Top Five Christmas Party Foods from the ’80s/’90s That Have Vanished

Once upon a time, Christmas parties weren’t all grazing boards, miniature brioche sliders, and things sprinkled with rosemary “for the aesthetic.”

No — in the ’80s and ’90s, our festive buffets were an unapologetic collage of beige, jelly-based experimentation, and supermarket madness.

Some of these snacks were iconic.

Some were deeply questionable.

And some simply evaporated from the shelves when society collectively realised they probably shouldn’t exist.

Here are the top five Christmas party foods from your childhood that have disappeared into the festive void.

5. Mini Vol-au-Vents (with fillings no one ever identified)

Yes, vol-au-vents technically still exist — but not the weird ’80s/’90s party versions.

Those delicate pastry cups filled with… what was it? Mushroom? Ham? Seafood?

A beige, creamy mystery that tasted the same regardless of what the label claimed.

They were the staple of every family Christmas party:

One tray for the adults

One tray no child ever touched

One uncle who ate 14 in a row and insisted he was “fine”

These days they’ve gone “gastro,” which frankly ruins the charm of the inexplicable goo.

4. Pineapple & Cheese Hedgehogs

Nothing says Christmas nostalgia like a foil-covered potato stabbed repeatedly with cocktail sticks.

It was the centrepiece of every retro buffet:

a proud hedgehog of cheddar cubes, pineapple chunks, and occasional rogue pickled onions.

This wasn’t food — this was art.

Edible architecture.

Somewhere along the way we collectively decided we’d rather not eat fruit on skewers that had been sweating in a warm living room for four hours.

A tragic loss.

3. Arctic Roll

A dessert and a time machine.

One slice of Arctic Roll and suddenly you're back in your nan’s front room, wearing uncomfortable tights, watching Noel’s Christmas Presents on a TV the size of a fridge.

Vanilla ice cream wrapped in jam and sponge — simple, perfect, festive.

But by the late ’90s it had almost vanished from Christmas tables, replaced by things like “chocolate tortes” and “Yule logs dusted with cocoa.”

It still exists in theory, but the Christmas prominence? Gone. Lost in the snow.

2. Jacobs Trio / Savoury Biscuit Selection (the weird old one)

Not the modern “luxury” crackers.

No, we’re talking about the iconic retro box with biscuits no child has ever seen outside a festive buffet.

The selection included:

The slightly burnt-looking square

The pale, flimsy one that snapped instantly

The poppy seed one nobody trusted

The “digestive but not really” hybrid

Something that tasted like cardboard and haunted you into adulthood

These biscuits existed solely so adults could put cheese on them and say things like, “Ooh, that’s mature.”

They’ve evolved into sleeker, classier versions now — but the strange original line-up? Gone forever.

1. BBQ Cocktail Sausages (the sticky ones in the aluminium tray)

THE king of vanished festive party food.

These tiny sausages were drowned in a syrupy BBQ glaze so thick they could glue your teeth together.

They arrived on a supermarket foil tray that somehow never heated evenly, leaving some sausages molten lava and others arctic cold.

But they were legendary.

Kids hovered like predators.

Adults pretended to be more civilised but still stole five at a time when no one was looking.

One day they quietly disappeared — probably banned for health reasons, stickiness reasons, or the fact they contained approximately 0.03% actual sausage.