With Christmas comes food, glorious food. Is there any other time of year where we look forward to a true family feast? As the years move on however, the same old Christmas food starts to sound a bit boring so why not change it up and get the whole family involved in creating a Christmas dinner with a difference this year.
Here are some ideas to create a truly unique Christmas dinner:
- Choose a country – this year pick a country with a totally different cuisine and create a Christmas dinner around what would be eaten in that country on Christmas Day. If you are having friends and family over then allocate each family a specific dish and together you can enjoy a new take on Christmas dinner.
- Remove the roast – it doesn’t have to be the standard roast dinner but if you still want the traditional turkey or pork dinner then allocate everyone a turkey/pork recipe and a different side salad/vegetable recipe so you still get the food you love but get to experience it in different ways.
- If you are having a family gathering, decide on the menu items you want before-hand and put them in a hat, then have each family draw out an item, but don’t share who has which menu item. That way you will all be looking forward to Christmas Day as you won’t know who is cooking what i.e. you won’t be dreading Aunt Jane’s potato salad that is always too hard because Uncle Bob drew the potato salad ticket and he makes a seriously awesome potato salad. You get to keep your normal Christmas foods but add a surprise element to it.
- Break all the rules. Let the kids decide what will be eaten for Christmas Day! They might just surprise you.
- No bake Christmas dinner. Ban cooking for Christmas day. Cook your roast meats the day before so that you can have a cooking free day on Christmas Day. Eat only cold meats, prawns, salads etc so that nobody has to spend hours in the kitchen preparing the meal.
Above all else, enjoy the special time with your family; the food is just a bonus for the day.
