What's on your Holiday Menus?

[RadioNate]

If you could see my December you'd understand why I'm trying to plan this out now.

Thanksgiving I have 6 for dinner so far. We are providing the Turkey and people are bringing sides etc so that is pretty much taken care of.

We only have 4 days in December that 1)we aren't out of town or 2) we don't have houseguests. On 2 of those 4 days, DH has hockey games so in addition to his 730-530 job he's got work from 630-930pm plus commutes.

I have houseguests from Dec 14-Jan 4

So I need to plan for Christmas and have some meals ready to go that serve at least 8!

We are going to the Saints game on Christmas Eve and my mom and grandmother are staying home so I was going to put them in charge of Christmas Eve dinner. In my family Christmas Eve was always a bigger deal. My aunt always made traditional Polish dishes and I've continued that tradition but I don't think my Irish mother and inlaws will be happy with stuff they can't pronounce! Any suggestions on what to serve? We will have a minimum of 8. More likely we will have 10-12ppl.

Is a Brunch and Dinner sufficiant for Christmas Day?

Any ideas on breakfast dishes that can be put together beforehand? I was thinking about putting my inlaws in charge of Brunch. Is that rude? They are staying at my house for 2 weeks!

Ok dinner, again we will likely have 10-12 people. Traditional? Turkey, ham, maybe a roast? What do people 'normally' serve. We never did big Christmas dinners but in DH's family it's the 'bigger' day so they will expect a full on formal Christmas dinner.

What are you serving (of if you don't know about this year yet, what is your favorite from years past)?

Thanks

 

[mtemm]

Brunch and Dinner is what we usually do on christmas day. We change dinner menu for christmas day around, although for the last couple of years we've been doing a prime rib roast. Started when I was pg with twins and dh decided to take over cooking (well, mostly). He watched a wee bit too much of the food network that year and it paid off...he made the roast and yorkshire pudding. I think we steamed some asparagus, made a salad maybe had some kind of potato. It turned out so well he made it the following year (last year). Not sure if we'll repeat it again...I would hate to discourage him from cooking. lol.

eta: for some make-ahead breakfast dishes, what about a strata or baked french toast? Some quick breads/muffins are nice and make-aheadable. Usually we have brown bread (a kind of quick bread with nuts and raisins), scrambled eggs (and sometimes strata), bacon, fresh fruit salad, OJ. Doesn't have to be fancy and doesn't take too much time.

 

[PattnFmly]

Christmas eve we spend at church so we just get take out: subs/pizza/McDonalds! But Christmas day, we have pillsbury cinnamon rolls as a break between opening the stockings and presents. Then we have a big dinner. Always: shrimp cocktail, a roast (usually pork), baked potatoes, and something made a couple days earlier and reheated - like chicken pot pie or lasagna. And always always always plum pudding for dessert. Made earlier in the month and then steamed to warm up with fresh whipped cream! Yummmmm - starting to drool!