Your Christmas Day Food and Drink Schedule of Goodies

Merkin

I know there's a Christmas thread relating to advice but I'm interested to hear in the specifics of everyone's typical Christmas day with regards to goodies! What do you normally eat and drink from when you get up in the morning to when you go to bed that evening? I love to hear of people's different Christmas individual/family traditions and what is a typical day of eating, drinking and merriment in their house!

I'll get started!

Breakfast normally around 9-10am:

We always say we won't have an Irish breakfast but Dad invariably ends up doing a few little rashers/eggs for everyone. I normally have a light breakfast consisting of eggs and toast.

11am-12am
Crack open the bubbly and everyone will have a Bucks Fizz or two to toast the festive season!

Dinner usually starts from about 2pm on and extends out over a few hours

2pm Starter: Usually a choice of fois gras and toast or wild smoked Irish salmon with homemade brown bread

4pm Main course: Organic turkey from local supplier, honey glazed baked ham, roasties, boiled potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, peas, homemade stuffing and white wine gravy

6pm/7pm Dessert: Homemade pudding or homemade lemon cheesecake
(All above usually washed down with wayyyy too much prosecco and various wines)

9pm: Usually have Stilton and port around this time with various crackers/chutneys etc

11pm/12am: Normally bump into siblings rat arsed in the kitchen making a turkey and stuffing sammich to act as soakage for the ridiculous amount of alcohol that has been imbibed throughout the day. Sandwich normally made with lettuce, tomatoes, red onion and lashing of mayo.

All of the above interspersed with Quality Street (not the green ones eeeughh) and After Eights while playing board games etc.

:eek: God it sounds like a lot when you see it all written down!

Sean_pop

Very detailed day.

Usually wake up around the same time 9 or 10 am. I am not a fry person so I just have a bowl of corn flakes and a slice of bread, as I want to leave plenty of room for Dinner, Desert Drink etc...

Dinner typically kicks off round 1 or 2 pm generally when all the family gets together and all the presents have been unwrapped. Dinner Consists of the Turkey and Ham with stuffing Roast potatoes, carrots turnip sprouts, which I would not be a fan of typically, but seen as it Christmas I always end up having a few on my plate. Everything covered in Turkey gravy from Bisto which a spoon full of cranberry sauce. After that Evonne usually take a break before any desert. Tend to live on sweets and drinks for the day

Don't typically play boards game but usually end up watching Only fools and Horses Christmas special or Royal Family something along that nature.

I unlike yourself love the Green quality streets.:)

Writing this is making me Hungry:D

nc19

My day is typically roses or heros in the morning, selection box round noon, force down the turkey and stuffing around 2pm, triffle around 4pm, more sweets between 5 & 8, egg mayo sambos and cakes around 10 and a lot of drink throughout the day

And i wonder why im fa......large

Animord

Flipping heck, some nastiness in here!

I think I am your twinsie Merkin. We do pretty much the same. It is one day and it is worth spending to make it really good as far as I am concerned.

Merkin

Animord wrote: »

Flipping heck, some nastiness in here!

I think I am your twinsie Merkin. We do pretty much the same. It is one day and it is worth spending to make it really good as far as I am concerned.

Thanks Animord, nice to see some Christmas cheer. Am genuinely flabbergasted by the nastiness, the thread was only set up with the intent of talking about the deliciousness and over-indulgence of tasty goodies and to ask people what they have to eat/drink on my FAVOURITE day of the year.

And it's not about being rich or poor. No matter the financial circumstances, everyone likes to push the boat out a little at Christmas!

grey_so_what

martingriff wrote: »

edit.....boo...

Booo Grinch.

:mad:

Enjoy Merkin!...:) I hope you and your family have a fantastic day.

You've given me food for thought!...:D

Mrs Fox

I envy you lot who gets to sit down for 2pm, which is my preferred time, but a couple of the regular diners have to do their rounds first, and we only get to sit at 5pm the earliest.
It goes pretty quick between starters and main, then a pause for table quiz and presents, before having dessert.
Then continue to games, which I'm still working on, but darts is on the list. Should be fun after a few crates of drinks.
The night usually ends at 5am for me, one or two might stay up til 8am.

Merkin

Mrs Fox wrote: »

then a pause for table quiz

That is a brilliant idea!

Animord

Merkin wrote: »

Thanks Animord, nice to see some Christmas cheer. Am genuinely flabbergasted by the nastiness, the thread was only set up with the intent of talking about the deliciousness and over-indulgence of tasty goodies and to ask people what they have to eat/drink on my FAVOURITE day of the year.

And it's not about being rich or poor. No matter the financial circumstances, everyone likes to push the boat out a little at Christmas!

I was delighted when I saw the thread, I thought I might get some good ideas for something different. And absolutely, I save for this day, it is important in our house to push the boat out for one day.

I had liver three times last week so I can afford a decent ham and see no reason why that should affect anyone else out there. My money, my choices.

Sean_pop

The calorie consumption on Christmas day must be extraordinary. People must consume in the region of 4000 calories.

For me St Stpehen day is pretty much the same as christmas day except I dont eat as many sweets, but they are usually replaced with drink which has more calories probably.

