Landmark Doncaster area hotel unearths historic 1979 Christmas menu

A landmark Doncaster area hotel has unearthed a historic Christmas menu from nearly 50 years ago - showing what people tucked into during bygone festive seasons.

As we look towards Christmas, The Ye Olde Bell Hotel at Barnby Moor, has discovered its historic Christmas menus from 1979, which offer a glimpse into festive celebrations at the hotel almost five decades ago.

While the events and experiences on offer have evolved, the appeal of gathering with family and friends in a characterful country-house setting remains as relevant as ever.

The hotel has been welcoming guests for over 100 years to celebrate the season with elaborate menus, dinner dances and a touch of Christmas glamour.

The hotel’s 1979 Christmas programme reveals a festive season packed with occasions to dress up, dine well and celebrate.

Christmas Eve offered guests the choice of a lunchtime feast or an evening dinner dance, with menus featuring dishes such as seafood pancakes, saddle of lamb with Kummel sauce, chicken cooked with tarragon and cream, and chocolate profiteroles.

The following day, Christmas Day lunch was an eight-course affair, beginning with melon and crushed pineapple, followed by game soup with port wine, poached salmon and a sorbet before the traditional roast turkey and Christmas pudding.

The celebrations continued on Boxing Day with a chef’s cold buffet lunch, complete with a traditional wassailing cup on arrival, while the evening brought a fancy-dress ball themed around guests’ “own choice”.

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The menu included partridge consommé with port, quenelles of salmon with Champagne sauce and a choice of roast duckling, chicken Pernod, roast goose or beef Stroganoff.

It was a festive calendar designed to bring people together over good food and entertainment, a tradition that continues today, albeit with a contemporary take on Christmas celebrations.

The 2026 festive season offers a varied programme for families, friends, colleagues and corporate groups, with events running from November through to New Year.

The celebrations begin with a Victorian Christmas Market, murder mystery dinner and Christmas concert, before the hotel’s calendar fills with seasonal dining, entertainment and opportunities to stay overnight.

Throughout December, guests can choose from traditional Christmas party nights, festive lunches and afternoon teas, alongside events designed especially for families.

For a taste of the hotel’s contemporary festive dining, this year’s Santa Sunday Lunch brings traditional Christmas flavours together with a more modern choice of starters and mains.

Guests can begin with leek and potato soup served with olive bread, wild mushroom pâté with pear and pine nut salad, or prawn and crayfish cocktail with sun-blush tomato Marie Rose sauce.

The main course selection includes traditional roast turkey with cranberry stuffing and pigs in blankets, roast sirloin of beef with Yorkshire pudding, roast salmon or a spinach, mushroom and feta filo pie.

Duck fat roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables accompany the traditional roasts, while dessert is served either as a hot pudding of the day or from the hotel’s dessert trolley.