What’s everyone cooking? Christmas eve we go go my aunt’s and she does a lovely, traditional meal with filet and salmon and fancy pototoes and that kind of thing. I bring a buche de noel, and we we make lots of inappropriate jokes about it.
Christmas day my husband’s family comes here and we usually do brunch, but this year we are making a seafood paella. I was out of practice at Thanksgiving and made way too much food-am going to try to just focus on the paella and keep everything else simple. So maybe just a cheese plate and veggies/dip for appetizers. And a crisp salad. I was wondering if I should also make a tiny ham with the paella. But there are only 6 of us and I think it will be too much. How about you?!
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We aren’t really feeling the holiday spirit this year, no big dinner planned. Instead, we decided to do a ton of different appetizers that can easily be put into the oven and eaten as people feel the desire, along with drinks of choice. We will still have the usually Christmas Cracker silliness, probably just spend the day with our paper crowns on rather than during a sit down dinner.
The appetizers/food we chose:
Brie en croute
Pickles/Olives plate
Pigs n blanket
Hummus w/veggies
Mini quiche
Crispy veggie packets (in wonton wrappers)
Fruit cake
Sugar Plums (sugar syrup preserved greengages)
Honey figs
Stilton/Walnuts
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Love the appetizer idea. Our kids are healthy eaters and would prefer not to have a traditional Christmas dinner. Im going to propose ppetizers and game night.
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I’m working on our Christmas dinner menu today (everyone gets a copy on their plate).
Will fill in libations after DH receives his annual fabulous bottle of cabernet Christmas morning.
NYE definitely will be wild mushroom soup, rack of lamb, roasted redskins, and a roasted vegetable. That menu almost never varies as lamb is my favorite and will re-appear on my birthday dinner plate a couple of weeks later.
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we are Italian and do a 7 fishes dinner on Christmas Eve. We live near the Italian Market in Philadelphia and pick up fresh Ravioli and make that with meatballs and a salad for Christmas Day. Slightly different menu on Christmas Eve depending on what we all decide on for fish but always ravioli on Christmas day.
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Some years we do seafood and sausage gumbo (everyone loves it and SO easy for a crowd), but this year we going with beef.
Appetizers:
Cosmopolitans! 
Stuffed mushrooms–some scallop, some artichoke
Charcuterie board
Veggies with hummus
Starter Course:
Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Dinner:
Prime Rib with fresh horseradish sauce
Twice baked potatoes or gorgonzola mashed potatoes (both easy to make ahead)
Roasted Veggies
Dessert?
Not sure. Thinking of Creme Brule but maybe wondering if that’s too much dairy? Ha. Maybe just an assortment from the cookie tray? Maybe my grandmothers red velvet cake? I am not a pie eater, so not a pie baker. Hoping to get inspired here.
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I traditionally do a Trifle for Christmas dessert, primarily because I received a Trifle dish as a wedding gift 37.5 years ago! I do different flavors/variations every year. Still trying to decide what kind to make this year. My new DIL doesn’t consume alcohol, and in the past I’ve typically used liqueur, so need to make adjustments.
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Prime rib of beef
Mashed potatoes made with sour cream
Broccoli
Roasted carrots
Dessert
Chocolate Pots
Wine
Rioja
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Christmas dinner will be with friends…a standing rib roast, roasted veggies, and I’m making Potatoes Romanoff…an old and favorite recipe from vegetarian epicure. There will be a soup appetizer and a salad too. Dessert is usually Cherries Jubilee.
New Years with different friends. Spiced butternut squash soup, I think pork tenderloin, a rice dish, grilled veggies. I’m bringing dessert to that one and will be making three kinds of Christmas cookies and bringing a three berry pie.
Christmas Eve…we will be here…just two of us. We will have Dutch Potato Soup (also from the Vegetarian Epicure), a selection of cheeses and fruit, and a nice baguette.
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Does everyone like seafood? That would be a ‘no’ from about half my family.