Zell

I'm with Merkin! It reads pretty much like our Christmas day except that we manage a walk on the beach when the turkey is in the oven!

Roesy

This will be my first year not dining with my own family. We will be eating with the inlaws this year. Usually we start the day with some sausages, rashers and eggs as we don't tend to eat dinner until 4/5 pm. Dinner is pretty 80's but oh so delicious. We have prawn cocktail for a starter and then soup and garlic bread for those weird non seafood people. We then have the traditional turkey, ham, spice beef, stuffing, goose fat roast potatoes, mash, gravy, carrots and brussel sprouts washed down with a couple of glasses of wine. Dessert is usually trifle or pavlova(and vienetta for my dad ) There's usually a selection of cheeses later and the obligatory Roses.

emaleth

I will be having a latte and a Golden Crisp from my first selection box for breakfast at about nine, as I rip wrapping paper off presents with my (chocolate-coated) teeth.

About eleven, we are forced to grow up and get dressed and head off to the folks, where we're having a fruit tray (healthy sisters, yawn) and about eight pounds of cheese (tubby me, yay) for second breakfast. I'm also bringing french onion dip because they all love it. Will open the fizz about now, while ripping the paper off the second batch of presents. Quick drink and mince pie with the neighbours, then Termonfeckin Delicious Turkey, plus ham (which I will have been eating bits of since eleven), plus turkey dripping roasties and whatever other vegetables are in Dad's garden about four-ish. Dessert of some description (it changes every year) after, then coffee and my second selection box while watching James Bond. Tea and mince pies later, then off home, more cheese, and bed

Faith

Nasty posts deleted and posters infracted. That sort of attitude is not welcome in our haven!

seosamh1980

Wow Merkin your main meal is so stretched out! You have 2 hours between each course?? We'd die! We don't have breakfast Christmas morning, maybe a slice of toast or a few mince pies at around 11am. Dinner is served at about 2, so our starters (seafood cocktail, lovely big salmon chunks yum) are finished by about 2.15 and we have the main served at about 2.25, turkey, ham, mash, roast potato, carrots, sprouts, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing.

...What do ye do for the 2 hours after starter? I'm intrigued We'd be sitting around an empty table hungry and desperate for the next course.

Then we have dessert straight after, usually trifle (traditional sherry one and jelly one), plum pudding and another dessert that Mum changes every year so whatever she fancies making. Dinner takes about 1.5-2 hours max from start to finish. Then we eat sweeties if they're around and have ham sandwiches, mince pies and fruit cake with tea at about 7. We don't drink so we tend to put away a lot of food at dinner and munching on mince pies after etc.

Merkin

Lol, dinners tend to be marathon type events tbh so the starter would begin at 2pm for example and everyone might have finished the actual food by 2.30 but we'd all sit around the table drinking wine/pulling crackers/talking etc while various people get up and sit down to put finishing touches to the main course. And rinse and repeat. So we will all use the dining table as our base in between helping out etc and we could be there from 2pm to about 7pm!

seosamh1980

Merkin wrote: »

Lol, dinners tend to be marathon type events tbh so the starter would begin at 2pm for example and everyone might have finished the actual food by 2.30 but we'd all sit around the table drinking wine/pulling crackers/talking etc while various people get up and sit down to put finishing touches to the main course. And rinse and repeat. So we will all use the dining table as our base in between helping out etc and we could be there from 2pm to about 7pm!

Yeah, we do all the same things during it, pull crackers, take photos, talk, etc. Mum handles all the food prep, two other relatives wash plates and get it all ready to go, Mum is a culinary machine so it takes her very little time to have it all ready to serve, and she requires no help, maybe that's it. Still baffled, it's like we're talking about different dimensions time-wise, same meal (as in number of courses, volume of food, etc), same activities, 2-3 times the time!

PigeonPie

Great thread! We start off the day with just tea & toast and maybe start into a box of chocs.

Off to mass and then a fry up when we come back. Another dip into the chocs and then dinner around 3. The folks are coming to ours this year and they love traditional christmas dinner so we have to have turkey and ham. With lots of roasties, mash, carrots, roast parsnips, brussels sprouts, peas, tinned peas for Da, & a mountain of stuffing.

We'll let this settle for a bit then have the obligatory trifle. Throughout the rest of the evening we'll have crisps, chocolates, maybe a bit of cake & pudding.

Evening time we'll have some turkey & ham sambos. An we'll probably squeeze in some more sweets & crisps. As the folks don't drink we'll hold off on the alcohol a bit, maybe just a glass of wine with dinner and a glass that night.
Getting hungry thinking about it!

Faith

Gosh, we have such a dull Christmas comparatively. There's only 3 of us these days,which doesn't help. We get up whenever we feel like it, eat a normal breakfast and mooch around. I usually try to watch A Miracle On 34th Street. My parents usually take the dog out at some point.

At about 12, my mum and I start preparing lunch, which is eaten at about 3. When we have time, we open presents - a fairly quick affair for proper presents, and then we spend ages going through what my dad got from patients.

