[West Ender]

When we were a family of 5 I used to spend all Christmas morning in the kitchen preparing the traditional turkey dinner. Luckily, I like cooking and I'm a good cook, though I sez it as shouldn't.

Nowadays there's just me, my younger daughter and my granddaughter. They don't eat meat. Christmas Day now is a bit different and this year we will be having salmon-en-crout (courtesy of Sainsburys) followed by cheesecake. On Boxing Day my son and his wife and my elder daughter, son-in-law and grandson will all come with us to a local pub where we'll have lunch. In the evening I will provide a buffet. We will, as usual, be playing daft board games and getting very mellow on the wine and champagne I always get for Christmas from my brothers.

I love my Boxing days, all my family here and no real effort on my part apart from defrosting the buffet food and warming up the vol-au-vents and mince pies, but I rather miss peeling mounds of spuds, carrots and sprouts, making the bread sauce and thickening the gravy. I miss basteing the turkey. I miss making my (very) alcoholic trifle and my husband insisting on scraping out the custard pan - woe betide me if I put it to soak before he'd had the spoon in it - and steaming the Christmas pudding while I added loads of brandy to the white sauce.

What do you do on Christmas Day? Do you carry a steaming bird, proudly, from the oven or do you let a good restaurant take the strain?