Christmas Dinner
 

When we were a family of 5 I used to spend all Christmas morning in the kitchen preparing the traditional turkey dinner. Luckily, I like cooking and I'm a good cook, though I sez it as shouldn't.

Nowadays there's just me, my younger daughter and my granddaughter. They don't eat meat. Christmas Day now is a bit different and this year we will be having salmon-en-crout (courtesy of Sainsburys) followed by cheesecake. On Boxing Day my son and his wife and my elder daughter, son-in-law and grandson will all come with us to a local pub where we'll have lunch. In the evening I will provide a buffet. We will, as usual, be playing daft board games and getting very mellow on the wine and champagne I always get for Christmas from my brothers.

I love my Boxing days, all my family here and no real effort on my part apart from defrosting the buffet food and warming up the vol-au-vents and mince pies, but I rather miss peeling mounds of spuds, carrots and sprouts, making the bread sauce and thickening the gravy. I miss basteing the turkey. I miss making my (very) alcoholic trifle and my husband insisting on scraping out the custard pan - woe betide me if I put it to soak before he'd had the spoon in it - and steaming the Christmas pudding while I added loads of brandy to the white sauce.

What do you do on Christmas Day? Do you carry a steaming bird, proudly, from the oven or do you let a good restaurant take the strain?

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Christmas day I awake to the sound of 2 little elephants running into the bedroom informing that Father Christmas has been.

We go down stairs and watch the children open their pressies ( which takes approx 10 minutes). We have a good look at whhat they have got, then me and Ginger open all ours.

Then Ginger will retire to the kitchen where he will stay all afternoon preparing a scrummy Christmas Dinner for me and the ankle biters. I stay in the livingroom with a lovely glass of wine entertaining the children ( or should that be the children entertaining me) :D I love christmas day!!! The T.v is usually great.....usually a great plot on all the soaps to watch......and the children are kept entertained by new pressies all day.

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Last year for the first time i cooked christmas dinner for me & my bro because for the last roundabout 15 years i went to my sisters and my mum went to my other sisters. One sis did smoked salmon for starters, then turkey and all the trimmings and xmas pud and whisky cream which was alcoholic enough to put you over the limit. Which to me is christmas. The other sis does near enough exactly the same except roast beef instead of turkey and her alcoholic trifle instead of xmas pud. Didnt go to my sisters last year because she went to india and no matter how i tried talking her out of spending xmas there she wouldnt and came home new years day. So i did xmas dinner well it turned into xmas tea by the time i had cooked it got one of them turkey breasts because there was only me and bro but did all the trimmings. This year sister is at home so thats were im going.

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We have a family rota as to who is doing the traditional Christmas lunch.

Happily because I lived away for so long, I wasn't on the rota.

If they put me on the rota I would do turkey swizlers and micro-chips.

Life's too short to stuff an olive or a Parson's nose.:D

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We usually have a nice leg of Lamb with squash, potatoes, cranberries, and bisquits!

Brian

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I might have to work so no plans as yet. If they leave it too long it will either be stay in bed then if feeling up to a bit of cooking will do myself a small meal. Otherwise I aint a clue. :(

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A couple of years ago we went next door to the old dears and had a nice curry. It was a nice change tbh. However I love cooking Xmas dinner. And I love picking on the left over Turkey afterwards as well. This year we should be having a nice Goose as I setup the wireless network for a big Goose farm near where I work, Payment was to be a nice big goose at Christmas time :D
We usually have my Mum with us as shes on her own and my sisters both live overseas, then we will visit Julies Mum and Dad and Grandma, home for some butties at tea time.

This year will be extra special as its the first Xmas where Siobhan will know a bit of whats happening. We are both really looking forward to watching her open all her pressies.

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Going to mums this year. Starter will be Prawn Salad (she usually does home made lentil soup, yum, yum). Turkey with all the trimmings and sherry trifle. Then comes the coffee with the cheese board.

When you walk through the door you are greeted with a yummie Port and Brandy mix.

Last year Mum and Dad was away so it was just me, Alec and Antony. I did Pate on toast to start with, all the turkey trimmings and for pudding was sherry trifle.

Boxing day, im not sure what im cooking, feel like a bit of lamb but have you seen the price of it !:(

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I buy a full lamb when they are in season from the local farmer and freeze it. It works out a darn site cheaper than buying it all year round and it tastes a heck of a lot better as well. Plus you know your cash went to a local farmer rather than ADSA's coffers

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My daughter is having Christmas dinner with her mother for the first time this year so it looks like microwave meal for one from Asda and the pub :D

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Which local farmer ? lol
I take it you have a big freezer ... mines only small.:(

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Get it through Cornthwaites, I have an old secondhand freezer in the garage which we bought for £40 about 7 years ago. I tend to buy all meat in bulk, it works out a lot better value. e.g I got 5lbs of Chicken Breast for a tenner, I get 5lbs of minced steak for under a fiver etc. Plus you can buy stuff when its in season(and usually at its best) and store it for when you want it.

