Christmas Eve Dinner ideas

[njcarita]

I'd like to start a Christmas eve dinner memu this year to become our traditional dinner.

I grew up with a traditional Cuban Christmas eve dinner--- Pig, black beans and rice, yucca etc.

my kids were not raised eating cuban food -- so every christmas eve though its been at aour house my family brings the meal--- so my kids eat white rice , bread and maybe salad.

so this year i'm letting them bring food ( when i suggeted a menu change- i was over rule- its not christmas for my family unless there iit involoves a pig ) but i'm also making an additional meal for my family.

i've polled my kids ages 3,8 and 10 for christmas diiner ideas-- and they've come up with chicken fingers , tortellini alfredo, corn and mashed potoes not exactly a christmas eve feast.

any suggestions??? for a kid friendly holiday meal???

thanks

 

[Brianne]

With all the cooking I do on Christmas Day, the Eve dinner has always been Pizza Hut.

I have heard that a lot of people either do mexican or chinese food though.

 

[mickeyboat]

We are doing Chinese take-out.

Denae

 

[luvwinnie]

My DH Is Cuban and we are making the pork shoulder for the first time this year! Oh, it is sooooo good, at least the way my suegra (mother-in-law) makes it.

Do your kids like turkey or ham?

 

[njcarita]

My DH Is Cuban and we are making the pork shoulder for the first time this year! Oh, it is sooooo good, at least the way my suegra (mother-in-law) makes it.

Do your kids like turkey or ham?

my mom pick the pig roasted and ready from a restaurant on bergan line --every year.

they love turkey-- but since we had that on thanksgiving i wanted to try something different

 

[binny]

well since we are doing the Sweden theme this year ( we choose a country every year to learn about how they celebrate the holidays) we are having a smorgasbord with swedish meatballs and Glug and the whole nine ( EXCEPT lutefisk and pickled pigs feet I REFUSE LOL).

The rest though, sounds good to me

 

[Christine]

We usually do homemade lasagna.

I know some people who do a homemade spaghetti and meatballs meal.

Kids usually like both of those and, if homemade, is a real nice treat.

 

[RUDisney]

You are all making me hungry.

We do a meatless Christmas Eve. It wasn't until just recently that my Mom finally was chided into having good fish at her dinner. Her idea of good fish is Arthur Treachers or LJS. Although she still buys that, we'll have shrimp (cold and sometimes scampi), calamari sauce over pasta, and orange roughy stuffed with crab meat. Our traditional faire is homemade pierogies. My gramma used to always make minced mushrooms with sauerkraut. My Dad, she and I were the only ones who ever ate it, though. My Mom will make mushrooms. Mom also boils potatoes with onions and once they are cooked, they are tossed with butter and served.

My MIL makes the traditional 7 fishes that include smelts and bakala. (yuck and yuck)

 

[tinaluis]

Part of our dinner will be similar to your Cuban traditional one with a pork shoulder roast (in the crockpot with plenty of garlic and black pepper), arroz con gandules and beans, but then we also add smoked Polish and Lithuanian Sausage and potato salad from the Polish Deli near our house. We also have corn, mashed potatoes, rye bread and French bread. Fortunately, our kids manage to make a meal from what they like (I have one who likes the rice, but hates the sausage in the rice, the other likes the rice but hates the gandules in the rice, one will only eat meat, etc.). Do they like turkey? Perhaps a turkey breast. They're very easy to prepare and are much smaller than a whole turkey so they take much less time. Good luck!

ETITED TO ADD: Sorry, just saw that they like turkey but you don't want to make it because they just had it on Thanksgiving. I'm out of ideas

 

[Tiggeroo]

well since we are doing the Sweden theme this year ( we choose a country every year to learn about how they celebrate the holidays) we are having a smorgasbord with swedish meatballs and Glug and the whole nine ( EXCEPT lutefisk and pickled pigs feet I REFUSE LOL).

my dd's bf's family is swedish. His grandmother lived there half her life. They have Glog which my dd's says is a horrible mix of every alcohol you can think of. They also have Lukefisk which only the grandmother will eat. Yucky yuck.

 

[Morganpics]

We are fortunate enough to be home on Christmas Eve Day, so we have a turkey dinner (not so extensive as Thanksgiving) at noonish, and then we have a pot luck dinner at my BIL's in the evening. It works for us and now that my kids are grown and they say they want to come home for the turkey dinner, I guess it's our tradition. That way, we do no cooking on Christmas Day-we pick off the turkey instead.

 

[binny]

My daddy was Swedish too He didnt drink so we had a different non-alcholic version of it, its actually not too bad

Even HE didnt do Lutefisk though ( he did make us go to Lutefisk eating contests though and watch ) I will stick to the meatballs ( which I LOVE)

 

[becka]

I thought that was what KFC was for. Seriously when I was growing up Mom cooked all day Christmas Eve in preparation for Chistmas Day and the last thing she wanted to do by dinner time was cook some more so we always had a bucket of chicken with mashed potatos, cole slaw and biscuits from KFC. I may have to follow that tradition this year!

 

[malibuconlee]

How about making soups? Seems like that's what we do anymore at DH's paternal grandmother's for Christmas. We celebrated with her this past Saturday night. We hat baked potato and vegetable beef soup.

I have a great recipe for potato soup if you're interested. If you can fry bacon, you can make this soup.

We used to work with a guy that always had birthday cake on Christmas Eve with his kids. It was the baby Jesus' cake.

 

[njcarita]

see we only cook on christams eve and have our famy gathering on that day-- and go to Christams Eve Mass.

and than on christmas day--- we have oven baked pecan french toast and ham strata for breakfast-- eat leftovers all day

than we lounge around in pjs all day while the kids play with their new toys--
very relaxing


so htat's why i'm looking for a nice christmas eve dinner idea--since that will be our holiday meal

 

[luvwinnie]

my mom pick the pig roasted and ready from a restaurant on bergan line --every year.

they love turkey-- but since we had that on thanksgiving i wanted to try something different

Did you grow up in UNION CITY?????

 

[luvwinnie]

well since we are doing the Sweden theme this year ( we choose a country every year to learn about how they celebrate the holidays) we are having a smorgasbord with swedish meatballs and Glug and the whole nine ( EXCEPT lutefisk and pickled pigs feet I REFUSE LOL).

The rest though, sounds good to me

How fun!

 

[njcarita]

Did you grow up in UNION CITY?????

nope

grew up in saddle brook

took paino lessons in Union City for 10 years when i was a kid

and now i'm up in Warren county

 

[luvwinnie]

nope

grew up in saddle brook

took paino lessons in Union City for 10 years when i was a kid

and now i'm up in Warren county

Too funny! I grew up in UC and now live in SADDLE BROOK!

 

[T1130]

We also have a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday for Jesus on Christmas Eve.