Christmas Brunch ideas - really special

[Alexasashes]

I am hosting a Christmas brunch (6 adults) and want to serve some real showstopping dishes - it needs to be easy to help yourself and brunchy and Christmassy and not have anything that may be repeated at Christmas dinner later...

My ideas so far
Crabcakes with hollandaise sauce
Devilled eggs with caviar
Smoked salmon of some kind in a creative way
Breakfast pastries of some kind involving bacon

Open to easy good stuff too from supermarkets that anyone can recommend but don't want too many finger foods like sausage rolls.or anything

Any ideas really welcome please 🙏

What would be on your ultimate Christmas brunch?

I require a potato rosti, or even just a hash brown. So, so good with the hollandaise.

I think some people could probably phrase things a little more kindly, but I agree that things have been confused by you calling it brunch. At 1pm, no matter what some restaurants want to call it for marketing/money making purposes, it’s lunchtime. People will eat in the morning, which they wouldn’t do if it was brunch proper.

The additionally complication is that if they are having Christmas dinner at 6pm, that’s an early dinner, right? And it will be massive!

You are serving food only 5 hours before and people will have in mind the massive dinner they will be eating shortly afterwards. So I think you should be serving what is essentially a light lunch. And that can absolutely be in the form of substantial canapés as a buffet, as you have already listed. Just don’t go overboard!

Anyway, my suggested addition is an easy brie and cranberry pastry I make every Christmas. Use pre made puff pastry, spread with cranberry sauce, put bits of brie on it, and some caramelised red onions (which can be made the day before). Then just bake, slice and serve.

Have a lovely time, OP!

Chill 😅

The OP has confirmed that they know it’s actually lunch, not brunch. Honestly 😂

Well its brunch not breakfast- it will be served at 1pm

1pm is not brunch. Brunch is a meal that is later than breakfast but earlier than lunch and takes the place of both. 1pm is lunchtime and I'd have eaten breakfast before that so I'd want light lunch foods not breakfast things.

Nope. The thought makes me feel very nauseous

It’s probably not the sort of thing you are after, but I love a bagel filled with cream cheese & a slice of crispy bacon.

For me it would be a cheese board, crackers, grapes, melon, strawberries, cold meats, pickles. Bagels with cream cheese & bacon, mince pies, lebkuchen and a a bottle of fizz and some orange juice. That would be my ideal Christmas lunch/brunch.

What about a Christmas salad and then the fishy options as sides. They can take as much or as little as the like then. You said you don’t want anything that will be on the Christmas dinner and I agree so I’d ditch the bacon option. They’ll all be eating bacon later and some might have done for breakfast already.

I’d be avoiding any food at 1pm with the best meal of the year coming at me 5 hours later!

Nigella does a festive salad with pomegranate in it that looks nice.

I like the caviar idea. Budget permitting, could you expand it a little so it can go with the deviled eggs but maybe also on blini and/or wholegrain/rye/buckwheat "toast points", maybe with optional thinly sliced onion, chives, crème fraîche/sour cream, and lemon slices? Keep the crabcakes with hollandaise, too, but perhaps make them "mini" so people can have just a little.

I'd maybe do a citrussy salad as a foil for all the oily fish/seafood: grapefruit and/or orange or blood orange and avocado over butter lettuce or gems or baby spinach, with shaved fennel or red or sweet white onions and a light - perhaps champagne-lemon vinaigrette - or a stronger garlicky balsamic dijon vinaigrette.

For breakfast pastries, I might skip the bacon and lean into something a little sweeter - almond croissants, Kouign-Amann, or Swedish-style cardamom buns?
Some berries would be great to round this out, and reusable if they don't get eaten. You could also probably skip pastries if you are enough otherwise.

You didn't mention drinks, but champagne or crémant would be great with this menu, and/or a crisp white wine like Sancerre or Albariño.

Devils on horseback for the bacon.

And a fruit salad with clementines and pomegranates and persimmon and starfruit.

This sounds delicious. It's lunch at 1pm though, not brunch. By 1pm people should have eaten something for breakfast.

This sounds delicious. It's lunch at 1pm though, not brunch. By 1pm people should have eaten something for breakfast.

This sounds delicious. It's lunch at 1pm though, not brunch. By 1pm people should have eaten something for breakfast.

We are having truffled scrambled eggs and smoke salmon on Christmas morning- usually about 10am. Is it a possibility that you do slightly earlier? I wouldn’t be able to have a brunch/lunch starting at 1pm and eat again at 6pm.

How about treating it like the starter? You could do a seafood platter if they’re all big fish fans. Nice breads and oatcakes etc… it will look spectacular! I probably wouldn’t go for anything too rich on its own but with a platter people can choose their own.

Brie and bacon croissants with cranberry ( they do them at our scandi cafe) delicious!!

kedgeree

Crumpets with warm dry fried red berry compote with cinnamon, thick Greek yoghurt dolloped on top ( hairy bikers diet book - totally delicious)

If anyone has a good kedgeree recipe please share….

You want Hollandaise sauce and salmon so why not serve Eggs Benedict Royale?

I was under the impression that brunch was a meal that covered breakfast and lunch and it doesn’t really matter what time you have it. Brunch hours here are typically 10am-3pm at weekends and holidays but I live in the States so it might be a different understanding in the UK.

Salmon with scrambled eggs. Classic.

Blinis, cream cheese, smoked salmon, soft boiled quail eggs and caviar, lobster tails and salad

People are being really pedantic about brunch - I go out to brunch between 10-2, would be perfectly normal for me to be invited to someone’s house for brunch at 12 or 1, brunch to me is the type of food and the type of food can span breakfast style foods and lunch style foods. Anyway, all sounds delish!

Look at Ottolenghi, there is a one pan dish which basically do a potato rosti on the bottom but with gochujang and miso through the rosti (prepare this part in advance) then have lots of eggs nestled on top to bake for the last 8 mins. It's in the oven and served from the oven dish which is handy if you're doing lots on the hob.

https://ottolenghi.co.uk/pages/recipes/potato-gochujang-braised-eggs

Are you also hosting Xmas dinner? If not and I was hosting dinner I’d be absolutely furious to have my guests turn up too full from ‘brunch’ to eat much at dinner. Xmas brunch before an early dinner should still be reasonably light: homemade granola, yoghut, berries, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, bacon on the side, some nice pastries etc. The spread you are intending to serve at lunchtime before a heavy early dinner sounds quite ridiculous and misjudged in my opinion.

Get the bbq out and some decent tiger prawns and octopus marinaded for people to pick at ,do a few red snappers wrapped in banana leaves for folks to just scoop out..easy and very fishy with no smells in the house or even just a huge platter of iced oysters maybe?

Poached eggs on muffins with smoked salmon (eggs royale) or slivers of ham & cheese with hollandaise (eggs Benedict) with a platter of fruits: raspberries, blueberries, mango, a big bowl of thick yoghurt, honey.

Meant to add: you could also di the devi l’ex eggs & maybe some rashers of bacon & avocado on the side. Would forego crabcakes & other complicated things!

We like blinis with smoked salmon, a bit of crème fraiche & a dab of caviar for Xmas day brunch.