Whittakers Butchers on Bburn Market is quite good, but we've recently started going up to Bury market instead.

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I get all my meat at cost but because I don't have time/can't be arsed to cook meals I feel cheated :D

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I cooked Christmas dinner for the first time last year, bought a turkey crown though, no waste, did all the trimmings and really enjoyed it though I think the wine and champagne helped, this year we are going up to my sisters which I'm looking forward to, my 4 year old daughter is really excited this year so I cant wait to see her face on Christmas morning.

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I work on Christmas day and am doing the night shift (again) this year. The one advantage to working is that you never have to do the dinner. Like Grego, I am also going to Sammy's (our sis). All the family will be together so it should be a bit noisy. However, I will have to leave early and stay sober in order to go to work.:)

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I get up breathe go bed why do you want to know?

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To find out if this one tradition that the PC brigade cant get at is still going strong. :p :D

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I lie awake waiting for little'un to come running in to tell me Santas been. Then while he is jumping around impatiently, I make a coffee and bacon sarnies (I know I'm cruel) Then he gets to open his presents. We play with a few then go to Now ex's mum and Dads for xmas dinner.

We have home made stilton and celery soup for starter, Ham and Turkey with spuds, sprouts done with bacon and riesling, parsnips in parmesan& ginger followed by xmas pud.

For tea she does a buffet with an overdose of sherry in the trifle!

This year we are going to my daughters on boxing day though I haven't quite escaped all the cooking as I will be making mince pies and chocolate gateaux. Can't wait lol

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No earlier than 8 am will anyone be allowed up hehehehe awake to kids waiting for me noisily, then the surpise to the presents then start - within 10mins they will be all open - & if im really lucky i get to open some too if santa dont forget me:D, then its brekki before the kids cant any idea of choccy.

Errrr xmas dinner [ba piggin humbug] i soooo dont like cooking at best of times, cooked a proper feast last year & least those people are still alive :eek: which is a huge releif :D suppose this year will be a smaller chicken roast & xmas pizza ala yorkie puds for the young fussy one lol, while they are quiet or in midst of xmas scrap. My daughter has made the xmas cake & the yule log will be made on thursday all ready for xmas awww bless her:D Then hopefully be able to veg out in front of telly with a strong glass of alchofrol - how wonderful:rolleyes: Well thats the plan for now anyways.

Xmas film u cant beat is scrooge true spirit of xmas pmsl!!

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Like Entwisi i too cannot wait for christmas this year as Jack will know whats going on this time round YIPPEE!
When i was down south we always had home cooked turkey with trimmings, but the tradition with my family i have up here is that we go to a posh restaurant for our meal-costs a fortune but luckily my cousin paid for mine last year and another family member has offered to pay this year (as i really cant afford it)!which is incredible because its usually£80-£100 a head:eek: i would be content with an asda micro-meal but its tradition now:rolleyes:
Jack was only 6 months old last christmas but i was up at 5am and keeping myself busy till i could get him out of bed at 7am-is everyone like this with there first child or was it just me being crazy?
and yes by the time it came to the afternoon i was exhausted lol:o

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Nice one... trouble is i dont have a garage or shed to put in a second freezer and the kitchen is only approx 10ft x 6ft. I already have my dryer sat ontop of the washer now, lol

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My aunt is the stewardess at a masonic lodge so all the family is going there and we are going to set up the table in the bar area, and have dinner there. As for anything else, its Harry's first Christmas so haven't got a clue hpw it will pan out. Although Christmas Day is the only day that I will not be working!!

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Who else thinks it would be funny if the kids came downstairs and there was no pressies at all? Id pish myself. It happened to me but thankfully my parents had hidden them all over the house for me to find it was ace.

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Ive done that one fer laugh, usually presents were in the lounge, but as my dining table was next door but one, i had a lot more space so put them in the dining room instead so they came down & looked in shock as there was no presents {they was threatened before xmas as they were mis behaving they may not get any] pmsl their faces but before they could burst in tears i pointed towards the dining room - the releif of happiness was more a picture [hey they dont misbehave before xmas now hehehe]

Im cruel but not really:D

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Like many people who live by themselves my Xmas Day will start when I wake up. When that will be will depend on a variety of factors but one of them won’t be kids diving onto my bed. So it could be at any time between eight and noon.

