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Non-traditional holidays meals?


Night Elf
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We had tenderloin steak for Thanksgiving with my favorite side dishes from a traditional Thanksgiving. None of us wanted ham or turkey. So now we're thinking about Christmas. I've decided to make homemade lasagna. I found an easy recipe online and will use that. I've done this once before and used no-boil noodles and it was really good but I didn't save the recipe.

Do you have a non-traditional Christmas meal?

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The last few Christmases, we’ve switched things up. One year, daughter made a Christmas goose (expensive), another year, it was lasagna. Last year, since it was just DH and me, I made crockpot French onion soup. This year we will continue the soup theme with a cream of crab soup.🎄

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Growing up, we always had either lasagna or Chinese take out on Christmas Eve. 

My step mother didn't like to cook and sometimes just made a big pot of chili. With cornbread and salad, it was a hearty, low-fuss meal. 

When Christmas Eve has been a large formal meal, Christmas day has sometimes been leftovers! After breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and chocolate in the morning, no one here is hungry until late in the day, when we are just relaxing. 

My mom did lobsters one year! Fun, but expensive and tons of work. 

Edited by ScoutTN
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Lasagna is very traditional in my area.  The grocery stores that give discounts on holiday foods based on loyalty points offer free/cheap turkey, roast beef, or lasagna.  

We usually use Christmas as an excuse to pay more than we should for prime rib but it's based on price more than tradition!  

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Waffles and bacon for breakfast. Snacks later in the day. (Cheese, crackers, fruit, dips, etc)

We travel and usually get home late on Christmas Eve so I have to serve things that can be sitting in our house/fridge for the week before. Plus, I’m exhausted and never want to cook after traveling. 😉😆

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The only traditions I know of are the ones we grew up with. Both DH and I, as kids, had turkey and ham and stuff like mashed potatoes, sweet peas, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, turkey dressing. For a few Christmases when our kids were really young, we let each person choose one food and we cooked all 5 of them and that was our meal. I remember chicken tenders, pizza, spaghetti, hot dogs and velveeta macaroni and cheese the most. *laugh* 

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At our last home, grilling was popular.  We've done everything from Chinese food to an intricate stuffed chicken dish, just whatever we felt was best that year.  This year we're doing a traditional ham (oldest's favorite), mashed potatoes (youngest's favorite) and several veggies.  But Christmas eve we are ordering Chinese food, pizza, and tacos. 😄

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Our family tradition has been lasagna for over 30 years. We have lasagna, homemade bread, and salad, with vanilla ice cream and sauces (chocolate and praline) on Christmas Eve (with one special bar cookie I usually make). Then on Christmas Day, we have a late breakfast of monkey bread, eggs, maybe sausage or bacon, or a breakfast casserole to go with the sweet bread. Then leftover lasagna for lunch/supper. It's so nice, because the lasagna can be made ahead of time and doesn't require a lot of side dishes. That means I don't have to spend all day Christmas in the kitchen. My lasagna is awfully good, too, if I do say so myself!😏  And honestly, while I enjoy turkey and all the fixings on Thanksgiving, I'm not ready for it again a month later. 

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We have an open house on Christmas Eve and serve chili.  Christmas Day we have wrapped lil smokies and cheesecake for breakfast (tradition from my FOO), and chili leftovers all day.

We do traditional Thanksgiving, but if I can get good roasted green chile, I make a casserole that became tradition for me in my 20s.

Chili Day is really my favorite, though.  So easy!

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I grew up with a non-traditional Christmas meal of eggplant parmigiana. At some point my mother decided it was too labor intensive and switched to ravioli instead. In both cases she made her homemade sauce. When dh and I married I carried on my tradition. He sometimes wants his family's tradition of ham so I make that for Christmas Eve. Mostly however he likes my tradition. Ds doesn't think it's Christmas dinner if it's not ravioli and meatballs 

I have other Italian American friends for whom lasagna is their traditional meal. 

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One year we did corned beef and cabbage.  Growing up for Christmas eve we just had a quick meal before heading to my grandparent's house for a big dessert fest, mostly cookies my aunt made.  As we got older they started to do pizza as well.  Christmas day was always turkey or ham at my other grandparent's house.

After getting married MIL introduced me to breakfast for dinner on Christmas eve, and that was fun for many years, but I got a bit tired of it.  This year we are hosting DH's parents on Christmas Eve and I am trying to come up with something new, but with traditional elements.  My FIL is not a big fan of new and different foods, so it is a bit tricky.  I wanted to do a goose or duck this year, but I am having a hard time finding it locally.

