Christmas tea

[Chuckiegg]

If you eat your 'Christmas dinner' at lunch time what do you eat for tea?

I'm always shattered by then but need to do something... a couple of older relatives come in the evening that haven't been with us for lunch so I need to make a bit of an effort for them.

We have starters at lunch then a walk and more gifts, main at 5ish then pudding at 7ish the. Cheeses later.

much nicer than rushin about for a massive meal in one sitting.

We usually have lunch at around 2.00 then supper around 8.00 of cold ham, chestnuts, cheese and biscuits, pickles, salad etc, like a sort of ploughman's really.

M&S Profiterole stack, many cheeses and crackers, deserts left from Xmas lunch which we have at 1pm, cheesecake, Eton Mess. Also Pringles, Treeslets or Turkey sandwich if anyone wants one. We often don't have tea until 7pm so all quite peckish by then.

We are usually far too full to bother much so we just pick at the leftovers or have cheese and biscuits. I find it I have a large lunch I am not interested in eating again until about 8.30.

Turkey sandwiches, cheese and chocolate. But if I had new guests coming over I'd get in m and s party food and put out a special spread.

Will your guests have had the full turkey dinner elsewhere? If not, I'd make up a plate each to reheat if that's what they wanted.

Otherwise, lay out turkey/ham/stuffing/salad for everyone to concoct a sandwich, pickles, cheese & biscuits, and a Yule log or Christmas cake as the centrepiece.

Home made sausage rolls
Leftover sandwiches and cold cuts
Cheese and crackers
Baked brew with dipping bread
Would you relatives need meal op?or is picky bits ok because then our suggestions will differ?

We eat around 1.30pm, we don't have starters, just main and then dessert after a short break / clean up.
In the evening around 8pm we have some
Cheese & biscuits, cold turkey etc. Just a few little nibbles.

Could you pre prep a hole side of salmon that you just then have to bring in oven.youcould do it with a jacket and a nice salad
Buy pizzas in
Prep a curry and Tupperware it on Xmas eve
Or some sort of casserole that can pre be done then tupetwared
Some chicken thighs in a marinade
Tray bake
Deli spread so big board with deli meat French stick olives cheeses grapes sundries tomatoes
Scones
Savoury pancakes
Pasties already made
Ham egg and chips
A light stir fry
Big warm salad
Creamy smoked salmon taglietelle
Fish on a bed of ratoulli

We usually have "lunch" at about 3.30/4pm on Christmas day. We have smoked salmon and champagne at 11ish with presents. We always go to church on Christmas morning so breakfast is never more than teas/coffee and a biscuit.

If anyone is hungry in the evening it's cheese and crackers but chocolates and more wine usually suffices.

If we eat earlier, we have a cheeseboard for dinner. And lots of wine.

By tea do you mean teatime, or evening meal?

If I had guests coming who had also had a full Christmas lunch I would do a cold side of salmon or sea trout, or pieces of hot-smoked salmon, with salads. Followed by something like Oranges in Caramel www.nigella.com/recipes/chilled-caramelised-oranges-with-greek-yoghurt (it can be made the day before)

Picky tea. So leftovers, cheese and crackers, that sort of thing.

Cheese, oatcakes, salad, grapes, chocolates, Christmas cake.

We usually have a decent breakfast around 9.30/10
And stagger our Christmas lunch
Soup or whatever starter around 1.30
Main course around 2.30
Pudding 4ish

Extensive Cheese board comes out around 6 and stays out all night.
I'm not cooking again after lunch. Leftovers are in the fridge!

Cheese board.

Thanks everyone.

One coming will have had a full Christmas lunch but not the other. They don't come to us for lunch as we like that to be closer family members and there are some family politics (!) so we compromise on tea.

Will they be expecting a meal meal? Depending on dynamic between you would depend on how I ask,cater for them.

We always put our masses of cheese and biscuits and sometimes some cake etc, with wine and port. Easy and delicious!

I'd put out/offer them some of the leftover meat, plus any sides they wanted, plus cheese, pork pie, nice bread, crackers, mince pies, Christmas cake, maybe grapes and salad if they want to add a bit of balance.

One of the great advantages of cooking a big Christmas lunch and getting in all the extras is that you can eat well for a good couple of days without little further cooking effort.

I'm sure they won't feel they've missed out by not having a sit down meal if you still have a nice catch up chat and good food/drink.

Tea is cold cuts, chutney, cheese, smoked salmon, bread, crackers, mince pies etc. And any other things that we have! Then repeat for the next few days. The joy of Christmas after the big lunch is not having to do any proper cooking for a few days.

Ah!
I wouldn’t feel I could offer leftovers to someone who hadn’t had a Christmas lunch. Seems to throw salt in the wound, somehow.

If one guest won't have had a 'proper' lunch, could you keep back a few roast potatoes and stuff, so they can have their own mini dinner?

Cold turkey, sausage rolls, Delia's vegetarian sausage rolls, cheese, salad, bread, crackers, smoked salmon, a couple of fancy bits from M&S/Tesco Finest. Then Yule Log and Christmas cake for pudding. I love Christmas tea, even more than Christmas lunch. This year we are at my PILs and they don't do Christmas tea which makes me sad.

Could you not dish up a Christmas lunch for the person who won't have had one and bung it in the microwave when they arrive. The other can have nuts, chocs, fruit, etc., like all the people who are already stuffed to the brim with food.