What's on the Christmas/Christmas Eve menus this year?

[havaneselover]

We go to Maggiano's for Christmas Eve. I think we've done it the last three years--good food, not too expensive, and extra to take home.

 

[scrapquitler]

Christmas Eve at my brother's house. We get together early, like 3:30/4. One of my brothers is making a deep fried turkey, and then we'll have a bunch of finger foods to go with it and deserts later, mostly snacky kind of things. I don't know what I'm bringing yet, I haven't been told what's expected. LOL.

On Christmas, my in laws will come to our house in the afternoon. We will have ham and homemade mac& cheeese. For side dishes there will be corn, green beans, rolls and stuff like that, also a lot of finger foods and deserts.

We like to keep it really casual and easy. No fancy schmancy stuff here.

 

[quandrea]

I forgot to add that we have cinnamon buns and honey bun cake for breakfast with lots of hot coffee. We've been having this since dh and I met. Now we've added three kids and three dogs to the mix. It's a wonderful life

 

[LilyWDW]

Christmas Eve will be lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, salad, breadsticks, and something for dessert

Christmas Day will be cinnamon rolls in the morning here at home with me and the cats. Then that night will be the big family dinner. Usually that's a beef roast plus another meat and all the fixings.

 

[threecrazykids]

We have a similar menu every year - it's been that way since my great-grandparents hosted decades ago:

Oyster Soup (gotta have this with buttered Saltines)
Chili
Shrimp Cocktail
Veggie Platter
Assorted appetizers - dips, meat and cheese trays, etc.

 

[CPanther95]

Christmas Day tradition is ham.

Christmas Eve tradition is Feast of the Seven Fishes at Italian in-laws. I enjoy most of it, except the baccala (dried salted cod) and fried smelts. But if they served the following I'd be happy.

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With you 100%. I skip the 7 fishes and focus on the other Italian dishes on Christmas Eve.

End of the evening tradition in my house is Hot Cocoa with marshmallows and buttered toast.

What I miss is my Borden's Egg Nog in the big can topped. Haven't been able to find the cans for years, so I assume they no longer make it.

 

[wenrob]

Christmas Eve is usually some kind of take out so I don't have to worry about clean up after a big meal and doing the Santa thing.

Christmas morning will some wonderful homemade pastry yet to be determined that oldest DD will make. Last year it was orange glazed cinnamon rolls.

Christmas dinner will be Prime Rib, crab legs, DH's twice baked potatoes, green beans w/bacon and asparagus. DD's mentor still teaches at the high school so we will cheat and order a pumpkin cheesecake from them and use her amazing sourdough for garlic bread. We don't yet know what shift DD will (or if) be working so we may switch Christmas Eve and Day around accordingly.

A few days before or after Christmas my sister and her kids will come over. We'll do spiral ham sliders on homemade rolls with fancy mustard, cheeses, a bunch of snacky stuff, sister's famous pumpkin roll and what's left of all the cookies my DD makes.

 

[Squirlz]

We'll be in Chicago so I don't know, but it will be good! I'll definitely be having chicken and waffles from Miss Ricky's in our hotel one of those days. Sriracha honey sauce! That's a big piece of fried chicken skin sticking out.

 

[aristocatz]

We are very casual for Christmas. We do turkey & all the trimmings for Thanksgiving & would prefer to lounge and enjoy for Christmas

Christmas Eve is typically Chinese food or another take-out of some sort.

Christmas Day, I will typically make a quiche & fresh fruit or a breakfast casserole. & a festive flavored coffee. The other two meals are really just broken into grazing on various hot & cold appetizers, etc... & Christmas cookies

Last year was a bit different because I just had a baby. We had much less of a fuss. We ended up picking up some frozen seafood pies from Whole Foods & ate those for dinner-wow, were those yummy!

 

[Minnesota!]

My boys want to hit Hooters. I want to go to Buca. We'll see who wins

 

[bsblady01]

we are having Christmas eve dinner at crt and Christmas dinner will be at Hollywood and vine this year

 

[jen73]

Christmas eve we hv finger foods usually :

Chick fil a nugget tray
Meatballs in some kind of sauce
Cocktail shrimp
Pigs in blankets
Pizza dip
Sausage dip

And assorted holiday baked goodies

Christmas we typically hv Italian food: lasagna, salad, garlic bread, cheesecake but I wanna change it to something different ,not sure what

 

[denisem]

Just the two of us and we're low-key: don't have a clue for Christmas Day. I'm hoping for turkey and all the trimmings, since we did prime rib for Thanksgiving.

