Christmas Menu Ideas

Do you need Christmas menu ideas? The festive season can be a lot of fun, especially with all the delicious Christmas chocolates and gourmet foods that are available at this time of year but sometimes it can be hard coming up with an inviting menu that's not going to make you a slave to the kitchen on the big day.

First of all, you need to decide if you want a traditional feast or a modern one. Of course, you can do a mixture of both, if you know your family and guests will enjoy it. That way, there's something for everyone to enjoy, whether it's roast turkey straight from the oven or barbequed prawns and a festive salad.

Cold ham is a delicious yet useful menu item. It's easy to prepare it the day before with a special glaze, such as ginger, maple syrup or cranberry sauce. A glazed ham will definitely have the wow factor and best of all, you won't have to do anything with it except serve it on Christmas Day.

A traditional menu might look like this:

• Roast turkey with stuffing and gravy
• Glazed ham
• Goose fat or duck fat roast potatoes
• Roast pumpkin or parsnip
• Honey roast carrots
• Cranberry sauce
• Christmas pudding with ice-cream

A modern menu might look like this:

• Barbecued prawns
• Festive salad
• Glazed ham
• Gourmet cheese
• Pavlova or tiramisu

Even if you're having a traditional dinner, you may like to swap the pudding for something lighter, such as chocolate mousse, pavlova, or tiramisu. All these desserts are special enough to enjoy on the big day.

Don't forget the nibblies! Think mince pies, spiced nuts, ginger cookies, Christmas cake and home-made truffles.

If you want to give your guests a healthy option, then why not consider making a fresh fruit platter?

The only problem with supplying your guests with delicious gourmet food before the festive lunch or dinner is that they might inadvertently fill up beforehand and then won't be able to do justice to your beautiful meal.

One way to stop this happening is to limit the amount of appetisers available until afterwards. Then you won't feel that your guests were too full to appreciate all your hard work in the kitchen!

If you're lucky, your guests may give you a wine gift. This can come in handy in case you run out of wine while you're entertaining them! Sometimes it can be difficult to work out how much alcohol you'll need: some people may drink more than others, while some guests will limit themselves to one glass of wine.

It's a good idea to cater for people who don't drink alcohol - a non-alcoholic fruit punch may even tempt the drinkers!

If you give yourself plenty of time to plan the menu for your festive lunch or dinner, then you'll find that it won't be so stressful to cater for your friends and family on the big day.

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