Christmas Dinner - How do you do yours?

[LunaNyteskye]

Originally Posted by lfc_sarah

I absolutely love hearing about everyone's family Christmas! 😍

We are both close to our famlies but don't spend Christmas period together anymore.
Our famlies fight over who gets us, there's my dad, his dad and his mum all separate. Liverpool - Newbury and we are in Kinloss, Scotland. We tried alternating but that caused bad feeling too. And yikes the trouble it caused with his mum when we had both Dad's and partners at ours for Christmas...
That and it's STRESSFUL travelling and keeping with their routines.
The year we stopped is when our kids were awake excited to go downstairs to see that Santa had been, but they couldn't because we were waiting on my husband's sister arriving. Then a family argument broke out with his stepdad and his 17 year old brother that was nothing to do with us. All which our kids were seeing. Not the Christmas I wanted to be at.

We see them before Christmas separately and give presents etc.

We have created our own 'family Christmas' with our best friends.
We go to Center Parcs together or one of our houses and all meet up.
We have our own Christmas morning and Christmas Dinner and meet up for Christmas evening and Boxing Day usually with a yummy spread.

The kids have grown up together so no matter where we are in the country due to the army posting us here there and everywhere, we love to all get together again. And it's fun and happy just as Christmas should be 😁

See more...

Another Moray resident here - I'm in Lossie!

[lfc_sarah]

Originally Posted by LunaNyteskye

Another Moray resident here - I'm in Lossie!

See more...

We love it up here.
I'm not sure how long we will be here though.

[princess allie]

I always cook and host, I’d like to get a year off, but it’s never going to happen! It’s only dh, ds26, ds13 and db as he’s single, used to be my darling mum too, but she’s no longer with us.

Prawn cocktail to start, followed by turkey (cooked the day before), roast potatoes, red cabbage and apple, cauliflower cheese, broccoli cheese, carrot and turnip mash, pigs in blankets (at least 36 as these are the most important part) and Yorkshire puddings. We just have Bisto for gravy. For pudding we have my homemade Christmas pudding and fresh fruit salad with clotted cream. Followed by coffee and after eights. We also eat at 1pm so that we can have a light buffet tea at about 7pm, just because we are pigs!

[arielrocks]

We have Christmas dinner at 2/2.30ish.
We always have turkey and roast beef. I serve it all on the dining table so that everyone can help themselves, as are always amazed at how much extra ‘picking’ happens on Christmas Day. This years menu is;

Roast turkey
Roast beef
Roast potatoes
Yorkshire puddings
Pigs in blankets
Sausage balls
Mini sausages (for the kids)
Maple roasted parsnips
Stuffing
Carrots
Peas
Runner beans
Sprouts with pancetta.

Then pudding we usually have something light / small such as a lemon tart or some ‘posh’ ice cream.

[Mqt]

This year will be the first in about 20 years that I haven’t cooked Xmas dinner for between 12-18 people! One of my daughters is cooking it for the first time this year and we will hopefully alternate in the future. I pretty much do a ‘set’, tried and tested menu which everyone enjoys.

The menu consists of:

Turkey
Ham or Pork
Vegetarian Main (nut roast or similar)
Roast potatoes with garlic and rosemary
Gratin Dauphinoise
Red cabbage with apple, cooked with cranberries and orange juice
Roast carrots
Roast parsnips
Plain sprouts
Sprout gratin
Cauliflower cheese
Peas
Carrot and swede mash
Forcemeat stuffing
Vegetarian stuffing (usually sage and onion)
Cranberry sauce
Pigs in blankets (I cooked over 60 last year )
Turkey gravy
Vegetarian gravy

Homemade Christmas pudding
Sticky toffee pudding
Fruit-based pudding-usually pavlova or lemon tart

[Bella Girl]

I Love hosting Christmas Day. We usually have around 20 people and it is always at our house. Everyone helps and contributes which makes it easy. The youngsters prepare the vegetables and set the table, the grandparents bake desserts and I do the main course. Everyone helps clear up and do the dishes.
I love all the noise, the chaos and the laughter.

We don’t have starters but there will be nibbles laid out. We have a turkey crown and a ham I bake on Christmas Eve. Vegetables are always roast potatoes, mash potatoes, broccoli, carrots and sprouts. There has to be plenty of pigs in blankets, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy.

I started this tradition when our kids were teenagers as I did not think they would want to be with us once they finished university but actually the younger ones love it and are keen to come each year x

[Beth_Disney]

My mum cooks Christmas dinner and there can be anything between 4 and 11 of us, it depends on whether we're at in-laws or whether my sisters are working.

Mum does whatever starter we'd like which is usually soup, prawn cocktail or a cheese board (that's usually me!)

Then mains is turkey and pork and the usual trimmings. Most is served on our plates and then bowls of extras like boiled potatoes, stuffing, extra Yorkshire puddings, more meat and cauliflower cheese are put on the dining table.

Mum lays the table with a lovely Christmas table cloth, place mats, glasses and best plates and cutlery. We also have a selection of everyone's favourite condiments on the table, whether they match or not! Mustard, horseradish, mint sauce, apple sauce, cranberry sauce and ketchup for the kids.