My first task is a visit to the bog, make a brew and yes even on Xmas Day, boot up the machine to see what has happened since I went to bed. After trashing all the spam a quick look around my usual haunts and then breakfast of some sort of cereal with ice-cold real milk and either sugar or honey. After a shower and shave etc it will see me ready to take on the world a couple of hours after waking up.

A cup of decent coffee made with all milk and a fag will see me scouring the Radio Times to see what programmes I will need to avoid. The schedules for the five main channels have nothing to interest me until 4:30pm on ITV1 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone but I have the DVD so that won’t interest me.

Somewhere along the way I will fit in a meal of some sort, probably one of those Birds Eye chicken dinner things or maybe as it is Xmas I’ll go for the Turkey dinner. If I can find a very small one I will also have a Xmas pudding with real custard, which I will make myself rather than one of those instant custard things.

The evening schedules are not much better although there is the new Dr. Who on BBC1 at 7:00pm. Unfortunately that clashes with the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures on Chan 5 at 7:15pm, which have always been a highlight of my Xmases. But the Dr. Who programme is repeated on Wednesday on BBC3 at 8:00pm so I can watch both programmes. Otherwise there is little else to interest me on the telly.

How do I know all this? I get my Radio Times delivered by the publisher and I just got the Xmas two weeks issue today.

However I won’t be bored because I can either watch a Laurel and Hardy film or a few Tom and Jerry cartoons. Or carry on converting all my records and tapes to digital format (.wav) for storing on DVD’s after I have cleaned them up with Audio Cleaning Lab to get rid of most of the background noise and crackles etc. It takes time but time is plentiful for me.

None of the family is likely to call in on Xmas Day because they have kids and they need to be at home for them. They will drop in on Boxing Day. I won’t be going to them because my son lives in Whittle-le-Woods, a daughter in Cherry Tree, a daughter near Accrington and one in Spain. So it isn’t practical to try and visit them all. In any case we keep in touch throughout the year.

In a nutshell my Xmas Day will be to my liking and you can’t ask for more than that.

MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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I'm always up first on Christmas day, making as much noise as possible so everyone else will wake up. Even when Santa used to visit i always had to wake the kids up. Have a brew, open pressents then fight over the bathroom. Once dressed shall visit father. In the past have either gone to my sisters along with my dad, or he came here then spent the evening driving people home. This year will be staying at home on our own, plus two teenagers. Will be having the traditional turkey dinner with all trimmings, personally i would prefare steak or lamb but the rest of the family want turkey. Then for pudding it will probably be a defrosted gateux or something similar. Will be slightly differant because i don't usually have a drink Christmas day, but this year with not having to do any driving in the evening shall be able to.

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My son and his wife always have their Christmas dinner at their home, just the 2 of them. He does the cooking (he does most of their cooking anyway) and every year they have a different "theme". He's done Indian, Chinese, Thai, Greek, Mexican and God knows what else. He's a good cook and he really "goes to town" with all the authentic ingredients. I asked him when he was going to have an English theme and do turkey. He looked at me in horror and said he wouldn't have a clue where to start. :D

Last year he was very brave. One of the members of his band gave him an edible, real scorpion in jelly as a present. He brought it to my house on Boxing Day and - I am here to tell you - he ate it! I wish you could have seen the expression on his face as it went down - and it stayed down too! :)

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It's going to be strange this Christmas because I usually work Christmas Day and this will be the first on I have had off in about 15yrs.
When the children were little we had the works posh table with crackers and dinner with all the trimmings.
Now there is only two of us I don't know what we'll have a meal if we feel like it or left overs from Christmas Eve.
Watch all my soaps on TV. Have a drink for a change. The perhaps come on here for a while.

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open all ours lol, whos the big kids, i bet you were the ones runnin down the stairs

Re: Christmas Dinner
 

All this talk of running down the stairs reminds me of my mum. A couple of years ago leading up to xmas she was really ill. Doc came out on xmas eve to check how she was and she said that she'd come out on the Wednesday if my mum was still here. That is how bad she was. Anyway one of my sisters said she'd bring xmas dinner up to ours and we'd have it our dinner here because i was looking after mum. Christmas Eve mum was still ill and during the night she had me up and down looking after her. 8.00am mum shouted for me and said she was getting up for the first time for over a week and opening her presents. She said she wasnt spending xmas day in bed. Anyway she came downstairs and opened her pressies - she was like a big kid. Everyone was shocked when they came round - she was up and smiling and laughing with the best of em! Wonderful what xmas does isnt - she got up to open her pressies! She was just a big kid at heart!!

