# Let's talk Christmas dinner. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 19, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267 "2005-12-19T06:24:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/1 "2005-12-19T06:24:42Z")
I started a present thread. I was thinking of starting a tree thread. But as I’ve just done my grocery shopping…_Sigh_ yes this IS evidence I’ve gotten into the holiday spirit, despite all my best effort to the contrary. Anyway my Holiday Spirit (annoying thing) says it time t talk about Christmas dinner. Me? I’m sick to death of turkey. I tried to do goose but it seemed to alarm people. I did beef but it was insanely expensive for a large group. So somehow this year I’ve lit on pork. Roast pork. Not the whole pig, but still festive. I’m thinking: Pork loin with apricot and shallot stuffing Sweet potato wedges, roasted Brussel sprouts with chestnuts Braised red cabbage and the controversial bit…Yorkshire puddings. Which I’m not supposed to do as I’m having pork, not beef. But I just got the knack of making them and wanted to show off. Much more interesting than dinner rolls. So I’m asking the UK contingent…is this heresy? Anyway that’s me, anyone else thinking dinner? ---
**Author:** ![jellyblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@jellyblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jellyblue)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/2 "2005-12-19T06:51:13Z")
Xmas eve dinner for four: as-yet-undetermined appetizer, a big roast with veggies and potatoes (my partner’s making that) and chocolate pots a creme (looks weird with no accents) with fresh whipped cream for dessert. Xmas day we’re going out. Prime rib would be my best guess. Happy holidays! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/3 "2005-12-19T08:54:23Z")
Christmas eve dinner is the big one for us— Pork tamales baked ham with honey-mustard glaze mashed potatoes green salad spanish rice refried beans cheese-olive bread and lemon pie apple pie sweet potato pie coconut cream pie We like pie ---
**Author:** ![Cyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@Cyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyn)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/4 "2005-12-19T09:04:14Z")
The bane of married Dopers with two computers!!! Previous post was \*\*Cyn’s \*\* **Drachillix** ’s family Christmas day dinner a totally different animal… Turkey with Uncle Frank’s mushroom stuffing mashed potatoes free of salt or butter green bean cassarole yams packaged dinner rolls and pumpkin cake mince pie with hard sauce sugar-free jello with canned fruit low-fat coolwhip I get my husbad to stop at Quizno’s about 2 hours before we get to Uncle Frank’s so I don’t starve. They plop the salt shaker and margarine dish in front of me as soon as I sit down to dinner to forstall the whining. I have been known to take a bite of my Christmas dinner and turn pale. ---
**Author:** ![Whifton\_Polekitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/97f17d/32.png) [@Whifton\_Polekitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whifton_Polekitty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/5 "2005-12-19T09:32:59Z")
Seeing as how it’s just me and Mrs. Polekitty, we’re doing a nice simple leg of lamb, a bread of some sort (she bakes, I cook), and a nice selection of in-season greens. Mashed potatoes will likely fit in there someplace too. Out of curiosity, **betenoir** , what was so alarming about goose? That’s my usual XMess tradition, but finding a good one has become too much of an obsession and I found this great lump of lamb, and well, you see… ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/6 "2005-12-19T09:39:43Z")
Well, I’m not actually cooking it but I think along the lines of: Turkey and stuffing (once a year) Roast potatos Roast parsnips Brussel Sprouts Garden Peas Mashed swede Bread sauce and probably some other trimmings. **Betenoir** , enjoy your Yorkies is my thought! Have them with whatever you fancy. Just don’t go messing with those frozen fellas, make your own. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/7 "2005-12-19T12:56:05Z")
