s/o Christmas menu: if you do finger foods...

[Janie Grace]

I have always done some kind of sit-down meal (turkey, roast beef, ham, etc). But dh HATES if I have to spend any amount of time in the kitchen on Christmas. He likes it to be a totally cozy, lay around in your jammies enjoying the kids kind of day -- and that sounds great to me! We always do a big (easy) breakfast -- egg casserole and monkey bread. We talked about getting a bunch of fun Trader Joe's finger foods for lunch/dinner.... just kind of graze and eat yummy "treat" food that we wouldn't normally get when we feel like it. Well, I found out recently my mom is coming from out of town at 3:00. She *always* does a sit-down Christmas dinner (turkey). She says she is fine with whatever, but I don't think she'd "get" the informal eating thing. I'd be steeling myself for the bemusement (read: criticism). So... how do I merge these two visions?

 

If you do finger foods, do you serve them all at once? Do you sit around the table together? What time (is this lunch, dinner, or sometime in between)? Do you think I should just abandon the finger foods thing for mom's sake? Sigh. Love my mom, really don't want to give up my lazy Christmas. I *never* laze around like that.

[5LittleMonkeys]

We do finger foods during the day, but then around 6 or 7 in the evening we sit down all together with wine and dessert. Perhaps that would be a happy compromise.

[justLisa]

We do a lot of frozen stuff from Costco. It's not super cheap but not super expensive either and frankly my sanity is more important than spending hours on things that you pop continuously in your mouth. Though I do make fancified hotdog wrapped things. I make homemade pizza dough and use good sausage and make some sweet and spicy dipping sauce for them.

 

And booze. Cannot forget the booze.

[Janie Grace]

I've done finger foods for years. Honestly, they aren't really much easier.

 

 

Really? You're shattering my lazy day illusions! Say it ain't so!

[Janie Grace]

We do a lot of frozen stuff from Costco. It's not super cheap but not super expensive either and frankly my sanity is more important than spending hours on things that you pop continuously in your mouth. Though I do make fancified hotdog wrapped things. I make homemade pizza dough and use good sausage and make some sweet and spicy dipping sauce for them.

 

And booze. Cannot forget the booze.

 

 

Yum, to all of it. Yeah, I was in Trader Joe's the other day looking at boxes of goodies and realizing it's not going to be cheap. I could try Sam's -- no Costco, unfortunately. My mom's pretty conservative about booze (one glass of wine, with dinner) so dh and I might need to be um, subtle, about that. No really, it's just cranberry juice. ;)

[2squared]

I make a ham on Christmas Eve along with the rest of our holiday meal. The next day we eat the leftovers with ham sandwiches. I also bought summer sausage and cheese for Christmas Day. So, leftovers pared with yummy sugar treats are our Christmas Day eats. I do have a lazy day, and I love it. Everyone older than 4yo can use the microwave to reheat what they want when they want it.

[cjzimmer1]

Really? You're shattering my lazy day illusions! Say it ain't so!

 

 

We do the appetizer stuff for Christmas Eve and even buying it all made, it's still a lot work to heat it up and serve. I've easily spent 2-3 hours in the kitchen over the course of the afternoon/evening putting stuff out, heating stuff up, pulling out the sauce to go with this hot appetizer and the dip to go with that cold one, moving things to appropriate serving platters when they cooking one is too hot/greasy/unwieldy to have on the table for people to snack on, refilling veggie/fruit/cheese/cracker trays etc. But I don't usually do all premade, I try to do a mix. Like fruit/cheese/veggie I can cut up the day before or morning of (since we don't start until lunch time). I already have meatballs made and I will dump those in the crockpot in the morning with chil sauce and grape jelly. I'll wrap my little smokies with bacon the night before so they just have to go in the oven (although these are one of the things that has to be transferred to another platter because the tray is hot and greasy and that is not a good combo for my littlest people).

 

If you are wanting something that is a bit more "real food", I would have a crockpot of shredded meat in gravy or meatballs/sauce or ham slices in juice and have some buns. That way if they want something more substantial than snacks they can easily make sandwiches and all you will have to do is turn on the crockpot Christmas morning since the rest you can do in advance.

[Samiam]

We've always done our appetizers on Christmas Eve, then the big meal on Christmas day, per DH"s request. For the last several years, I've refused to cook on Christmas Day. After the first few years, as we added more children, I thought it was very unfair that I'm expected to slave away in the kitchen on Christmas day, meanwhile my children are needing help with putting things together, etc, and it's just the point, I'm STUCK in the kitchen. DH helped when he could, but three children in the other room needing help with their new toys came first.

 

DH actually did MOST of the cooking the last 3 years on Christmas Day! I'd help, and MIL would help, but he was responsible for the brunt of it...and then he realized what a chore it was.

 

 

Sooo, last year we switched it around, and did the full meal on Christmas EVe, then did just appetizers on Christmas Day. Soooo much better.

