Family Xmas food/drink that you thought everyone had

[Gobolino80]

I'll go first. Roses's Lime
Cordial. There was always a bottle at Christmas but never any other time of the year (probably because it's quite ££. See also actual Ribena) and I was allowed it with lemonade with Xmas lunch. I buy it all the time now but every now and then I still get an instant nostalgia head rush when I taste it. DP could not fathom what the fuss was when explained we MUST have a bottle on our first Xmas together and I couldn't get over that he'd had 37 Xmas's without it! And no, supermarket lime cordial is definitely not the same!

Nuts in shells, dates (eat me), orange and lemon slices and roses lime all at my house. No longer though, prefer my nuts easier to eat, cordial of choice is grenadine and whilst I do buy dates, I get the nice ones from the halal supermarket

My family never had turkey/duck/goose at Christmas, instead my dad liked to go to the abattoir and choose a beef roast from a Smithfield prize winning carcass. I have happy memories of going down to see George while they pondered the best cut from that beast.
We also always had trifle, and thats something I do, though somehow we have a tradition of our own of trifle for breakfast

@Icantremembermyusername

Nuts. And a nut cracker. We never ate nuts needing a nut cracker at any other time of year. I've just talked my mum out of buying a shit tonne of nuts that she would normally bin in January because we all cracked 1 nut and then ignore them.

But surely everyone sits around cracking nuts at Christmas. I’m shocked how few people crack walnuts with their bare hands, but they are definitely a big Christmas thing, aren’t they?

Brandy sauce on Christmas pudding. That is sweet white sauce with brandy in it. Even Christmas pudding is on the decline.

My great grandmother always made trifle, very boozy trifle. I actively dislike trifle but feel it's not Christmas without it.

Chocolate bath olivers

Bread sauce here too! I’m Scottish. Is it a Scottish thing?

Also shloeer. The absolute height of sophistication! But what I vividly recall is a glass of Castaway in a little green bottle that I drank on Christmas Day aged 14 and had to be put to bed because I was drunk as a lord.

@LadyCatStark
I came on to say mushy peas too! I do them from a batchelors packet only at Christmas on request from my DF. Love it! We never had anything 'fancy'. I'd not even heard of bread sauce until I was 25. And my DM thinks its a crime to serve yorkshires with any roast that isn't beef (she is a bad cook and no longer does the lunch due to age etc and misery generally). We also never had brandy butter or flaming puds or starters. It was lovely at the time and I'm sure pretty standard 80s. But bloody boring.
I can't cope with year round chocolate orange eating. My ex used to buy them as a snack and it gave me the rage. Christmas only. I genuinely looked forward to getting one. Same with quality streets/Roses.

Coke in glass bottles

My DH's family don't have bread sauce or sausages with the turkey. Best bit in my opinion and I was shocked and disappointed first time I spent Christmas Day there.
Also pickled walnuts. They are gross, but a Christmas tradition in our house growing up and I thought they were common. My Dad managed to indoctrinate DH so we still have them, even though they are one tradition I would happily get rid of!

My parents would get a bottle each of gin, whiskey, sherry and port at Christmas time, and they'd make them last a whole year.

I genuinely though that's what everybody did, and could never understand why they sold the stuff in shops all year round.

My first Christmas with my then in laws I was horrified not to have bread sauce. I just assumed everyone had it.
Bit of a tangent, but when I was growing up we used to have little bowls of things out on Christmas morning to eat and one was ALWAYS Phileas Fogg Mignon Morceaux. Christmas is slightly wrong every year since they were discontinued.

@CMOTDibbler

My family never had turkey/duck/goose at Christmas, instead my dad liked to go to the abattoir and choose a beef roast from a Smithfield prize winning carcass. I have happy memories of going down to see George while they pondered the best cut from that beast. We also always had trifle, and thats something I do, though somehow we have a tradition of our own of trifle for breakfast

We always have trifle for breakfast on Boxing Day. Make a big one to guarantee there will be enough leftover.

@Gobolino80 You know that you have to have a splash of lime cordial in the snowball?? That's absolutely the best way to make it & perfectly combines your family traditions!! 😋😋

Yes, bread sauce!

Not only do some people not have it (yes, looking at you, PILs), some have never even HEARD of it. It's pretty much the best thing on the Christmas Dinner plate, and I can't believe people are missing out.

Dates and nuts for us.

I only discovered that bread sauce could actually be nice a couple of years ago (DMum's tastes of cloves and is inedible to me). Just a little onion and garlic and it is so different and tasty.

Sugared Almonds. My mum always had a little bowl of them out at Xmas and I always thought they were so pretty. Absolutely vile but brings back fond memories

Toast and dripping (with salt on) for breakfast when we stayed with grandparents at Christmas. I remember explaining it to my then boyfriend.

Yes to bitter lemon and nuts with a nut cracker. We also had Dandelion & Burdock at home at Christmas and R Whites Lemonade in a glass bottle - never any other time but grandparents occasionally had it during the year.

Oh and snowballs (again with said grandparents who babysat every New Years Eve and let us have one from about age 13 onwards )

@MrsPleasant

My first Christmas with my then in laws I was horrified not to have bread sauce. I just assumed everyone had it. Bit of a tangent, but when I was growing up we used to have little bowls of things out on Christmas morning to eat and one was ALWAYS Phileas Fogg Mignon Morceaux. Christmas is slightly wrong every year since they were discontinued.

Mignon Morceaux!! The top fancy snack for family parties! I’d totally forgotten them, and I can’t believe they’re gone - can you really still not get them? Ok, the crunchy snack market has moved on considerably since then, but I’m now mourning them.

Also - ginger wine. Definitely Christmassy. Has to be sipped while writing Xmas cards and wrapping presents.

Bread sauce here too and leek sauce, North Wales here. Feeling hungry now.

I assumed everyone had shortbread... but nooope.

We make it every year for Christmas

That's more of a Hogmanay thing here for me

The first Christmas I spent with a family not my own COMPLETELY threw me! They did EVERYTHING differently

J20s orange and passion fruit

My dad was a painter and very Xmas he’d get a paint can filled with jelly beans from a supplier. We’d also have Macintosh lollies (kind of a caramel with different flavours), and black licorice. This year I’ve ordered some MacIntosh from NZ. Funnily I can’t remember what my mother used to serve. Probably a pavlova. One year she did a steamed pudding on the bbq. We’d have nuts to crack, our SSis SD had walnut trees on his farm, he’d also send them to us with dried sausage/salami he used to make. I miss him and their mum.

Candy canes