By 3 or 3.30, we eat and start on the wine. Dinner takes maybe 1.5 hours from start to finish. Starters change every year. This year, we're having a traditional main course with everything you'd expect. Dessert is Christmas pudding with brandy butter. The highlight of my day is lighting the pudding on fire . When we're done, we all wash up and clean the dining room etc.

Then everyone pretty much does their own thing for the rest of the day! Watch tv, read books, play with gifts. My parents don't drink much so I sneakily drink ALL the wine and eat as much chocolate as I can manage.

Sometimes I have a Brie and cranberry sandwich to finish the day off but that's really it!

I'd love to have a big family and spend Christmas like Merkin's family, but alas, it's not on the cards for us!

lukesmom

I'm up with the kids around 7 or 8am. Usually play with them and watch them opening their gifts, the delight on their faces makes Christmas for me. We go to my parents house every year but this year my sister in law is cooking for is all. I'd normally eat cereal at about 10am. Sit down to dinner at about 2.30, starter of prawn cocktail or soup. Mains follows shortly after and consists of turkey, honey glazed ham and stuffing. Boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, roast parsnips (yum) tescos finest!, carrots and Brussels sprouts (yuck). Cranberry sauce and gravy also. Dessert is usually a sherry trifle with a huge amount of sherry in it
Then spend the evening watching Christmas specials on tv and gorging on all kinds of Christmas treats. I don't drink so I usually watch everyone fall asleep merrily.

seosamh1980

We have a really lovely Christmas, I think it really looks like a Christmas ad We have 14-18 people ranging from babies to grandparent, we all pile into the one house from lunchtime onwards, there's hugs and presents and catching up all round, then we sit for dinner and have a great laugh. After that we all pile back into the sitting room (which is tiny so we fight for the couch and the rest sit on the floor) with all of us playing games and opening more presents.

We watch a kids movie that we all enjoy, then something like a comedian's Christmas Special, but this year we're watching my wedding dvd apparently Then Corrie and stuff are on so as people start to leave us stragglers take over the couch and get toasty warm with the fire (the kids block the heat from it when they're there!), then the rest of us head home. Might watch a movie or comedian at home then in my pj's with any more food I can fit in. Love it

Animord

Faith wrote: »

I sneakily drink ALL the wine

I do this DURING the cooking which could possibly explain years of dry turkey

cee_jay

Up around 9am and Dad will cook some sausages and toast. We head to mass then, and once that is done, call next door to my aunts. She will have fresh coffee ready, and warm mince pies for those who are a fan. She will also offer mushroom soup but everyone always declines.
Then back home where dinner will be around 2/3. Starter will be a choice of prawn cocktail or prawns in filo pastry. My brothers girlfriend is Romanian, so she will have made sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls) for a course between the starter and main dinner. I stick to the wine during this course.
The main is then turkey, ham, mash potato, roast potato, potato stuffing, turnip, Brussel sprouts (and boiled celery for my parents). Oh and potato croquettes.
Dessert is sherry trifle or banoffee pie.
Then Dad's family arrive, and my mother will cook party food like cocktail sausages, mini quiches, sausage rolls and the like around 10pm, and before long there will be ham and turkey sandwiches with potato stuffing being made.
The last stragglers will head home around 3am.

homemadecider

Growing up in a big family, we always had huge loud rowdy brilliant Christmas dinners. My Dad is an amazing cook and he bakes cranberry muffins on Christmas morning, which are eaten warm from the oven with a glass of sherry. We never really did breakfast, possibly some chocolate but not 'real food'. Dinner was smoked salmon followed by turkey etc, then trifle and Christmas pudding. Tons of wine, lots of people shouting and laughing and generally having a ridiculous time.

This year myself and my fiance are going to stay in our own apartment for Christmas and are starting our own traditions together. Breakfast will be a slice of Pandoro cake (cake for breakfast!) and a glass of Prosecco. I'm not a ham fan but himself loves it; similarly I love turkey but he's not mad on it, so we will cook both. Roast potatoes, roasted carrots, gravy and at least 2 different types of sausage stuffing. Dessert will either be trifle or tiramisu.

I'm such a sucker for Christmas movies, I will watch something like Charle & the Chocolate Factory or Miracle on 34th Street and have a lovely sob at how lovely Christmas is. This is our last Christmas as a non-married couple and it's all kinds of emotional and wonderful and exciting.

The evening will involve elasticated pants, Roses, terrible jokes from crackers and MOAR WINE.

Bloody hell, I love Christmas!

Dizzyblonde

Our daughters are usually home for Christmas and we get up around 9. I'll have cooked the ham on Christmas eve and we have slices of cold ham with fried eggs on toast - sounds weird but it works! We exchange presents, then get dressed and all pitch in with organising dinner, which we have at around 2. My sisters in law have dinner with us, then we relax and watch a film in front of the fire for while before the rest of my family (except for my brother and his family in the US) arrive for the evening. We usually have a buffet supper of cold meats, salads and some hot nibbles, and play board games.

April O Neill II

I like to eat as little as possible in the morning, nothing bar a cup of tea if I can help it, maybe a lovely light few slices of buttered brioche. The reason for this being we have Christmas lunch at around 2 or half 2 so I want to be absolutely ravenous for it!