 

I don't do alot of frozen apps, though, can't afford that. I make most of them. But alot of that can be done in advance, so that day it's really about just the actual baking.

 

Yes, it's still a bit crazy for an hour or so in the kitchen on Christmas Day, really no way around that if you are going to feed people, but it doesn't feel so, well, time-consuming when it's just Apps.

[MamaAkins]

What about making something in the crockpot ahead of time for Christmas Day? You could do a roast with veggies if you want a regular meal. Otherwise, you could do a soup and serve it with a yummy loaf of bread and serve cut-up veggies as an appetizer? Otherwise, you could prep a tray of lasagna (or something similar) so that all you have to do on Christmas Day is shove it in the oven and serve it up. Would any of those options appease everyone?

[Mrs_JWM]

Oh, Janie Grace - don't you have one of these booze hats?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Red-Drinking-Helmet-Soda-Hat/dp/B000MTYLWC

 

You could make rum and Cokes right in the can! Fewer dishes to wash!

 

 

[lmrich]

We do finger food - kind of.. We have our big holiday meal on the 23rd. A huge brunch on the 24th and pasta with red sauce (already in the freezer) for dinner. On the 25 I have a special breakfast. Then starting at noon I pull out all the stuff I have prepared ahead of time, a tray with leftover ham and cheeses, rolls, sausage balls, cheese balls and crackers, two types of chili are dumped into two different crockpots, another crockpot holds tangy meatballs, and I will heat up chicken poppers and put them in a warming tray. I have a large veggie tray, fruit plate already to go as well. We all make lots of cookies. Basically I cook all day on the 22 and 23 and until noon on the 24 th. but I enjoy having the 25 th to focus on family and not the kitchen. We use paper products that day as well.

[Cindy in FL.]

I make Eggs Benedict and monkey bread for a sit down breakfast. Then we just have Honey Baked ham and turkey, rolls, devilled eggs, and fruit for the rest of the day. People eat whenever they want.

[Parrothead]

I put it all out about lunch time. The food is served in the container it goes in the fridge. The lid goes under the container. We don't get fancy. Paper plates and condiments are not put in little separate bowls. Things like deviled eggs and cheeses (and meat when we ate it) comes out then goes back in the fridge after lunch. Cookies and veggies and fruit sits out for the taking.

 

It is simple and very nice. I don't spend much time on food prep at all and every one loves it because it is such a change of pace.

[PeacefulChaos]

I have always done some kind of sit-down meal (turkey, roast beef, ham, etc). But dh HATES if I have to spend any amount of time in the kitchen on Christmas. He likes it to be a totally cozy, lay around in your jammies enjoying the kids kind of day -- and that sounds great to me! We always do a big (easy) breakfast -- egg casserole and monkey bread. We talked about getting a bunch of fun Trader Joe's finger foods for lunch/dinner.... just kind of graze and eat yummy "treat" food that we wouldn't normally get when we feel like it. Well, I found out recently my mom is coming from out of town at 3:00. She *always* does a sit-down Christmas dinner (turkey). She says she is fine with whatever, but I don't think she'd "get" the informal eating thing. I'd be steeling myself for the bemusement (read: criticism). So... how do I merge these two visions?

 

If you do finger foods, do you serve them all at once? Do you sit around the table together? What time (is this lunch, dinner, or sometime in between)? Do you think I should just abandon the finger foods thing for mom's sake? Sigh. Love my mom, really don't want to give up my lazy Christmas. I *never* laze around like that.

 

Let's see.

We do finger foods with DH's family on Christmas day. We usually get there around 12ish and sit the food out - people graze most of the day. We don't usually take stuff that has to stay hot unless it's in a crock pot. :) We usually do go through the food once, then a couple hours later we'll pull out the desserts (which may or may not be finger food). We then kind of go back and forth after that, if we want more food.

I really like it this way. I LOVE 'party' food (finger food, whatever. :D ) so this is right up my alley. It's also super easy!

I actually have to decide what I'm going to make...

HTH!

 

 

eta: I don't find it to be a ton of work - but I'm not the only one making food, either. ILs got a ham (country ham - no honey ham here! :D ) and one BIL and his family will be there. SIL is also making stuff, and I'll probably make 3-4 things. Last year I made cookie dough dip (with graham crackers), jalepeno popper crescents, something else (sorry, I can't remember what it was! something else not sweet...), and the kids and I had made some peanut butter/chocolate cookies and chocolate dipped pretzels ahead of time. The last two things are just a part of our own Christmas traditions (maybe not those exact things, but we usually make 2 'candy' type things and take some to share on Christmas day) and the other 3 things were SUPER easy.

This year I'm not sure yet what 'candy' stuff the kid and I are doing, but I'm thinking I'll definitely take little smokies or meatballs on Christmas Day. If no one else is using MIL's crockpot, I may take both. Then I always do a dip (or two), a finger food (if I don't do both meatballs and smokies), and a dessert. None of those things take long at all.