Christmas Meals Australian

My Western Australian contributor reports :-
My sister and I normally go to mum and dad's at about 10.30 and start the task of peeling potatoes, pumpkin and sweet potatoes, as Mum insists on having the Christmas lunch at her house.
We always open the presents when every one arrives.
Then we have a traditional lunch of:
Roast Meats: Turkey, pork, beef and a baked ham
Roast Vegetables: Potatoes, pumpkin and sweet potatoes
Other Vegetables: Broccoli & cauliflower with white sauce, peas and beans. and of course gravy and cranberry sauce.
When we sit down to eat, we toast with a glass of champagne, and then open the Christmas crackers. It is mandatory to wear your paper hat and read out your joke!
The meal is completed with plum pudding with custard.
Mum insists on this traditional meal, even when it gets to the high 30 Celsius (as it will this year) - we just crank the air conditioner up to its highest point and avoid talking about the heat!
And of course, after lunch the men find a couch to 'meditate on'.

At dinner time we have salads with left over meat from lunch. After dinner, Mum cuts the Christmas cake with the youngest grand-children.
We then have coffee with Christmas cake and chocolates.

A traditional Tasmanian menu is roast lamb, ham, roast turkey or chicken, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, freshly picked green peas, beans, pumpkin with brown gravy. Desert being hot plum pudding with three penny and six penny coins hidden in the pudding, which was covered in brandy sauce, wine trifle, fresh picked raspberries with cream, fruit salad. And a hot cup of tea to wash it down.

The man of the house took pride in having all of the required vegetables ready for picking from his garden by Christmas Day. He would pick the peas and sit in the shade on the back veranda shelling the peas. In southern Tasmania a variety of a firm creamy potato known as pinkeye was the preferred potato.

Three New South Wales senior residents reminisced about their memories of Christmas dinner at Mum's, many years ago, and came up with the following.
Roast chicken and three vegetables.
Hot plum pudding with white sauce.
Sound simple but what was interesting was the back ground to this meal :-
The chicken was not chicken but a laying hen that was about to finish laying, selected from their backyard poultry pen. Killed, placed in hot water to make the removal of the feathers easier and then cleaned. It was not simply purchased from the supermarket.
The vegetables were from the backyard garden, as most house blocks were a quarter acre and provided room to grow your own vegetables. (D.I.Y. vegetables)
The plum pudding contained small silver tokens, such as stars and butterflies for the children to find while eating their plum pudding. I did notice that not once during any food segments did you mention wish making. I was brought up with the tradition that once the pudding had all it's ingredients in everyone in the family had to stir the pudding and make a wish as they stirred. However your wish wouldn't come true unless you ate a piece of pudding on Christmas day.
For some reason I think my mum added this because I didn't like to eat Christmas Pudding and it was the only sure way I would eat the pudding. No, it wasn't invented by her mum to make her eat the pud, it's a very old English tradition and is still upheld in many English households the stirring of the pud by all members of the family, then the wishing as you eat the first bite, with a special wish going to whoever finds the 'silver sixpence' or 'threepenny bit'. I've managed to keep a silver sixpence in my Christmas fare tools for just this purpose.

When I first came to Australia I did attempt to do the full Christmas dinner (more for my mums benefit) but after a couple of years it was just to hot!... We've since adopted the Australian style of fresh seafood starter, apricot and honey glazed ham or apricot stuffed turkey (cooked on the barbie of course) and salads one each provided by various members of the family. I've made several varieties of 'Christmas Cake / Pudding' one of the most popular being the ice-cream mixed up with nuts, fresh and dried fruit and alcohol as per classic...