A traditional dinner of turkey, cloved gammon, homemade cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts (which I actually like!), carrot, turnip, parsnip and sweet potato mash, creamed spuds, roast spuds and The Best Stuffing In the World TM. (stuffed inside the bird of course) No booze for me or most of the fam, my sis might have a few glasses of wine. I love to have cola with my Christmas dinner, more out of tradition and nostalgia than anything else, as when I was young we only got fizzy drinks at birthdays and Christmastime.

We follow this with trifle, no pud in our house usually. I at this stage tend to suffer from postprandial somnolence and retire to my bed to pass out for a few hours. I then emerge zombie-like in search of chocolate which I groggily eat whilst watching TV. I annoy the cat for a while with our jazz-playing Santy decoration and then have a bit of cold turkey, ham and stuffing on a plate with some cranberry sauce.

Then probably more chocolate and TV, then the leaba.

The End.

Butterface

One of my siblings is getting married next year, so this will be the last Christmas we're all around the table together as the original family unit! I don't know if that would change things massively, I really doubt it!

I'm an early riser and usually have a couple of sausages to curb the hangover hunger on Christmas morning. We usually open any presents after breakfast, although we've decided to do Kris Kringle this year so this won't take so long! Then we usually help our mother with anything that needs to be done - whipping cream, laying out the starter etc.

My parents live in the countryside close to relatives, so our uncles and cousins usually pop over for a sherry/whiskey/mulled wine between 12 and 2. We usually start eating around 2 and finish up around 4. My parents then go for their traditional walk for an hour or so and we usually clean up. The clean up is so hard when you are this stuffed, but it's hard to relax when you know you still have to do it later on!

Then all the "kids" (we're all mid-late twenties) retire to the sitting room to chat and watch whatever afternoon kids movie is on. We sometimes play boardgames or do a quiz or something too. We also start lacing into the booze!

There's a steady consumption of chocolates throughout the day. In the evening I usually don't eat anything savoury until 9 - leftovers and cheeses/meats selection with red wine.

Then after the big movie/Downton Abbey or whatever, I'm usually so full and tipsy that I got to bed around 12! Ah, I can't wait for it!

Whistlejacket

Up early to give Dad a hand do a bit of prep in the kitchen. Sisters then cook breakfast (scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, bucks fizz). Off to mass and then a walk in the forest park to stretch the legs, get everyone out of the house for a chat and some fresh air before present opening.

Back and into the kitchen with my Dad and aunt so it's an enjoyable team effort to get the dinner on the table for 3-4pm (the chefs get to start on a little drop of wine). No starter but free range turkey, stuffing, ham from our own pig, roast potatoes, marrow fat peas, carrots, bacon rolls, gravy, bread sauce and cranberry sauce. Then a breather and my aunt's Christmas pudding with brandy butter. Traditional trifle for the non pudding eaters then it's relaxing for the evening. We normally buy a 1000 piece jigsaw to keep us all occupied in between chatting and the odd power nap!

Tea and piece of christmas cake or a chocolate kimberley later in the evening and/or a few leftovers sneaked out of the fridge. We decided a few years ago not to have any roses/celebrations/selection boxes etc. but stick to one tin of chocolate kimberley. Everyone helps with a bit of the washing up so there's not a mountain to face on Stephen's Day before the racing.

It's really interesting to hear what others do on the day. I think it's really nice the way families evolve their own little traditions within the general festivities over the years.

MurdyWurdy

We don't have traditions really because for the last 10 years or so we've gone on holidays for Christmas so Christmas dinner was usually had in a restaurant. I've spent Christmasses in various parts of the world over the past few years and it is fun.

This year we've a baby so we're going to be home for Christmas and we're going on holidays for New Year instead. I'm hoping to start new traditions that will last for years. We only live ten minutes from my parents but we're going to stay there the nights of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

For Christmas Eve I'm making a "Christmas Eve Box" which we'll open in the evening. It has in it new pyjamas and slippers for everyone (so my brother, parents, husband, me and the baby), snacks, wine and a DVD. We'll all have a cosy night in together in our new pjs.

Christmas Day I'm making sausages with brioche rolls for breakfast and then we'll open our presents (including Santa presents for the baby) and go to church. After we get back we're going in to the neighbours for a drink and then we'll come home and I'm cooking dinner for about 5 - ham, turkey, Brussels sprouts, carrot and parsnip mash (the baby loves it!), prune and pistachio stuffing, cranberry sauce, potato dauphinoise and potato croquettes followed by trifle and cheesecake or something else chocolate based. I've made a Christmas cake too. There were some dissenters who wanted dinner earlier but I told them I was cooking it and didn't want to be in the kitchen all morning - so tough!

Then we'll probably put the baby to bed and play a board game or watch a film nibbling at leftovers and chocolates.

I really can't wait and this thread has got me even more excited

Toast4532

This year I am spending Xmas with my bf and we can't wait, it will be just the two of us and as we've never spent a full Xmas day together before we are really looking forward to it.