> [@Whifton\_Polekitty](#): > > Out of curiosity, **betenoir** , what was so alarming about goose? That’s my usual XMess tradition, but finding a good one has become too much of an obsession and I found this great lump of lamb, and well, you see… I have no idea! I love goose. But the reaction seemed to be"…but…but…that’s not turkey! THAT’S NOT TURKEY!!!" Just not what they grew up on. Bloody Americans. > [@](#): > > Betenoir, enjoy your Yorkies is my thought! Have them with whatever you fancy. Just don’t go messing with those frozen fellas, make your own. No fear. I don’t think I could find frozen over here. Not that I would serve them anyway. THAT would be heresy. I can only hope THEY won’t alarm people ("…but…but…these aren’t dinner rolls…and they’re nothing Bill Cosby would consider pudding…what’s going oonnn!!!") (It occurs to me maybe this should be in Cafe Society. I was thinking more “poll” than “food”. Well I’m sure someone will be along to decide.) ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/8 "2005-12-19T13:05:39Z")
Being HOT down here at this time of year, (or at least _technically_ summer, even if it isn’t scorching just yet) we do the cold platter for Chrissie. For my spread this year there is a leg of ham, a couple of cold roasted chickens, potato salad, pumpkin-spinach and pine-nut salad, green-bean with avocado and tomato salad, tossed lettuce greens, russian eggs and miscellaneous other oddities on the table too (like BEER). 😛 Then we will finish it off with plum pudding and icecream/custard, followed by lots of burping and farting, only to repeat the performance at dinner time in the evening. After which I am nicking off on a holiday for a week to leave all the kids with the dishes!!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/9 "2005-12-19T13:28:15Z")
We traditionally do exactly the same meal for Christmas as we do for Thanksgiving. I’m actually getting tired of it, but we do NOT break tradition. And everyone likes it, so no harm. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/10 "2005-12-19T13:32:38Z")
I don’t do much ‘cooking’ for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day festivities. I do bake a ham and a turkey, though. I set them out buffet-style, along with other meats (Roast beef, Pastrami, Genoa Salami, Volpi Salami, etc.) that I get from the deli, assorted cheeses, assorted breads, several different kinds of crackers, a couple different kinds of cheese balls, veggie tray, assorted chips and dips. I make a big pot of Bagna Calda, and I always bake tons of cookies, a couple pies and a cake or two. We always keep a variety of beer, liquor, soda, coffee and my yummy ‘Angel Tits’ drink! ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/11 "2005-12-19T14:15:40Z")
Christmas Eve at my grandma’s we’ll be having ham and probably her to-die-for scalloped potatoes. Plus some other worthless vegetables that just take up space, and lots of lefse, but hopefully no lutefisk. For dessert we usually have something light, such as grasshoppers (creme de menthe liqueur mixed with ice cream) and the traditional Christmas cookies. Christmas morning at my mom’s, we’ll have breakfast burritos and pulla, a Finnish Christmas bread my sister learned to make 26 years ago when we had an exchange student from Finland staying with us. That’s truly my favorite Christmas meal. In the afternoon, we’ll go to my aunt’s and have munchies. I’m probably going to bring fruit salsa and homemade cinnamon chips. We’re not having Christmas with my husband’s family until the 28th, and I’m not sure what we’ll be having. One year we had pork loin with apricot glaze. That was amazing. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/12 "2005-12-19T14:19:45Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > \my yummy ‘Angel Tits’ drink!\ :eek: Do tell! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/13 "2005-12-19T14:29:01Z")
If anyone tells you that you can’t have Yorkshire puds with pork, just get drunk and pick a fight with them. Do what you want; Yorkshire puds and gravy can be a course on its own anyway. (Or make some extra and try them with golden syrup as a snack). I’m cooking turkey this year, but none of us really like the white meat, so I just bought four big turkey drumsticks (they’re quite a cheap item, being sold pretty much as a byproduct of the crowns and all the thigh meat etc) - I’ll just roast these and we’ll have one each, caveman style. They contain a lot of tough, bone-like tendons, but getting in a huge mess while gnawing the meat off these is part of the fun. I think the meat on these is at least as nice as lamb or pork, but without the tallow-like fat. Boxing day I’m going swimming in an outdoor pool, followed by a hot buffet. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/14 "2005-12-19T14:38:31Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > If anyone tells you that you can’t have Yorkshire puds with pork, just get drunk and pick a fight with them. Do what you want; Yorkshire puds and gravy can be a course on its own anyway. Agreed. I don’t think they’d get more than a slight double-take on most Christmas dinner tables. > [@](#): > > (Or make some extra and try them with golden syrup as a snack). Now, this strange suggestion has been made to me before. I’m sure it’s some prank played on southerners. ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/15 "2005-12-19T16:04:28Z")
