Gold Coasters are turning to fast food rather than home-cooked meals this festive season

FORGET the traditional home-cooked Christmas lunch, Gold Coasters are rapidly turning to fast food chains for their festive feast.

Barbecued chicken is a favourite this festive season.

FORGET the traditional home-cooked Christmas lunch, Gold Coasters are rapidly turning to fast food chains for their festive feast.

One Red Rooster store alone is bracing to sell up 1000 chickens and the increased interest in fast food on Christmas Day has prompted McDonald’s to open half of their Queensland outlets on December 25 this year.

Red Rooster Helensvale manager Jayden Taylor said the store only took pre-orders for Christmas Day and was so busy last year they had to turn some customers away.

Do you get fast food for Christmas Day? Let us know in the comments section below:

ELDERLY MAN TRAGICALLY KILLED IN TRACTOR ACCIDENT

Red Rooster is busy this Christmas.

“I think we cooked 700 chickens last year and we sold them all so it’s pretty busy,” he said.

“We had to turn a lot of people away but we’re getting a third oven this year so hopefully we won’t have to turn too many people away.

“I think it’s a convenience thing and people are often cooking a lot of other stuff and might not have room in their oven to cook a chicken as well.”

McDonald’s Surfers Paradise licensee Tania Balhatchet said Christmas Day was the busiest day of the year with both locals and tourists lining up for a burger at the store.

However, she said there had been a slow decrease in sales as more restaurants and fast food outlets open their doors on Christmas Day.

Queensland Medical Association president Shaun Rudd said he was saddened by the huge numbers opting for fast food on the traditional family day.

“The obesity message is simply not getting through and the loss of traditions of families preparing food and eating together leaves me extremely concerned,” he said.

Online takeaway ordering company Delivery Hero, which takes orders for hundreds of the state’s restaurants, said they too had seen a rise in the number of Christmas Day orders doubling each year since 2011.

“It seems that busy people want to spoil their loved ones and still have the joy of being able to spend time with them rather than in the kitchen,” Tracy Richardson of Delivery Hero said.

Spokesman for the Dietitians’ Association of Australia, Kate Di Prima, said the trend was compounded by busy families wanting to relax on the holiday rather than slave in a hot kitchen, the costings and the decline of cooking skills.

“Traditionally, the responsibility of preparing a Christmas dinner fell on the shoulders of mums, often stay-at-home mums.

“Today mums are often working and they too want to have a holiday rest.”

But she insisted that it was cheaper to prepare an easy meal rather than opt for fast food.

“A lettuce is $2 and cherry tomatoes something similar. Put a ham in the oven. There is no greater feeling than serving your family something you prepared yourself,” she said.

“The obesity problem is compounded by the fact that people buy takeaways with no idea of what is in them.

“When you prepare your own food you know the ingredients are fresh and healthy,” she said.

Originally published as Gold Coasters are turning to fast food rather than home-cooked meals this festive season