Share your inspiration for Christmas Day food and drink with a difference - chance to win Lidl vouchers NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Lidl have their festive food all ready and waiting - now they want to know how MNers make Christmas lunch memorable for all the right reasons. They’d love to hear how you change things up on Christmas Day to make your meal extra special and please all of those celebrating with you - without breaking the bank.This can include main dishes, sides, puddings, and drinks.

Will you be going down the goose route this year, or opting for some seafood? Or maybe you have an interesting turkey treatment you'd like to share. If you are catering for vegetarians or other dietary needs, what options have gone down well - do you tend to do veggie variations on a roast or something completely different?

What about sides - do you have a cunning way with sprouts that makes everyone love them? Or a potato dish that knocks the usual roasties into a hat. For dessert, do you have a Christmas pudding variation? Or something different entirely that you always end your Christmas lunch with?

Drinks-wise, what's top of the drinks list for you? Do you create mocktails for the youngsters or anyone needingnon-alcoholic options? Or do you have an alternative to the traditional Buck's Fizz or a special version of mulled wine that sets you up for the day?

Inspire others with your personal takes on Christmas Day food and drinkbelow and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where you could win one of five £50 Lidl vouchers.

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

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We always have whole chestnuts and pureed parsnip on the side, the whole family love it. For drinks, we always let the kids have a pretend bottle of fizz so they can join in the celebrations with us while we drink prosecco.

I like roast chicken and gammon wirh homemade stuffing, gravy and cranberry jelly. I like shredding the sprouts and stir frying them then some honey and ginger carrots

We don't have a turkey. I'm not keen on turkey and just don't think it's that "special" for Christmas day. We have something different every year: one year lamb, one year crispy pork belly, one year lobster to start (Lidl are great for lobster when they have it) and then home made beef wellington. One year we went to Disneyland Paris and just had pizza and a beer so we could maximise time on the rides! Not sure what we are having this year, we might go for a lobster starter again and then duck or pork. DD1 has requested my DH's Yorkshire puddings so they will be on the menu with whatever we have!
With drinks we do a cheapo Bucks Fizz with cava instead of champagne. I also do an Irish cream cocktail using budget irish cream instead of the main brand leader.

don't stress.its a roast dinner with a little extra treats.
sausage wrapped in bacon in the freezer before hand.
turkey will be bought bigger so it can be had days later in leftovers.
big box of crackers is necessity. it will be out and for all to nibble on.
get people to help.what can family bring.
bake mince pies up towards the day so you have them in the tin ready and the tubs f brandy butter and cream in the fridge.
box of choc always
to be honest and boring we don't do anything posh with veggies.our family love them as they are.plain sprouts,yum!! plain carrots yes!!
tip for roasties.boil for 5 STOP.drain and gently shake the pan to make them get little sides and ridges.HEAT THE ROASTING PAN WITH LARD/FAT FIRST. then put in ridged shaken potatos and roast.
having a joint of ham is a winner.done in pressure cooker.
microwave the stuffing,space in over done!
add a teaspoon of marmite to gravy
don't gt up at stupid oclock to put I nthe turkey. ITS OK.it just a larger chicken and doesn't need epic amounts to cooks.
spread butter undr skin for moisture.baste as you go.
if relatives come and get in the way,send to pub for pre dinner pint.
get kids on the tablelaying.
don't fret.all who come should love you therefore that all there is to it...xx

I have asparagus quiche - had it for so many years now it is a tradition in itself! Everyone else has beef!

We always have two meat options and a veggie nut roast - Hubby does this - hopefully this year with a little less salt - got teaspoon and tablespoon mixed up!
We love to have a variety of starters - nibbles, olives, dips etc
One of the meat options is always ham in coke in the slow cooker - bloody delicious!

We always have turkey and all the lovely trimmings, love left over turkey. Our DD has been vegan for a year now and we are looking for inspiration. Thinking of a vegan wellington with lentils, mushrooms & chestnuts. Although I have never made a wellington from scratch or made a vegan pastry dough so probably will have a trial go. On a general note re Lidl they do not have a vegan range but a lot of their food is inadvertently vegan friendly but not really clearly labelled. We have to contact them with bar codes to check which they are good at advising.

I don't know if this counts as the sort of drink you're after but we have big family Christmas days and lots of the usual adult drinks. We also always have a brisk cold walk. When we get back we have a drink - my sis has purchased lots of flavoured gins for part of this years celebrations, but the DC like a luxury hot chocolate. Instant hot chocolate half diluted with cold milk, so its not so hot, a generous number of mini marshmallows, squirty cream then chocolate sprinkles. Lots of creamy/ milky moustaches follow.

It will be just me and DP, which suits me just fine. I'll be filling the fridge with stuff we like, cook a nice dinner on Christmas Day, and we'll hole up with new computer games and fuzzy slippers. No thing complicated or very involved, I have neither the time or the energy. Just nice cheese, crackers, nibbles freely available, good steak or fish for dinner, maybe a bottle of good whiskey. That'll do us.

With one coeliac one with numerous food allergies and one vegetarian Christmas lunch is tricky.
The last few times I have made Delius cheat turkey by making suitable gf sausage meat stuffing inside turkey steaks wrapped with bacon. Each person gets their own turkey portion and I buy something suitable for the vegetarian that will go with the other roast dinner items. I buy a giant foil tray to cook the turkey in. No leftover turkey to eat for days and easy washing up.

Nothing fancy in our house - it's more about volume

Swede, celeriac, carrots, sweet potatoes and shallots tossed in garlic, oil, rosemary and thyme then roasted with the turkey and potatoes.

Sprouts cut up and sliced with cabbage and bacon.

Last year I did a gratin with potatoes, parsnips and swede with some cumin - that was nice.