> [@yellowval](#): > > \ and lots of lefse, but hopefully no lutefisk. My aunt and uncle make the best lefse (in fact they teach lefse making at the local Sons of Norway). Lutefisk on the other hand is nasty, nasty stuff. Anyway, Christmas dinner with my family is fondue. Beef and ham and shrimp to cook in the hot oil. Barbecue, steak and cocktail sauce for dipping. Bread to dip in the cheese sauces (made from scratch). There’s usually a 7-layer salad that only my mom and sisters eat, and plain jello. We’ll have wonderful Norwegian goodies (lefse, cardamom waffles, krumkaker, fattigmann, sunbakkels), Mom’s chocolate thumbprints, some pies and lots and lots of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/16 "2005-12-19T16:11:57Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Now, this strange suggestion has been made to me before. I’m sure it’s some prank played on southerners. I am a southerner myself, born and bred, but my mum is a geordie; it may be that she was playing a trick on me every time she made an extra tray of Yorkshire puds so that we could eat them with syrup (as a completely separate entity from dessert/pudding), but if it was, it backfired on her - because they’re _really good that way_. Not all that different from pancakes with golden syrup really, if you think about it. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/17 "2005-12-19T16:28:58Z")
> [@Southpaw](#): > > My aunt and uncle make the best lefse (in fact they teach lefse making at the local Sons of Norway). Lutefisk on the other hand is nasty, nasty stuff. I hate to disagree with you, but my grandma makes the best lefse. Whatever you have to tell yourself, I guess. 😉 She even taught me how to make lefse this year. I have apparently been chosen to carry on the tradition, since I inherited the bossy gene (You know the one—you can always tell a Norwegian, you just can’t tell 'em much). She doesn’t really make lutefisk for Christmas Eve anymore because no one likes it except her and my brother-in-law. So I think that tradition has died out. Thank goodness. I’m also looking forward to the other Norwegian treats she makes. Good stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/18 "2005-12-19T16:41:16Z")
Since the Christmas I drove all round West L.A. looking for a place to eat Christmas dinner and winding up eating chicken-fried steak at Norm’s in Santa Monica, I’ve made rost prime rib and Yorkshire pudding. I’m going to try to find a nice rib at CostCo today. The eggs, flour, milk, potatoes and green veg will come from the supermarket. I’ll likely invite a friend over, since he just broke up with his g/f. ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/19 "2005-12-19T16:55:52Z")
Christmas Eve is always done at MIL’s place and the menu is turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and various sides. ALWAYS… I’m not a huge fan of turkey; I’ll eat it, but it isn’t my favorite. Christmas Day is done at my house. I usually make prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, gravy (made with red wine and chanterelle mushrooms), roasted veggies (potatoes and carrots); various vegetable sides, and rolls. Dessert varies from year to year as I let other people bring that. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267/20 "2005-12-19T16:57:52Z")
The Bus Family is famous in our own minds for being casual at Christmas. We’ve had people over, but the rule is always don’t dress up, and don’t expect the fine china. This year, since we only expect a few people to come by in the evening, not for dinner, we’ve chosen chili. Early in the afternoon, I’ll start dicing up green onions and garlic and by dinnertime, the whole house will be awash in the aroma of garlic, chiles and simmering meat. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-christmas-dinner/336267.md?page=2)