We'll breakfast about 11am, lunch about 2-3pm and then dinner about 6-7pm.

We aren't doing ham/turkey etc as I don't like Turkey and am not mad on ham either, so we'll do either a four bird roast, duck or something else.

After dinner we'll just relax with some drinks and a movie, or two. We haven't decided if we want desert or not. I was gonna make something chocolate-y but we'll see. I might just make lemon cake or something, we dunno yet.

ebbsy

Toast4532 wrote: »

This year I am spending Xmas with my bf and we can't wait, it will be just the two of us and as we've never spent a full Xmas day together before we are really looking forward to it.

We'll breakfast about 11am, lunch about 2-3pm and then dinner about 6-7pm.

We aren't doing ham/turkey etc as I don't like Turkey and am not mad on ham either, so we'll do either a four bird roast, duck or something else.

After dinner we'll just relax with some drinks and a movie, or two. We haven't decided if we want desert or not. I was gonna make something chocolate-y but we'll see. I might just make lemon cake or something, we dunno yet.

You have two hours to create a perfect 3 course meal.

Lets cook.

shamrock55

I must be one of the very few who never has alcohol on xmas day, i need a rest day between xmmas eve and stephens day

lukesmom

shamrock55 wrote: »

I must be one of the very few who never has alcohol on xmas day, i need a rest day between xmmas eve and stephens day

Your not, I don't drink on Christmas Day, Christmas Eve or ever!

BnB

Great thread.

I'll get up around 7. Watch the kids - Rip open presents. Having learnt from experience, anything that requires a remote amount of assembly will be done in advance - So Christmas morning we can just hang out.

Not much of a breakfast person, so will probably just have a cup of coffee and a few of whatever box of sweets are on the go. We'll have a few boxes of the kind of cereals the kids aren't usually allowed (Coco pops and the like) and they'll stuff their faces with those.

We'll head to mass around 10. After mass, my wife will sometimes visit one or two people but Ill usually go home to start peelin' spuds.

Dinner usually starts around 3ish

This year we have my Parents-in-law & my brother & sister in law coming to us which is great because they are all great craic.

Starters vary - But it's generally Fish based, and easy to prepare. So good quality smoked salmon, maybe prawn cocktail, some nice brown bread and maybe melon for the non-fish believers. I'm going to make my Mammys world famous Turkey soup this year too, but it's nearly too filling for Christmas day - So I'll leave it for St Stephens day probably.

Main Course will be straight from the trad book. Big Turkey (reared by the Mammy) Stuffed with Bread Stuffing inside & Potato Stuffing around it. Ham (thinking of trying the Coca Cola way this year). Tonnes of Brussels Sprouts. Carrots & Parsnips for the heathens. Lots of Mashed Spuds - A Few Roasties - 1/2 Gallon of homemade Turkey Gravy. Cranberry sauce will be available for those odd people who like Jam on their dinner.

Will also do a Vege main course this year as the sister-in-law is Vege. Probably Thai Red Curry as can be made night before.

We'll make a bit of an attempt at a clean up before we think about tacking dessert. Usually maybe 5ish before we get to it. My Mother in law brings the pudding. I'll make some Jelly for the kids too. Cream & Custard & Icecream- Tea & Coffee

Finally, I don't care how full I am - Sometime around 10 c clock, I'll force a few turkey sandwiches into me.

Wine, a couple of cans of beamish and maybe a Brandy or two late on.

The Hill Billy

Will be getting up between 6 & 7 with The Kids for the pressies.
Play with them & goof about until 8-ish, then a regular brekky (porridge, cereal, toast, etc).

10am - stick the turkey on & off to see Nana & Papa Billy & siblings & their respective broods. Usually, this would mean lashings of smoked salmon, spiced beef & G&Ts. Nana Billy hasn't been too good recently, so I'll probably prepare the food & bring it over this year.

Home for 1pm, a glass of sherry & then finish the veg (all prepped on Christmas Eve) & heat up the ham (also cooked on Christmas Eve). We'll sit down to eat around 3pm & it'll be straight into the main course as we don't go for starters. For dessert Mrs Billy will probably do a baked cheesecake. We'll probably have a Nebbiolo to drink. I'll have a coffee & grappa afterwards.

Maybe head out for a quick 30 min walk if it is nice & then back to chill.

Around 7pm we'll have a snack of turkey & pickled onion sandwiches. Then finish off the vino & watch some crap on the TV or if the lads get a good board game (with easy-to-understand instructions) we may give that a shot.

The Sweeper

Currently we have nine for Christmas Dinner, three of whom are staying with us.

I'll be up at 6am - two loaves of soda bread into the oven. Breakfast will be fruit smoothies and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

I'll be cooking and prepping for most of the morning. I can imagine there'll be some present opening after breakfast and then something like the first of the Harry Potter movies will go on the telly and the drinks will be opened.

11am brunch will most probably be large banana prawns done in a garlic marinade, skewered and done on the barbecue with some asparagus. There'll be a side of fresh raw oysters for anyone who wants them. I predict a roaring round of smashing bloody marys after that.

