By Barry JamesIs it your turn to host Christmas Dinner this year? Are you stumped for ideas on what to serve? Don't worry, you're not alone. Millions of people around the world are working on their Christmas Dinner menu right now. In this article I will give you a few ideas to help you on your way to making the best Christmas Dinner for your family and friends.
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It is best not to over complicate this. Keep it simple and you will be able to enjoy your Christmas day. If you are a novice cook then you will want to plan a menu that is easy to execute. If you are a more experienced cook then you can get a little bit more creative with the menu. Planning is probably the most important part of the dinner preparation.
The first thing you need to do, is to work how many people are coming. This will let you work out how much food you need to buy. To lighten the load a bit you could always ask everyone to bring something to contribute to the dinner, you could even work out what you want each person to bring so that you don't double up on certain foods.
You can't go wrong with a traditional Christmas dinner. What is traditional? Well, it is turkey with all the trimmings followed by the traditional plum pudding for dessert. This sounds like a lot of work and in some parts of the world, such as Australia where it is summer, it's not really very practical. So what do you do then?
Well, one idea is to serve an informal buffet. This allows people to eat at leisure and it gives the cook more free time to spend with loved ones and less time chained the kitchen. A buffet also allows you to be more flexible with the type of food you serve. For instance, you can serve finger foods that are easy to eat while you are mingling with the family. In fact, the food choices for a buffet are practically limitless as you can choose from a host of different ethnicities, like Chinese, Italian and even American or Australian. You can even serve vegetarian if there are members of your family that don't eat meat.
These ideas are great if you have a large family, but what if you don't? What if there are only the two of you? Do you have to forgo a lovely Christmas dinner because all of the Christmas dinner menus cater for large gatherings? Of course you don't. I have some ideas here for you if there are only going to be two of you for Christmas dinner.
You have the opportunity here to turn the Christmas dinner into a romantic occasion. You can set the table formally and by adding candles you will give the meal a romantic glow. You and your partner can even dress formally if you want to, just to give the meal that added special touch.
If you are having a Christmas dinner for two it doesn't need to be a solemn occasion. It can be fun. You can prepare the menu in advance and as it won't be a big operation you will have more fun if you do it together, which will add to the romance. You can make it even more fun by reminiscing about past Christmases or of the time when you were dating.
Even if it is just the two of you, you can choose to have a traditional or non traditional meal, just do it on a much smaller scale. You may even choose to have someone else cook your meal. You will just need order it and then pick it up when it is time. This way you don't even have to cook it, just eat it.
These are all great ideas but what if you just don't want to cook this year. Like I said you have the option of ordering in but that may not appeal to you. Why not consider going out to a restaurant for your meal. Most restaurants offer Christmas dinner. If this is something that sounds good to you just be sure to make your reservation well in advance as these venues get booked out very fast.
Whatever you decide to do for your Christmas dinner this year just remember to have a good time and not get stressed out over it. Christmas is the time of year to enjoy spending time with loved ones so don't let the cooking of the dinner overshadow this.
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