Pairings

Beer with Christmas dinner

Christmas dinner is a roast with extra steps: turkey or another bird, stuffing, pigs in blankets, bread sauce or cranberry, roast potatoes, then a sweet pudding with dried fruit. Treating it as one flavour and pouring one strong 'festive' beer for the whole afternoon usually means the beer fights either the savoury course or the sweet one.

Split the meal. A best bitter or brown ale belongs with the bird, the herbs and the gravy, for the same reasons it belongs with a Sunday roast. A darker, maltier beer belongs in a small glass with the pudding, where dried fruit and a little sweetness in the beer meet. You do not need a high-strength beer to make it feel like Christmas. A glass that tastes only of clove and orange gets tiring before the meal does.

Beer styles that work

Best bitter or brown ale with the main course
Sage, onion, roast potato and gravy are savoury and a bit sweet. A bitter trims the gravy and the sausage fat. A brown ale leans into the sweeter trimmings, including cranberry, without tasting like pudding itself. Keep the hops polite. Piney bitterness plus cranberry sauce is a clash.
Porter with Christmas pudding
Chocolate malt, a touch of coffee, and maybe a hint of dark fruit sit next to pudding, brandy butter and dried fruit. Pour a small glass. A pint of a very strong ale on top of a heavy pudding is a lot of sugar and alcohol at once, and it dulls both. A barley-wine-style ale works in the same small measure if you already have one open.
A light lager for people who want a long drink
Not every glass at the table has to be malty. A clean lager is the right call for someone eating a full plate who does not want the drink to add more richness. It will be too shy for the pudding. Switch them to tea or a small porter then.

If you are not drinking beer

A cocktail

Cranberry gin fizz

Gin, a little cranberry, lemon, and soda. It picks up the cranberry already on the plate and the bubbles cope with sausage fat and potatoes. Build it long. A creamy, chocolate cocktail belongs with the pudding if it belongs anywhere, and even then a porter is simpler.

Without alcohol

Sparkling apple or ginger ale

Dry sparkling apple with the main course, especially if there is pork or sausage on the plate. Ginger ale if you want something that feels festive without spice syrup in every glass. Both should be cold. A hot sugary soft drink plus Christmas pudding is a lot of sweetness.

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Questions

What beer goes with Christmas dinner?

A best bitter or brown ale with turkey and the trimmings, then a small glass of porter with Christmas pudding. A single sweet spiced beer rarely suits both courses.

What beer goes with Christmas pudding?

A porter, or a small measure of a stronger malt-forward ale. You want dark fruit or roast, not a pint of something very strong. The pudding is already rich.

What can non-drinkers have with Christmas dinner?

Dry sparkling apple juice or ginger ale with the main course. Move to tea with the pudding if the soft drink starts to feel too sweet.