 

[Poohforyou]

We have piergios Christmas eve in honor of dh's heritage. I hate them so I also do a big salad with lots of different things in it.

We also have a birthday cake Christmas eve for baby Jesus.

We used to have a big Christmas dinner of standing rib roast (another thing I hate ) and lots of sides. Last year we changed that to lots of hot and cold appetizers which I love and everyone else did too.

 

[cijay]

Family Christmas dinner is actually next Saturday. We have a new venue (there are 50 of us so we all do a big one so that we can break into smaller sub-families for Christmas) so I don't know what's on the menu, usually buffet. Our last one closed down and I'm sad. (weep weep).

Christmas Eve is usually nibblie-bites after church - crackers, sausage, cheese, candy and of course BEER. Christmas Day I'm going to the house of (get this) my niece's fiancé's parents. I've met them and they're nice but the food allergy is always a worry. Boxing day we usually go to my aunts for a leftover buffet.

 

[cijay]

We also have a birthday cake Christmas eve for baby Jesus.

That's so sweet. My nephew's birthday is the 24th and he always insists on an extra candle for baby Jesus.

 

[bcla]

Nothing quite like spending Christmas in Las Vegas with the wife and kid. I actually took the kid to see tigers and dolphins at The Mirage a few years back, and we did dim sum for lunch on Christmas Day. I mean - there wasn't really a lack of places in Vegas to have a meal on Christmas Day, but they're packed. The dim sum place was chosen after we looked at how long the buffet line was. It wasn't quite Christmas, but we did the 24 hour buffet cycle for one price. I heard the secret is to start at dinner and get the second dinner in before the 24 hours ends.

 

[leebee]

It's almost always just the 3 of us for Christmas, so it's pretty easy. Christmas eve will be either baked seafood casserole or seafood chowder. I'll make something interesting for DD22 who isn't a seafood fan, although now that she likes scallops and haddock, it's easier. Usually I make a pot of Boma's peanut rice or homemade macaroni and cheese, and she's happy as a clam (see what I did there? and she'd cringe, she HATES clams! ). Christmas breakfast will be overnight egg casserole (as in, I can make it the day before, let it sit overnight in the fridge, and bake it in the morning). The rest of the day is dedicated to eating dips and appetizers. We'll probably have hot buffalo chicken dip, smoked gouda and red pepper dip, clam dip (DH hates clams too, so this one is just for me ), maybe nachos, wings, tacos, baked brie... I don't know yet for sure. Sometimes I make a crock pot of party meatballs just so we have something substantial (note I didn't say healthy...). Not sure yet what dessert will be.

HOWEVER: There is another family here in town with whom we are very close. We are each other's "local family" as theirs are all out west and ours are in Indiana/Ohio. We go to their home every year for T-giving. Their entire extended family travels for Christmas: Year 1 is in Washington State, year 2 is in Colorado, year 3 is here in Maine, and year 4 everyone stays home. Well, this is year 4, so they are HERE for Christmas! There is a 99.9% chance we'll go to their house for Christmas dinner, so I already know the menu will be prime rib and baked Alaska, as that's their family's tradition. SO... we'll see, but I GOTTA have my clam dip!!

 

[poodlegirl]

Christmas Eve I always make a big pot of Chili and we play board games. Christmas Day - we usually have ham or a roast with family. Several family members moved away this year though so things will be much more low-key.

 

[RedAngie]

Seafood always was and still is the tradition for Christmas Eve. Meat was traditionally forbidden on December 24. Not 7 fishes however. Perhaps 3 at the most. Like shrimp cocktail, then broiled scallops and crabcakes. The menu varies each year.

Christmas day is Polish foods: pierogies, kielbasa and kraut, stuffed cabbage, mushroom soup, rolled poppy seed cake for dessert, and/or a few other things. There is a thin wafer called oplatek which is passed around and everybody breaks off a piece. Then everybody is supposed to break off a tiny piece of each others' wafers and wish them health and happiness.