One thing you just have to have and cant live without at Christmas!

[Babymad4num3]

As I've decided to do Christmas dinner for in-law's, just trying to get into the Christmas mood! ! I would love to know what other's just have to have/eat at Christmas, what makes it Christmas for you?

omg mulled wine

we have bucks fizz on xmas morning

oh and Snowball! love the stuff!

Mulled wine recipes anyone???

Please?

fruity stockings
a tasty bird for dinner
big nuts
a lovely couple of parcels

etc

Cold turkey sandwiches!!

my christmas stocking... yes i still get one from my dad (am 24)

JARM I am 32, dh is 38, dbro's are 30 & 28 and my Mum still does stockings for us all

mulled wine terribly easy

Save all the shite wine that people bring to parties over the year or buy some cheapo wine, full bodied.

Take an orange and stick it with cloves
Put in a pan with some cinammon sticks (i use about 3 biggies usually) and then top up with wine, oj, a little lemon juice, some brown sugar and a slug of vodka if you like it a bit more oomphy. Then mull it for a bit. Don't let it boil a lot or it will lose the alcohol. You will ahve to test for sugar, I don't like it too sweet. Start off with a couple of tsps and taste.

approx quantities are one bottle of wine to half a carton of oj, tsp lemon, couple of dsp of sugar.

Huge tin of quality street/roses/celebrations (which only come out after boys are in bed heh heh heh.

Oh, and sugared almonds. Nice ones.

i mean don't let it boil at all sorry!

Thanks CD

sprouts..a big fat stinking pile of em!

Twiglets in a big tub
Stone's Ginger Wine
Amaretto
Advocaat
Smoked Salmon
Cheese and pickled onions on Christmas Day evening

We get free sprouts - dh works for a vegetable grower & packer

may sound obvious but I could never do Christmas without a tree. Has to be as big as we can fit in and laden with all the decorations collected over the years - I buy a new ornament every year so it's a bit of a haphazard theme but very sentimental.

Food I have to have would include just the basics really:
turkey
cranberry sauce
bread sauce
parsnips
chipolatas

don't care much for the cakes and puddings but have to have Baileys (just for me).

Music. We have Elvis, Frank and the Phil Spector, Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band singing trad hymns and carols, plus the Messiah on Christmas morning and Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ.
But the best one is Saydisc 's lovely Enchanted Carols. Here's the blurb:
"One of the most delightful & imaginative Christmas records I have ever come across" commented the record reviewer in the Oxford Times and we think this is a fair assessment of our biggest selling album. It is a veritable feast of Christmas music with Victorian musical boxes, handbells, church bells, barrel organs, street pianos, handbell choir and brass band. A kaleidoscope of sounds of the best known carol tunes intermingled with a few lesser known delights, plus the joyous pealing of the bells of St. Mary Redcliffe church in Bristol to start and end this celebration of Christmas.

A proper christmas tree with presents under it.

Sherry Trifle
Brandy butter with the pud
Jameson & ginger wine over ice

and by the look of my list anything else with alcohol in it although i draw the line at chocolate liquers

humbugs

A box of After Eights/Thorntons Chocolate Mints.

Nah! - will go for gin and tonic and peanuts for Xmas Eve, can't do Xmas dinner without cranberry sauce, bread sauce and stuffing, and stilton and lovely chutney sandwiches

cd

me and P got so pissed on mulled wine once that she ran away and slept on a shelf in one of the Colleges

I think it was kings