We do a different themed X-mas dinner every year and this year the women have decided on a traditional pig roast. Which leaves me digging a hole and figuring out how NOT to screw it up. Has anyone done this? and if so, any tips would be a Godsend!!

I was going to do it one year and my wife put a stop to digging the hole in the yard. I ended up building a cinder block pit like this one: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/cinder-block-pig-pit.191095/

Worked really well and I the only thing I had to do after is replace the burnt grass with some fresh sod.

We’ve done the cinderblock cook w our bunch. While stacking in a bond pattern leave air gaps on sides on bottom course for air in take. Used old sheets of barn tin over top and on ground. We used triple rebar for our spits w chicken wire surround. Score and spice outside of carcass. Spice interior heavily and pack w fresh pineapple and other tropical fruits...skewer cavity closed.
Started fire w couple of bags of charcoal and added wood, a lot of it. Must have lots of coals.
For guest of honor and prior to chicken wire we used a lot of banana leaves and some soaked burlap. Once you have pork covered and wired up you’re ready and waiting on fire to settle and relax. Add a couple of logs and lay on the hog holder. Should be 12” or so above firebed and have near same space above. My brother used coals on top of his cooker as well. But its harder to open and check during cook that way.
Once you’ve determined meat is about 3/4 done, remove burlap and leaves and let it born and crisp.
Our last cook the hog was about 125lbs or so and we did it overnight.
Takes a lot of planning, energy and sober help to do it right but it is outstanding and a blast w the right guests attending. Highly recommend it.

don't know what part of the state your in. but here, you'd need a backhoe to go any deeper than 6".

Hell yeah, that cinder block idea is gonna save me 10 years of my life for not digging.

Have done it similar to how we cook traditional barbacoa (whole cow heads in the ground). Dig a big hole and make a big fire, make sure you have plenty of wood. Once you have a big deep bed of red hot coals, use two home made hooks (stainless tubing or rebar) to set down a layer of cinder blocks on the coals (or you can use rocks). Add some more logs around the edges and use your hooks to lower your pig onto the blocks. Cover the hole with sheet metal and seal off with dirt. Put the pig in the ground around dark 30 and let cook all night, don't mess with it.

On the pig, season the inside well then wrap up really well in heavy duty foil. Then wrap that up in wet burlap. Then wrap that up in chicken wire, then use #9 wire or doubled up bailing wire to make a harness around the pig in at least two places. You will need loops on the end of the wire to hook to. The chicken wire is important because it holds it together, it's going to try & fall apart when done. To serve, you can either pick the pig yourself and put in foil pans, or just slice & pull the skin back a little and let everyone partake in a good old fashioned pig pickin'. The pork jowls go to the cooks.

Or you can also do as mentioned above with the cinderblocks or a Cajun microwave.

Ive always wanted to do this!

I sure hope you document your cook well with photos and share

been binge watching BONES episodes, think it will be awhile before I could eat pork cooked this way after watching the episode where someone snuck a body in with the pig...nope, nope...

Gee Earl, thanks for the culinary imagery.

I’ve snuck a dead rabbit or two into the cavity of a whole smoked hog before! What’s wrong with that?

wow, flash back 50+ years ... my dad and uncles used to do something similar at my grandmother's, left the hole with corrugated sheet metal over the hole year to year so the hole didn't have to be re-dug. I just remember they built a big fire in the hole using live oak and mesquite about mid-day, let it burn down to be just a pit of hot coals. They scalded the pig in a 55 gallon barrel & scrapped the hair off, only seasoning I recall was salt and black pepper, inside and out. They stuffed the chest cavity with whole onion, apples & pears (only fruit available in the fall), then wrapped in heavy aluminum foil, wet burlap feed sacks, chicken wire and non-barbed wire for lifting points. As stated above, about dark thirty, they lowered in the wrapped pig, slid the sheet metal over the top, and then covered with dirt to hold in the heat. The next day, mid morning if I recall, they dug away the dirt, slid back the sheet metal and used hay hooks to lift the wrapped contraption out, pealed back to the goodness that waited inside. They did this almost every year until my grandmother passed (1972 I think) and the holiday gatherings with the whole family kinda came to an end.

I do remember that they used either feral hogs mostly but domestic from one of the area hog farms that my dad knew the owners pretty well, they called when they had one with a flaw where they couldn't send to the slaughter house (cut tendon on leg from fighting thru pens).

only time I have had equal was from a Luau on Kuai that was done similar but used pineapple stuffing and wrapped in banana leaves.