I'm going to aim Christmas dinner for around 3pm. Starters will be a variety - I'll do a pot of steamed mussels in garlic and white wine, poured into a giant serving bowl lined with slices of soda bread for mopping. There'll also be smoked salmon on the rest of the soda bread. The end of the starters will be baked filo pastry triangles stuffed with mushroom and spinach.

Main course - still under debate. Not a turkey. There'll be cold smoked leg ham on the bone from Christmas Eve. If I can get a couple of whole fish - maybe snapper or barramundi - I'll bake them in paper and foil on the barbecue. Will also do seared asparagus with lemon and salt on the barbie. If I can't get the fish I want, it'll be a couple of free range roast chickens with roast spuds, roast veg and the trimmings. If it's fish I'll do a celebration rice pilaf and baked aubergine halves topped with a combination of fruit and seeds (and no cheese and no nuts because of my awkward bloody guests :-P )

...worth noting at this point it'll be 32 degrees and 90% humidity on Christmas day...

After dinner there'll be Christmas pudding and pavlova, followed by sparkling punch and more of the harry potter movies. I intend to allow people to graze on leftovers for the rest of the day, while I snooze in the sunshine.

MissFlitworth

The last few Christmases we've spent in other people's houses so we've been visitors and followed their Christmas schedule. This year my Mam has just moved into her own place (where, technically I'm a visitor but it's not the same as being A Visitor in a lovely relatives house and having to be on your best behaviour and try stop them exhausting themselves trying to amuse you and make sure you're never for a moment without something to do, eat or drink) so we are dusting off our old Christmas schedules.

Christmas eve we start out with a ridiculously outsized Chinese takeaway. We get all the stuff an actual Chinese person would never look at, deep fried frozen spring rolls, chicken balls, 3-in-ones, beef-curry-extra-onions, beef-curry-no-onions. etc. arrange a coffee table buffet and stuff ourselves in front of bad tv. My sister and I are also on ninja heating moderation duty where we try to prevent heat stroke by waiting for my Mam to be distracted by Graham Norton or someone on the telly, finding where she has hidden the thermostat and turning it down from 34 degrees celsius (we're convinced she's half lizard). We will all be wearing matching pyjamas doing this and there is a potential for beer.


Christmas morning starts out with selection boxes, coffee and toast and around 12.00 or so my aunts, cousins & second cousins will arrive & we'll swap gifts (for the kids, us older ones have a I won't force you to go Christmas Shopping for me if you don't force me to go Christmas Shopping for you treaty running for a few years now). We have dinner early, around 1.30 or 2. Starting with smoked salmon paté and oat biscuits, on into turkey, ham, gravy, roasties, stuffing and sprouts and followed by trifle. [on a side note: my sister and I worry for weeks and weeks in advance that there won't be enough stuffing, roasties and/or gravy. We become quite the pain in the head reminding my Mam not to deprive us]

Then everyone literally passes out. Piles of bodies on every surface. We all come to from our food comas between 5 & 7 and spend the evening watching movies, talking, trying to turn down the heating or open a window and eating Christmas sandwiches.

leahyl

OMG I LOVE this thread!

In our house we don't usually eat much for breakfast on Christmas Day - must leave room for the feast ahead of us!

We might have soup or smoked salmon and brown bread as a starter and I nibble away on a few sneaky pringles (which I shouldn't do really...bold me :pac:)

Then for the main event it's the traditional turkey and ham and also the tail end of corned beef (divine) and a bit of spiced beef (for the brother!) with all the trimmings - mash, roasties, potato stuffing, bread stuffing, croquettes, carrotts, brussel sprouts, lashings of gravy and the nicest cheesiest, garlicky potato gratin ever!!

For dessert it's sherry trifle with custard and cream.

Throughout the evening we nibble away on chocolates and crisps and I make a start on the Terry's Chocolate Orange :pac:

Then around 9pm or so we have turkey and stuffing sandwiches - om nom!

OMG I am now salivating....

Animord

leahyl wrote: »

OMG I LOVE this thread!

In our house we don't usually eat much for breakfast on Christmas Day - must leave room for the feast ahead of us!

We might have soup or smoked salmon and brown bread as a starter and I nibble away on a few sneaky pringles (which I shouldn't do really...bold me :pac:)

Then for the main event it's the traditional turkey and ham and also the tail end of corned beef (divine) and a bit of spiced beef (for the brother!) with all the trimmings - mash, roasties, potato stuffing, bread stuffing, croquettes, carrotts, brussel sprouts, lashings of gravy and the nicest chessy, garlicky potato gratin ever!!

For dessert it's sherry trifle with custard and cream.

Throughout the evening we nibble away on chocolates and crisps and I make a start on the Terry's Chocolate Orange :pac:

Then around 9pm or so we have turkey and stuffing sandwiches - om nom!

OMG I am now salivating....

Five different types of potato! We only get roast potatoes. I feel deprived.

leahyl

Animord wrote: »

Five different types of potato! We only get roast potatoes. I feel deprived.

We are obsessed with them in our house!

brooke 2

The Sweeper wrote: »

Currently we have nine for Christmas Dinner, three of whom are staying with us.