Re: Christmas Dinner
 

same as entwi, i like a goose at christmas.:D

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Naughty naughty Cashy :D What does paris say - she normally gets a turkey though? :D

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You may want to have a look at other formats to wav, its very inefficient in terms of space, Flac is probably one of the best.

Re: Christmas Dinner
 

THREAD INTERRUPTION!

Just notice some very nice person gave me Karma for having lamb on Christmas. First, thank you muchly. Second, we also have lamb on Easter so . . .:D

With this "temp." Accyweb, had no idea that I had a number of Karma comments. Kinda hard to tell. Heck I don't even know how much Karma I've got but will find it on my own. Just mostly wanted to say thanks anonymous one!

Brian

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If this year is to follow the pattern my now 11 year old daughter will have to be woken at about 10;30.She likes a lie in and Christmas Day won't stop her! Once she is awake all hell breaks loose in a flurry of present opening;this will be cut short as her Dad comes to pick her up for his stint at about 11;30,the other pressies have to wait! I would usually do the cooking but we have been invited to my partner's mums this year;would imagine it's gonna be traditional fare.Will see my Mum on Christmas day at some point but it's getting increasingly difficult organising the timetable of flying visits! Spend Boxing day with my Dad ,Bro and Sis and respective partners up in the Valley,all good fun with daft games and quizzes + huge buffet! My Christmas doesn't start till I leave work on Christmas Eve,exhausted from Music Zone,off to the pub for a celebratory pint with my workmates and then home! Then it's Christmas,up to now it's just mayhem! I have only had one Christmas out of retail in the last 18 years;and I had to have a baby to get that!

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Snap Lyy we have Lamb and pork on Christmas day because i'm not keen on turkey!!!!

We make plenty of meats and have meat sandwiches later in the evening to munch on :D:D aswell as the bacon and sausage wraps that are lovely cold.

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hiya me mum and bro go to asda and we get a basket each and split up and get what ever we want !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we have £20 budget !

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I was thinking about a gammon roast but aint got a clue yet. :o

Running out of time. Just a thought but when does the sprouts war start in the supermarkets?

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So kezia .. that is a lovely idea, would love to know what you buy.

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Goose is the English traditional Christmas bird, turkey is a recent (in the last 100 years) innovation from America.

I haven't had goose since 1968 and it's a date I can't forget. I spent all afternoon cooking it and pouring the grease off (very greasy birds, geese) - my husband had to work that day and we were eating at 6 p.m. I wasn't feeling too well all day but I ate my Christmas dinner then my head started "spinning" and I rushed up to the bathroom to be sick. I started shivering, violently, and it was the start of gastric 'flu. I spent the next 5 days in bed, shivering and throwing up, and the doctor said he would have sent me into hospital but for the fact I was drinking at least 3 large bottles of Lucozade a day and it stopped me dehydrating. It took over a month before I began to feel well.

I haven't ever cooked a goose since then - I just can't face it. :sick:

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word of advice ...........never ever buy a 'fresh' Christmas goose from a recent Cambodian immigrant, even if he is an employee who brings into work great chicken curries (that you later find out are made from the carcasses of his losing fighting cocks) , not unless you want the police knocking at the door asking about missing ornamental wildfowl from a city center park.
From now on if it aint frozen, vacuum wrapped and hasn't got a plastic pop-up thing I aint buying it

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:rolleyes: :D

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up untill approx 3 years ago i spent every christmas slaving away preparing high quality christmas dinners for all those dammned reataurant/hotel goers
(mainly over-paid nobs who couldn't be bothered to do it themselves)
now i'm not a chef any-more i take great pleasure in doing exactly the same thing for my family and friends although every now and again we visit the mother in law ( now i've taught her how to cook! lol)

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Oi you ! I 'aint an overpaid nob :p After years of slaving over a hot stove all day, erecting forts, legos, etc., in the morning, not really enjoying Christmas dinner 'cause you are busy trying to look after the family, it has been a pleasure these last three years to go up the road to Balti Stan, just me, my bros and son. Daughter wont come, 'cause, even though they serve traditional, says she can't stand the smell of Indian.

I love it ... being waited on and time to relax and chat, and not dropping in to bed at night exhausted. So I thank you for serving us in the past jedimaster .. it's not easy when you are a lousy cook like me. :(

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i did say mainly and not all

but i am a firm believer that christmas is a time for family and now for me
slaving over a hot stove all morning preparing a wonderful feast for my family and guests is all part of the wonderful experience of christmas
(however maybe this is due to the fact that it is only recently that i have been able to do this)