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Uggghh…just reread my menu and realized too much mushroom! My daughter is making the soup, so I’ll scrap the stuffed mushrooms and do some Prawn/Endive wraps. (We have prawns in the freezer that need to get used). That’s lighter anyway.
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It’s just the two of us this year. H wanted turkey breast but we weren’t able to get one in our grocery pick-up (third try this week, two different stores), so I’ll use some frozen Gulf shrimp plus andouille sausage to make jambalaya for Christmas day. That will be a treat.
Christmas Eve we’ll have apps similar to the ones beebee3 mentioned. I was able to get several different varieties of stuffed olives for H, along with some special cheeses. I “discovered” an unopened bag of pecans in a ziploc bag in the freezer. (Maybe I should inventory the freezer more often.) Some will be toasted to have with the cheese and olives, and some will be used to make pralines.
We already had cream cheese before Kraft announced the shortage, so we will have a cheesecake this year. I’ll make a half recipe.
When he packed up the old house, H brought about two dozen bottles of wine plus several bottles of liqueurs including Cointreau and Amaretto. I’ve enjoyed being able to cook with wine again and will be adding a little to the jambalaya.
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I’m catering to the 20-something crowd.
The 23rd we will have appetizers, including Brie with honey (spicy and regular), spinach artichoke dip, and chicken teriyaki meatballs (thank you Costco).
Christmas Eve was going to be filet mignon with Bearnaise sauce, but kids said they like teriyaki steak (nice ribeyes) better, so we will have that, along with mashed potatoes (see kid part) and green beans, with homemade carrot cake for dessert.
Christmas Day we’ll have Christmas cosmos starting after presents are done, so will have lasagna (made on the 23rd) that we can throw in the oven.
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Holiday cooking is my jam! Last week we held our traditional tamale making assembly line. We made pork/red chili and corn/poblano/ cheese for the savory and rum raisin / brown sugar , and apple cinnamon on the sweet side.
Christmas dinner is set pending final selection of dinner wine. This yeas is extra special for us celebrating our son’s success in Silicon Valley and our daughters recent acceptance to her dream college. So,…I get to use that as an excuse to go HUGE on the dinner wine! Our menu very similar to others on this thread…
Appetizers
Various with Scottish smoked salmon and Ossetra Caviar
Champaign (typically Veuve Clicquot)
Main
Prime Rib Roast (SRF Gold Grade Wagyu)
Creamed Spinach
Mashed Potatoes (Joël Robuchon’s recipe)
Dinner rolls
Wine- Syrah (TBD)
Dessert
Bittersweet Chocolate Soufflés with Chocolate Sabayon
Wine- 2019 Inniskillin Oak Aged Vidal Icewine
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My daughter moved to Philadelphia recently and took us to the Italian market over thanksgiving. I requested (begged) that she bring prosciutto di Parma, burrata and cannoli for our celebration this past weekend. It was so delicious!
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We had our celebration with our children this past weekend. Had traditional midwestern Christmas of ham, cheesy potatoes, broccoli salad and baked beans.
The kids are having Christmas with their SO’s families.
I’m having my mil and fil, bil and his son for Christmas Day. I ordered a holiday box from hello fresh, bought dessert from a local bakery and calling it a day.
My husband and I drove my mother, my mother in law and father in law 500 miles to my sons. I’m doing easy for Christmas Day.
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What’s in the Hello Fresh holiday box?
Our group is small under the best of circumstances and even smaller this year. We’ll go out for a nice Christmas Eve dinner. On Christmas, our tradition is a big breakfast. We usually go to an afternoon movie and then we have breakfast leftovers for dinner. We only eat this food once a year, but really enjoy it for as long as it lasts.
Egg Casserole
Sausage Cheese Grits
Creme Brulee French Toast
Pumpkin Apple Bread
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I got the small box. Beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and a crostini as an appetizer. The large box had prime rib. The small box was 4-6 people, we have 6 meat eaters and a vegetarian. I am making a pasta dish for the vegetarian and will add a bagged salad. And bought extra meat in case the tenderloin was skimpy.
Had a 20% off coupon and decided the convenience was worth it.
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That sounds terrific!
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