Christmas day this year will be lunch at my parents with ham my mom is baking and whatever my siblings and I bring to share.  I have no idea what I am going to take yet.  Probably a dessert.  But dinner will be at home with appetizers and cookies.  Each family member gets to pick on easy to make ahead/cook last minute appetizer.  So far I know we are going to have mozzarella sticks, mini quiches, and a stuffed mushroom casserole.

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My husband fondly remembers homemade pizza and soda for Christmas Eve supper every year as a kid. He keeps trying to get my kids to go along with it and revive that tradition, but they all want something "fancier" -although their idea of fancy is pretty hilarious 😂 We've done roast beef and twice baked potatoes, soup and salad, ham and noodle casserole, homemade mac n cheese, just to name a few I can remember. This year I'm thinking about assigning them each a different course to choose their favorite dish for. We might end up with an interesting menu that way! Lol

No matter what the menu is we always eat on our fanciest dishes and drink from wine glasses with a sparkling juice toast.

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Yes, for like the last 4-5 years, we started having T-Bones on the grill, shrimp, baked potatoes, and salad for Christmas Day. This year for Christmas Eve, we're going to have chili and cheeseburger soup, some type of sandwiches, possibly Philly steak or something using sourdough bread, 1-2 different types of salads (made ahead), and raw vegetables with the ranch dip. 

Starting next year for Thanksgiving, we're going with soup and sandwiches as well. 

Edited by twovetteslater
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6 hours ago, Night Elf said:

We had tenderloin steak for Thanksgiving with my favorite side dishes from a traditional Thanksgiving. None of us wanted ham or turkey. So now we're thinking about Christmas. I've decided to make homemade lasagna. I found an easy recipe online and will use that. I've done this once before and used no-boil noodles and it was really good but I didn't save the recipe.

Do you have a non-traditional Christmas meal?

Lasagna is our traditional meal here. Now I am curious what everyone else has for their tradition.

 

Although this year, I am thinking of doing something I have never ever done before..like Spaghetti and meatballs!

Edited by Janeway
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We have our own version of a "traditional" meal for Thanksgiving, which includes some of the usual side dishes most people would recognize combined with a few other things. For a good number of years, we had the same basic meal on Christmas day, too. Then, about a decade ago, we decided to switch to having Indian-inspired food on Christmas, because we all considered that one of our favorite meals (and it allowed me to spend less time in the kitchen, because I could pre-make a few dishes).

We've stuck with that ever since.

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Christmas day, nobody here wants to cook much. I usually prep a chuck roast the day before and chop some veggies. On Christmas day, it slowly cooks in the cast iron pot in stock and seasoning for several hours until the meat falls apart and is super tender. 

Edited by Liz CA
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I don't know what we will have! I don't like the beef here and we are tired of chicken, and of course there's no pork roast. 

Dd's boyfriend's parents made sushi for Thanksgiving one year. They had lived in Japan and really liked it there. (They were back in the States by then, though.)

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6 hours ago, Chris in VA said:

I don't know what we will have! I don't like the beef here and we are tired of chicken, and of course there's no pork roast. 

Dd's boyfriend's parents made sushi for Thanksgiving one year. They had lived in Japan and really liked it there. (They were back in the States by then, though.)

Lamb? 

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11 minutes ago, Night Elf said:

My local Chinese restaurant is closed for holidays. So that's not an option for us which is really too bad because ds won't eat lasagna. He'll probably eat frozen chicken and boxed herbed pasta.

Does he like other italian food? When I did lasagna for Christmas one year I had a niece that wouldn't eat that, but did like fettuccini alfredo. It was easy enough to boil some pasta for her, and use a premed alfredo sauce. 

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15 hours ago, Loowit said:

One year we did corned beef and cabbage.  Growing up for Christmas eve we just had a quick meal before heading to my grandparent's house for a big dessert fest, mostly cookies my aunt made.  As we got older they started to do pizza as well.  Christmas day was always turkey or ham at my other grandparent's house.

After getting married MIL introduced me to breakfast for dinner on Christmas eve, and that was fun for many years, but I got a bit tired of it.  This year we are hosting DH's parents on Christmas Eve and I am trying to come up with something new, but with traditional elements.  My FIL is not a big fan of new and different foods, so it is a bit tricky.  I wanted to do a goose or duck this year, but I am having a hard time finding it locally.

 

What about Cornish game hens or a roast lamb? Those should be easy to find, and a little different without your FIL thinking they’re too weird. If you do something that seems out there, you can always back it up with a turkey breast roasted on a sheet pan. 

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