Christmas is coming, the goose is getting frightened

[venta]

The other day, I accidentally heard a bit of Terry Wogan on Radio 2. He was reading out something to do with overheard conversations, which involved the phrase "Well, is it really a Christmas dinner if it doesn't say 'chipolatas' (on the menu)?"

So, I'm wondering...

What do you consider essential for a Christmas dinner ? I'm talking the standard turkey-or-other-large-bird affair; if you go in for something different then please tell me about it in a comment, but don't shove it in the poll.

Also, this isn't a request for what an ideal Christmas dinner would contain (since the answer is clearly "all of it"). I just want to know which things must be present for it to be a Christmas dinner rather than a nice Sunday roast. For example, I'm a huge fan of pigs in blankets, but will settle for sausages and bacon.

If there are any Americans reading, maybe you should answer about Thanksgiving instead. I've no idea what you lot get up to at Christmas.

[Poll #888876]

Yes, I'm a fool. Brussels sprouts. Of course. They were meant to be in there, and you can't edit polls after the fact.

[*] I fear this one is a mystery to many people - we always have toasted breadcrumbs with ours. They're much nicer than they sound.

Comments

Just to clarify (probably quite boring)

[j4.livejournal.com]

I think it "should" be goose, but I've never actually had goose for Christmas dinner...

For years and years my family had the standard turkey and roast vegetables thingy, and it was always my dad who cooked it (my mum having done the majority of the cooking for the rest of the year). Then a few years ago my dad (who'd never really liked meat*) went vegetarian, and the rest of us all said "Actually, we were never that keen on turkey anyway," so we went and found an interesting-looking veggie thing to do instead (I think it was some kind of nut roast, but nicer than 'nut roast' sounds!). But it wasn't so exciting that we felt we had to have it again next year, so ever since then we've done a different veggie thing each year, which usually means that we all have a frantic panic in mid-December** to find a recipe that looks interesting. (We had a very nice guinness-and-chestnut-and-mushroom pie a couple of years ago, and if nobody's come up with anything better in the Official Christmas Dinner Panic yet, then I might vote to resurrect that.) We're a family in search of a new Christmas dinner tradition!

Whatever it is, though, it has to be accompanied by roast potatoes, roast parsnips, sprouts with chestnuts, and carrots. :-)

* Actually, he doesn't really like food, but he likes meat less than most food.

** Which reminds me. Argh. Must plan Christmas dinner.

Re: Just to clarify (probably quite boring)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

We have a traditional veggie nut roast / mushroom gravy combo, which we liked so much the first time, we've had the same every Christmas since (about 12) -- happy to share recipe with you if you like!