I'll be up at 6am - two loaves of soda bread into the oven. Breakfast will be fruit smoothies and scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

I'll be cooking and prepping for most of the morning. I can imagine there'll be some present opening after breakfast and then something like the first of the Harry Potter movies will go on the telly and the drinks will be opened.

11am brunch will most probably be large banana prawns done in a garlic marinade, skewered and done on the barbecue with some asparagus. There'll be a side of fresh raw oysters for anyone who wants them. I predict a roaring round of smashing bloody marys after that.

I'm going to aim Christmas dinner for around 3pm. Starters will be a variety - I'll do a pot of steamed mussels in garlic and white wine, poured into a giant serving bowl lined with slices of soda bread for mopping. There'll also be smoked salmon on the rest of the soda bread. The end of the starters will be baked filo pastry triangles stuffed with mushroom and spinach.

Main course - still under debate. Not a turkey. There'll be cold smoked leg ham on the bone from Christmas Eve. If I can get a couple of whole fish - maybe snapper or barramundi - I'll bake them in paper and foil on the barbecue. Will also do seared asparagus with lemon and salt on the barbie. If I can't get the fish I want, it'll be a couple of free range roast chickens with roast spuds, roast veg and the trimmings. If it's fish I'll do a celebration rice pilaf and baked aubergine halves topped with a combination of fruit and seeds (and no cheese and no nuts because of my awkward bloody guests :-P )

...worth noting at this point it'll be 32 degrees and 90% humidity on Christmas day...

After dinner there'll be Christmas pudding and pavlova, followed by sparkling punch and more of the harry potter movies. I intend to allow people to graze on leftovers for the rest of the day, while I snooze in the sunshine.

Just love the sound of your Xmas!! May I join you??

leahyl

Faith wrote: »

Gosh, we have such a dull Christmas comparatively. There's only 3 of us these days,which doesn't help. We get up whenever we feel like it, eat a normal breakfast and mooch around. I usually try to watch A Miracle On 34th Street. My parents usually take the dog out at some point.

At about 12, my mum and I start preparing lunch, which is eaten at about 3. When we have time, we open presents - a fairly quick affair for proper presents, and then we spend ages going through what my dad got from patients.

By 3 or 3.30, we eat and start on the wine. Dinner takes maybe 1.5 hours from start to finish. Starters change every year. This year, we're having a traditional main course with everything you'd expect. Dessert is Christmas pudding with brandy butter. The highlight of my day is lighting the pudding on fire . When we're done, we all wash up and clean the dining room etc.

Then everyone pretty much does their own thing for the rest of the day! Watch tv, read books, play with gifts. My parents don't drink much so I sneakily drink ALL the wine and eat as much chocolate as I can manage.

Sometimes I have a Brie and cranberry sandwich to finish the day off but that's really it!

I'd love to have a big family and spend Christmas like Merkin's family, but alas, it's not on the cards for us!

Sounds great Faith! A lovely traditional christmas

Animord

Is it sad that I want to put together a spreadsheet of everyone's Christmas so we can take all the best bits (maybe we need a poll, or several polls actually) and plan the best, most fantastic Christmas ever?

fussyonion

I've always wished to be invited to someone's house on Christmas Day-I'd love the atmosphere of a house full of people, but so far neither boyfriend or I have been asked, so we have Christmas in our own home.
We do enjoy it a lot, but maybe one year we'll be asked along to a relatives' home!

We get up at around 8am and never usually have breakfast; we normally exchange presents straight away, but this year we're going to have a fry-up: sausage, pudding, fried egg, rashers, toast and coffee, and then exchange presents after that, to eke it out.
I would like to have some champagne too.

I'll start preparing dinner at around midday.
I rub a herbed butter under the turkey's skin, slather butter on the outside, lay strips of streaky bacon on top and place the bird on a trivet of onions, garlic, celery, carrots and herbs.
I then wrap the whole tray in tin foil and get on with prepping everything else.

Dinner is eaten at around 4pm: roast turkey with stuffing, smoked ham, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, potato croquettes, peas, carrots, Brussels sprouts and gravy, all washed down with a glass or two of Chablis or Sancerre.

After dinner we usually nod off in front of a festive film and then at around 7pm if we're still peckish we'll have a turkey sandwich.

The wine usually gets opened at around 8pm and I'll stick to that all evening, punctuating the drinking with the nibbling of crisps and nuts.
Boyfriend will stick to beer.
We might play Monopoly and stick on The Royle Famile too.

Then we usually go to bed at around 2:30am and go to my parents' the following day.

Loire

Really looking forward to Christmas this year. As herself is from "Up the country" we've usually gone there for Christmas, but this year, with our eldest in Santa age proper, we're staying put in Cork and starting our own traditions. After a pint or two with my Dad we'll add head to mass (to get it out of the way!).

Christmas eve night I'll boil the ham (a family tradition is that we all have a warm slice of ham late at night, when all the prep is done for Christmas day, before going to bed).

Christmas morning - do as my father used to do when we were kids....wake before everyone, turn the tree lights on and start singing carols to wake the kids gently.

