1st Christmas Dinner

Beth1031

This is our 2nd Christmas together, but the first year we are hosting christmas at our place.  I am trying to put together a menu and am at a loss.  Our families are so different and their tastes in food are extremely different!  My mother in law would prefer ham, but nobody else eats ham including dh, we don't want to do turkey since we will have just had it for Thanksgiving, any suggestions for a main meat dish?!?  I was thinking duck, is that weird?  I figured I would make our favorite side dishes (a few from each family) to go with the main meat dish. 

EastCoastBride

My parents do a beef tenderloin and it's delicious.  I think duck (or lamb, for that matter) is a bit taste specific.  I get the aversion to ham, but I think that's still a more universal choice than duck. 

PunkyBooster

Beef. Or a roasted chicken.

getitdone

I agree with PPs about duck. I would say either roast beef or a roasted chicken. My family does a casual dinner with deli meats. They buy a variety so each person can make their own sandwich and then has tons of different sides so everyone can find something to eat.

riderpunk

We stick with a large beef roast.  You can make a small ham on the side though to keep both parties happy.

newmcbride

agree with pp - roasted chicken or beef. I'm actually doing fish pie for my event as its on the 23rd. I don't know what to serve the vegetarians though.

chardonnay24

My family does ham with scalloped potatoes and H's family does prime rib. Duck isn't weird to me, but some people don't like duck because it can tend to be kind of greasy.

KateLouise

We always do a roast pork with crackling for new years dinner. Would that suit you?

laurenes

I think the roast seems like a good idea. Of course, my husband's side of the family is so big (we do Christmas eve and morning w/ my family, Christmas dinner w/ his mom's, post Christmas dinner w/ his dad's), that it's not unusual for there to be more than one kind of meat out. One of his grandmother's actually pre-cooks a ham and then slices it up and has ham biscuits for everyone. Of course, that's a lot of cooking, so we potluck at his family events.

 I'm sure no matter what you go with though, as long as there are a lot of side dishes everyone will get to munch on what they like.