Drinks are always the thing that gets forgotten as we don't really drink so usually guests think themselves lucky if there is more than orange juice, coke or tea on offer

We have all the meat. Christmas Eve we'll have roast beef. Christmas Day is turkey then Boxing Day we'll roast a ham. Special extras include pigs in blankets, braised red cabbage and fancy stuffing. We always have roast parsnips, carrots and clapshot with a roast. For Christmas we use goose fat for the potatoes. One time I was in America for xmas and thought it was really odd that the had mashed potato! Why? When roast potatoes are much better!
We always have lashings of smoked salmon with homemade blinis throughout the day. We don't really do pudding just xmas cake and a cheese board. Drinks start off with presseco with strawberry gin (been brewing since July!) then red wine and to finish a nice wee brandy. Not a whisky drinker which is shocking as I'm Scottish!

We make Christmas shaped pizzas for xmas eve, - a xmas tree shape with cherry toms for tomatos and cut stars out of peppers
Also a candy cane shaped one with stripes of pepperoni and orange cheese

Our Christmas dinner is quite traditional, Turkey with all the trimmings. We don't do starters and it's the law to have chocolate before anything else on Christmas morning.

I do light touches of nice things. I buy chocolate stirrers for example if anybody want hot chocolate, or fancy nuts as nibbles.

I do experiment with Christmas morning breakfast - Brie and bacon on rolls last year, (lovely).

I always tend to make the dessert on Christmas Eve which is special as I don't really do it any other time.

In addition to the food I love a Christmassy table; using special crockery, nice wine glasses and I also do table gifts...daft gifts that mean something to each person, Christmas music playing and generally a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

It's a little thing but we always make our own pickled onions.

You can use shallots or baby onions, just cover them in salt, leave overnight so all the water is absorbed (it's what makes them nice and crunchy) then rinse under a cold tap.

The pickling juice is just malt vinegar, slowly heated on the stove. You can add whatever you want to this, we add a tablespoon of honey, cloves, mustard seeds, a bay leaf, chilli, chopped garlic and onion and black peppercorns. Yes, ours are quite potent!

Then put the onions into sterlized jars and poor the mixture over once cool.

You don't have to stop there, you can pickle anything with this mixture. We do boiled eggs too which are a great accompaniment to Boxing Day leftovers.

Poor long suffering MrG does the Christmas dinners as he is much better than I am at working out the larger quantities needed and is better under pressure. I'm taking him out for lunch this year but we will probably end up cooking some sort of family meal.

We like sweet potato mash with ours, lit's of honey roast parsnips and boathe load of cauliflower cheese to cover everything. Dh also has gravy with it too but for me it's one or the other wet substance.

My mum always cooks the Christmas dinner... but she makes it special with nice napkins. We all get a sparkly glass and starter main and pudding. Proper treats.

I always do a nut roast with lots of veggie sides - red cabbage, cauliflower cheese etc. My strategy is to get everything except the sprouts (which nobody besides me ever eats anyway!) cooked in advance and then to have a timetable for what I reheat and how after church on Christmas morning. Pregnant this year though.. does anyone have any tips for how I am going to manage without a few glasses of wine?

We have a very traditional for us veggie Christmas dinner.
The roasties are the star of the show, but also a nut roast, veggie sausages, carrots, sprouts, and a bit unusually but now essential, here cauli cheese.

Everyone loves it!
Pudding is usually trifle but often not eaten until later, when we usually have microwaved seconds all round too.
I sometimes enjoy Christmas supper even more

Love getting in all the Christmassy things from our local LIDL which is just round the corner. Especially the slightly different things like iced gingerbread and a nice panetonne - I like to give those as presents especially if a friend is having an open house.

But please remember us veggies - we need a good quality nut roast here to complete our Christmas meal.. Though your camembert with loganberry sauce starters have been a big hit all round!

A few years ago I bought some poncy canapé spoons/sticks etc so you only need to put little piles of smoked salmon/ cheese etc on them with a few herbs for them to look amazing.
I do that instead of a starter.

Vegetables are all done ahead and frozen.

Pudding..I crumbled booze soaked Christmas pudding through softened ice cream with extra clotted cream. It's amazing.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
12 Brussel Sprouts with bacon
11 Roast tatties, extra dripping
10 Pigs in blankets
9 Christmas crackers
8 Trips to tesco
7 Cups of tea
6 Loads of washing
5 G and Ts
4 Tiny Tantrums
3 Happy kids
2 Boxes of roses
And a gigantic Norfolk Turkey

Brussel sprouts with pecan nuts and maple syrup with bacon bits. Yum yum

I always try to prepare as much as possible in advance. Jamie Oliver's make in advance chicken wings gravy is great as it can be made in advance and then frozen.

I rarely do starters as otherwise no one eats the pudding as they are so full up with mains course. We do nibbles such as smoked salmon on blinis with bubbly as guests come in. Looks special and easy and reasonable to make yourself.

Walnut, Chestnut and red wine loaf for the vegetarians; delia's Parmesan parsnips (without which there would be a rebellion), selection of puds from Christmas pud with brandy butter to Apricot frangipane and ice cream.

We have an alternative Christmas pud in our house! Soak some sultanas in Rum or brandy overnight. Chop some raisins and glacé cherries (big handful of both). Make up a couple of vanilla blancmanges and put into a wetted large pudding baisin. Wait until the blancmanage has cooled a little and just before you put it in the fridge to set, stir in all the dry ingredients. Perfect for those who do not eat gluten products. If you are catering for children, maybe tone down the alcohol :-) lots of other ingredients work with it too, a handful of desiccated coconut, chopped peel, etc. Turn out onto a plate and serve as you would a Christmas pud!