Breakfast will be Frank Hederman's smoked salmon with brown bread from the Pano and a MASSIVE pot of Barry's

Kir Royales will be on the go about 11.

Dinner will be at about 2ish

Starter will be something I've done for the past few years:
Crab claws, tiger prawns, scallops and smoked salmon (all cold) with marie rose sauce served on a large leaf of iceberg lettuce. The fact that this is a cold starter means it's a cinch to serve on the big day. I'll have each fish types ready in separate bowls in the fridge. Lay a leaf of lettuce on each plate, plonk a handful of each fish type on top, add the sauce & a slice of lemon and it's done

Before the mains, we're gonna play some games and pull crackers

Mains - boring but hey:
Turkey & ham. I'm also gonna buy 2 extra turkey legs and remove the bones and roll with stuffing as per beer's instruction / youtube recipe.
Roast potatoes, b sprouts with lardons, mash with thyme, peas (cooked in the water from the ham), roasted carrots.

Herself is taking care of desserts. Last night she had it whittled down to 4 desserts (plus my Xmas cake and the obligatory pudding)!

This will all be washed down with some very good wine I brought back from France in Sept

I really can't wait now. Are we there yet, are we there yet?!!!!

homeOwner

leahyl wrote: »

.... potato stuffing...

I thought we were the only ones who make potato stuffing. My mum says its a west cork recipe from her granny who lived on the beara peninsula (and I see you are in cork). I have been trying to explain to people my whole life how great potato stuffing is and everyone thinks its wierd. But its the Best Thing Ever! :D

The Hill Billy

fussyonion wrote: »

I've always wished to be invited to someone's house on Christmas Day-I'd love the atmosphere of a house full of people

God, no! My sis is cooking dinner in my parents' house for everyone on Christmas Day & wants us to stay for the event. That'd be...

• 18 adults & kids eating in shifts at the dining room table
• 18 adults & kids all wanting to watch something different on the telly
• 5 adults getting locked
• the other 5 adults saying 'take it handy, I'm not the only one looking after these kids you know'
• 8 kids getting wound up to bejaysus & totally hyper on sweets & fizzy drinks thanks to one particular auntie who had too many G&Ts (you know who you are!)
• 8 kids' toys getting lost, broken, etc & all the tears that come with it

After 3 hours of mayhem while I visit them in the morning I'll be very much looking forward to a sedate dinner with Mrs Billy & The Kids in our own home.

leahyl

homeOwner wrote: »

I thought we were the only ones who make potato stuffing. My mum says its a west cork recipe from her granny who lived on the beara peninsula (and I see you are in cork). I have been trying to explain to people my whole life how great potato stuffing is and everyone thinks its wierd. But its the Best Thing Ever! :D

MMMM I love potato stuffing! I just assumed everyone had it on Christmas Day! It's glorious with the juices from the turkey - my mum does it for my dad mainly cos he's not gone on the bread stuffing (I know :eek:) but I love it too - she stuffs it in the neck part of the bird and then it all oozes out during the cooking - OM NOM!

Merkin

leahyl wrote: »

MMMM I love potato stuffing! I just assumed everyone had it on Christmas Day! It's glorious with the juices from the turkey - my mum does it for my dad mainly cos he's not gone on the bread stuffing (I know :eek:) but I love it too - she stuffs it in the neck part of the bird and then it all oozes out during the cooking - OM NOM!

I'd honestly never heard of it before this thread, am intrigued! What does it consist of? (Besides from potatoes obviously )

leahyl

Merkin wrote: »

I'd honestly never heard of it before this thread, am intrigued! What does it consist of? (Besides from potatoes obviously )

All it is is potato, onions, thyme and parsley and salt and pepper basically - you're just replacing the breadcrumbs with potato!

dipdip

Oh how I wish I was in a position to plan my own Christmas day. Someday I'll plan the day from start to finish! We've always had to go with the plans of parents/in-laws.

This year me and the OH will wake up with the in-laws and head to church. Breakfast and lunch plans will all depend on the mother in law.

I imagine the wine will be popped around 3pm and dinner served around 5pm - all the traditional favourites will be served plus probably something a little special - the MIL pulls out all the stops when it comes to Christmas dinner. Her sausage-meat stuffing is full of herbs and apples and bacon and butter - and is divine. There's usually a choice of starter - seafood, soup or melon (or a bit of all three for the gluttons). The extended family will pour in for dinner around 4.30 and there can be up to 20 of us, adults and kids, depending on commitments.

The only thing I miss when my MIL cooks is roast potatoes - she doesn't make them. And it's not an option for me to make them...her kitchen is her domain.

Dessert is usually a bit of a buffet - trifle, pudding, custard, pavlova and possibly a festive red velvet cake.

After dinner over tea and coffee people will exchange Christkindle gifts and these are opened one by one in a strange ritual. The children also receive gifts from Granny and Grandad at this point and God-children receive gifts from their God-parents. Now we are approaching the witching hour where children begin to melt down from exhaustion and too many sweets and over-stimulation. Eventually the parents with kids will hit the road, leaving the few childless of us behind to get mildly plastered and watch whatever Grandad puts on the telly.

It ain't perfect, but it's nice.