What wines to procure for the Christmas feast? Whatever you like. That's not the dismissive shrug of a pundit wearied by too many turkey-matching exercises, but a positive exhortation. It's more important to pick the sort of wines you think your family will enjoy than to get hung up on showmanship or precise flavour combinations. So the suggestions below are ideas - not rules.
The first, in this year of bubble mania, is to think about getting The Dinner off to a festive start with a few bottles of champagne or a decent New World sparkling wine. Apart from delivering near-instant euphoria as an aperitif, good fizz is one of the few things I can think of which goes splendidly with both oysters and smoked salmon - so if your menu features either of those and you're feeling generous, why not keep on pouring it throughout the first course? Otherwise, you might consider a Chablis for the oysters (isn't Chablis part of Christmas?), or any other fresh seafood. A slightly oaky New World Chardonnay will be a better bet if smoked salmon is on offer again.
With turkey, the absolute stars are Australian Shiraz and Rhone reds with plenty of sweet, ripe fruit. More austere, tannic red wines seem to make the bird taste like a mouthful of dry breadcrumbs - something to remember as your hand hovers over that very expensive bottle of red Bordeaux. You might well get away handsomely with a St Emilion from a good year (such as 1995 or 1996). If it's swank you're intent on, Burgundy is a better bet than Bordeaux overall. However, in terms of taste, lusher New World Pinot Noirs may be better still.
From what I can gather, there are thousands of Irish wine fans who detest dessert wine so much that they gobble their pud with no particular liquid partner, and proceed with all haste to the port. In the hope that you're not one of them, I've included two very different pudding wines below - one light, the other dark, but both delicious with the flaming, steaming finale.