11 on New Years Day and am still not sure how the hell that happened. I only asked my parents ?? Oh well, better dust that pinny off....

Eulalia · 21/12/2005 15:43

dh hates turkey so we don't have that but often have something else which is a faff instead ie roast beef this year, last year a ham... don't care really as he does it but he often gets too serious about it.

I'd be quite happy with smoked salmon, selection of pickles, nibbles and bottle(s) of bubbly and maybe soup/bread later.

snowgirl · 21/12/2005 18:22

We go to M&D's and my mother would never consider doing anything but a turkey with all the trimmings! Must say I quite enjoy it too, but as others have said, prob cos I don't have to cook it!

Original poster
Hulababy · 21/12/2005 19:03

Enid - disagree with your comment earlier:
"IME if you aren't prepared to make an effort for your family on Christmas day then you probably are not the kind of person who spends much time in the kitchen anyway. "

I cook from scratch pretty much every week day for my family, and then often at weekends for family/friends too.

But not on Christmas Day. The three of us eat well - fillet steak and fish with nice veggies. But it takes a few minutes of pep and this is it.

I personally want to spend the rest of the day in the living room on my knees playing with DD. My choice and it works well for us.

OP posts:
tortoiseshell · 21/12/2005 19:07

We totally go to town for Christmas Dinner. It is the highlight of dh's year. My mum makes puddings and sends them to us, and I love cooking the turkey and all the trimmings. Wouldn't miss Christmas Dinner for ANYTHING! And love having cold turkey in the fridge afterwards!

myrrhthamoo · 21/12/2005 19:21

Oh I love Christmas dinner - and have cooked it for the last...er...all but one of the last 10 years. I genuinely like turkey, adore sprouts (yes, really!), little sausages wrapped in bacon, stuffing (two kinds: both home-made, a sausagemeat one and a sage and onion-y type one - with apples and chopped cashews or maybe chestnuts, whatever I feel like on Christmas Eve and ooh yummy), and roast parsnips, and gravy, and cranberry sauce and crunchily lovely roast potatoes....

But I don't make my own Christmas pud (usually make some mince pies though) and I've never had bread sauce - what does it taste like, and do you have it instead of/as well as gravy?

But if I didn't like it - I wouldn't have it. MIL loathes turkey but they have one every year "because it's traditional". She throws all the leftovers away because no-one likes it cold/re-heated. Total waste of time and effort - it's Christmas: you should have a meal you enjoy.

myrrhthamoo · 21/12/2005 19:22

I even have a special Christmas apron this year with an appliqued Santa on. How sad am I?

Mercy · 21/12/2005 19:30

Agree with you Hulababy. It's not a competition fgs.

Mercy · 21/12/2005 19:31

myrrhthmoo - I think that's quite cute actually!

geranium · 21/12/2005 19:31

I love Christmas lunch and all the trimmings but then it is still my mum and dad who do the cooking. Also, it is really unusual for us to spend so much time over cooking and eating, none of us are that fussed about food normally - it's just fuel, so it is a really special and unusual occasion for us (me and family, parents, brother, sometimes aunts).

It is the one day in the year when a real effort has been made with the food and we all sit down to eat round a table together and talk to each other and it is just such a nice tradition with the tasty food and the wine and feeling stuffed afterwards and sitting over the meal for ages.

On the other hand, my aunt who lives with a partner but no kids at home has smoked salmon sandwiches and then takes a bottle of champagne down to a nearby beach. At some point in my life I would be happy to graduate to that, but not just yet.

Enideepmidwinter · 21/12/2005 19:31

I spend every day on my knees in the living room playing with the dds

just for once I want to be left alone in the kitchen to cook while dh plays with the dds

Enideepmidwinter · 21/12/2005 19:32

food...'just fuel'

Mercy · 21/12/2005 19:39

But Enid I thought you were Supercook already, just going by what I've seen you post?

Dh should be cooking and playing with your dds

Enideepmidwinter · 21/12/2005 19:41

i do most of the cooking

but i really enjoy it especially the chance to cook in the day while someone else heads off the demands from the kids

but I am not even cooking christmas lunch this year so this is all hypothetical

Original poster
Hulababy · 21/12/2005 19:47

That might be the difference Enid. I don't get to spend every day just playinf with DD and vegging out having fun with DH. I work PT, DD is at nursery on one of my days off, and we are so busy most weekends fitting in seeing and visiting family/freiends. So on Christmas Day this is the one day that is just for us and us alone, with no hassle, no rules, nothing but fun and laughing and enjoying being together. And there is no way I want that to change just yet.

Each to their own I guess. Different families - different ways of celebrating. No one way suits everyone!

OP posts:
Enideepmidwinter · 21/12/2005 19:50

yes i agree that is nice

our boxing day is like that

we still have 'duties' on christmas day

Original poster
Hulababy · 21/12/2005 19:52

Our "duties" are Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. Oh and this year the Friday after Christmas - apparantly it is DH's cousins 50th birthday so have some open house party thing at his aunties. Lovely!

OP posts:
Eaney · 22/12/2005 11:29

Christmas dinner can de done easily. Preprepared veg, gravy from M&S, small turkey, fresh custard from M&S.

I don't agree that if you are not prepared to put yourself out in the kitchen at Christmas you probably never put yourself out. My mum didn't spend much time during the year cookin up delights but at Christmas pulled out all the stops.

When I was little my parents used to buy a live turkey a few weeks before christmas, kill it and hang it. My mum used to pluck and clean out the innards and finally roast it. I never will forget the stench and surprise myself that I can still eat turkey. Sometimes we had such big turkeys they would hardly fit in the oven and would take two adults to lift it in and out.

This is probably why I keep it simple buying as much preprepared as I can although I will do the roasties myself. Throughout the year I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking up a storm.

bossykate · 22/12/2005 11:40

i'm in the middle of this debate i suppose. i view it as a more elaborate roast than usual, so not actually that hard. i enjoy the meal and all the trimmings. but christmas day is about a lot more than the food - so i keep it as simple as possible. i take more trouble to be elaborate/innovative/foodie with other meals during the year.

so i disagree that if you don't put yourself out at christmas then you never put yourself out to cook.

bossykate · 22/12/2005 11:50

also there is corner cutting and corner cutting isn't there? e.g. aunt bessie's roast pots sound horrid compared to home made, but probably no difference in quality between sprouts you have trimmed yourself v. those m&s have done, iyswim.

kate100 · 22/12/2005 20:59

I love roast dinner so it's a perfect meal for me, I also love to cook so it's not a chore for me. For me, I can't imagine christmas without it and I'd love to see dh's ace if I suggested anything else, but I can see Hulababy's point, if you don't want it then why bother. I love the idea of casseroleson Boxing Day too, it may be happening in my house naxt year