Seventies Christmas

[Doone22]

I'm so into doing a seventies Christmas this year. Cheese and pineapple hedgehog obviously, prawn cocktails, advocaat. What would be on your seventies Christmas menu?

I have to say my Dad never did that. It wasn't universal.

We definitely had prawns in the 70s. I was 15 in 1970. They could have been fresh, tinned or frozen. A lot of people had freezers.

Not strictly part of the menu, but part of the Christmas table settings should be crackers made with crêpe paper.
Tall tissue paper crowns inside, not those half sized bands you get these days.

We didn't do anything special for Christmas in the seventies.

If anything it would be the same as any gathering - tinned salmon sandwiches, scones...

Filter coffee with cream down the back of a teaspoon to make it sit on top.

Stones Ginger Wine. We were given it as children!

Oh and Corona pop from the pop van. Ginger beer!

I do vol au vents every Christmas…bloody love them and the children do ,despite the eye rolls !

Stoned dates with a walnut inside.

Not 'alf. I'll join you.

Some of these are still relevant.

Candied figs covered in sugar
Candied orange and lemon slices
Matchsticks
After Eight
Violet Creams
Turkish delight
Chocolate liqueurs

Cherry brandy and avocaat for the children.

Sherry trifle (yuk..hated those soggy sponge fingers)

Frankly, some of my favourite things about christmas are what we had in the 70's - marzipan fruits, the orange/lemon slices, a trifle made with blancmange so that layer sets really firmly, a chocolate log (and I still have the robin my mum used), and a box of dates (though I buy the naice ones from M&S with fillings now).
I also make my own mince pies and mince meat - though this year I am doing both Delias as per tradition and a fancy Pedro Ximenez and pear one. As in the 70's I use a star cutter for the top.
Def would have had mint matchmakers, After Eights and a tin of Roses.
@Comedycook in my family no one went to the pub, but when I first had christmas with the PIL I was horrified that all the men went to the pub before lunch leaving the women and all the kids behind. And this was late 90's!

Our pub was open 12 - 2 on Christmas Day, and it was the only day of the year my parents were allowed to be closed during the evening. Everybody who came in got their first drink free. We used to put peanuts, crisps and cubes of cheese on the bar for everyone. It was such a great atmosphere.

The pub was fully decorated - trees, twists of crepe paper that you pulled from the middle of the roll, paper bells that you opened out, shiny metallic paper/plastic garlands. Happy days.

that was Pony- not Babycham

The chocolate log we had involved a packet of ginger nut biscuits stuck together with whipped cream and the chocolate butter cream surrounding that.

Packets of dates whether you like them or not.

Brandysnaps filled with cream!
Sandwiches (white bread only) with sliced ham and turkey
Blancmange that you make from those packets
Proper Christmas cake - 90% icing, 5% marzipan and a tiny sliver of actual cake.

My parents bought them as shrimps from the fishmonger by the pint and I was given the task of topping and tailing them.

Trifle - if you are going to make a trifle then it HAS to be made with tinned fruit cocktail with sliced swiss roll at the bottom, then raspberry or strawberry jelly. Then your cold Birds custard, with Dream Topping swirled on the top and hundreds & thousands. Save the one and only glace cherry from the tin of fruit cocktail and put that on the top as well. Alternative one was chocolate swiss roll, orange jelly and mandarins out of a tin.

TINY portions
stuffing to make the meat go further
bread sauce ditto
and being told that cranberry sauce was weird imported stuff !

I was still doing that in the 90's.😂

There was a woman on Facebook two years ago who did a whole series based around a 1970s Mary Berry pamphlet. I think she sold copies of it too.

found the link

You could get cranberry jelly in a jar.

Just remembered the Famous Names Liqueur chocolates, and a huge tube of sugared almonds are a must have.

Mum's trifle topping was generous blobs of fresh cream on top of cold Bird's custard with a maraschino cherry in the middle of each blob, surrounded by little sticks of sugared angelica
Angelica is quite hard to get now.
All supermarkets used to stock it.

When the first foil garland falls down you know it’s Christmas.

Sorry, I know we had prawns in the 70s, although not in my house where starter was a Baxters soup as they were considered posh. But prawn rings weren't a thing and Iceland introduced them in the 90s.
Would still love a good 70s buffet though!