Christmas Eve/Day meal plans

[Elizabeth86]

It will just be the people living in this house this year. My family usually has a huge spread, I don't plan on that this year.  I plan on keeping it simple, but I still don't know what we will have. My cousin is making several crock pots of soup and chilli and some snacks and sandwiches so there is variety and everyone can just get soup as they want it. I this this is brilliant, but I'm the only one that loves soup here. What will you and your family be doing for food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

[ScoutTN]

Something easy and light for Christmas Eve. Shrimp or chicken. We'll have a nice dessert or fancy cocoa after we get home from church, around 9:30. 

Breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, and coffee Christmas morning. And chocolate! 😉

Beef tenderloin, roasted root veggies, Brussels sprout and artichoke casserole, and green salad for Christmas dinner. And cheesecake with a GF crust. 

Soup and homemade bread on the 26th.  

[SounderChick]

I don't know usually Christmas Eve we pick up takeout on the way home from church.  Christmas morning we have a breakfast casserole.  Than dinner at my parents that's different each year but always amazing.  This year my parents aren't having us over.  Plus DH is working Christmas night.  I should probably start thinking about it.

[Elizabeth86]

1 minute ago, ScoutTN said:

Something easy and light for Christmas Eve. Shrimp or chicken. We'll have a nice dessert or fancy cocoa after we get home from church, around 9:30. 

Breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, and coffee Christmas morning. And chocolate! 😉

Beef tenderloin, roasted root veggies, Brussels sprout and artichoke casserole, and green salad for Christmas dinner. And cheesecake with a GF crust. 

Soup and homemade bread on the 26th.  

Sounds AMAZING!

[Sherry in OH]

Christmas Eve - I think soup sounds lovely but we'll probably have pizza since I have announced that even though Christmas is on a Friday and we usually have pizza for dinner on Fridays, I will not be making pizza for Christmas dinner.

Christmas - Stouffer's Mac and Cheese (children's request), brisket (dh's request), vegetarian roast, broccoli, and plum pudding 

[KungFuPanda]

Christmas Eve - fondue, crab dip, breads, veggies, Chocolate fondue dessert with fruit and pound cake (maybe donut holes)

Christmas Day - Im still deciding, but I’m thinking 

Steaks, oven fried stuffed latkes, chef salad

or

Roast Beef and mashed potatoes. 
 

steaks are quicker and easier because I have a sous vide

[matrips]

Christmas Eve is antipasto and our Baby Jesus birthday cake.

Christmas morning is a breakfast casserole.

And no idea for Christmas dinner; we fell out of having a tradition.  we spent 6 years having all our various holiday meals at my moms assisted living. She died last year and now we are on our own for meals .  Enjoying reading the ideas 🙂
 

[Kassia]

Yum - these posts are making me hungry.

@matrips I am sorry about your mom.

 

Christmas Eve - ravioli and garlic rolls

Christmas morning - breakfast bagels with eggs, cheese, sausage

Christmas Dinner - we always go to my in-laws.  FIL died this year and I don't know what to do about MIL due to Covid.  We definitely wouldn't eat with her because we'd have to be unmasked.  We're planning on having sausage bread here (like a calzone), but it's so much like breakfast...I don't know.  I'm not used to serving Christmas dinner and I don't want to spend more time in the kitchen.  

 

[Selkie]

Christmas Eve will be a charcuterie board and snacks. Everyone gets chocolate and a book for Icelandic Book Flood.

Christmas Day we are having vegan Philly cheesesteaks, chocolate layer cake, and carrot cake. 

All of it is coming from Goldbelly, so I don't have to cook a thing.

[matrips]

@Kassia thanks.  But I am actually very grateful all the time that she died before all the covid stuff.  And I’m sorry about your FIL.  Sounds like we both need to come up with new traditions for Christmas dinner. I vote we think smart and make them easy-peasy ones 🙂 

[gardenmom5]

It will most likely only be us + 1dd and 1ds (who live together.).  2dd and her little family live out of state.

our "dinner" is christmas eve - dh wants  prime rib.   I want at least two whole rib bones so the dogs dont' fight over one.  This year should be interesting as i can see the cat muscling in to get his fair share of rib.  (he did when they started eating his food - that he was refusing to eat.)

dh's rolls

probably green beans

probably mashed potatoes or funeral potatoes

not sure what other sides.

I'll make a fruit cake - 

not sure what other deserts there will be

I wonder if I can get 1dd to make chess tarts . . . . 

maybe a blackberry pie - it is a special occasion after all.

probably pumpkin pie because that's all dudeling will eat for dessert (when it's blackberry season - we're happy to let him have pumpkin pie.  More blackberry pie for us.)

Chocolates - Lindt truffles, Dilettante truffles (aka: the REAL Frango recipe!)

 

dh will sometimes make cinnamon rolls for christmas morning, and panettone.  I've already been informed by adult children they are having a LotR marathon after we open presents . . . .. (12 hrs - they'll be into boxing day)

[HS Mom in NC]

Christmas Eve: just the 3 of us
lunch: still not sure, maybe the chicken pot pie in the freezer from Thanksgiving's turkey leftovers
dinner: Julia Child's lamb stew, home made bread in a frog shape (one of youngest's cooking class projects-it's adorable,) herbed butter,  and llama sugar cookies


Christmas Day: the 7 of us (We've gotten together at least once a week for a year.)
brunch: Vanilla Sourdough French Toast , maple sausages, baked pears with sliced almonds, pear spritzer
late lunch-dinner: charcuterie boards with meats, cheeses, crackers, dried fruits, nuts, veggies,  chocolate and orange Yule Log cake and llama sugar cookies

[Annie G]

Just the three of us. Christmas Eve is a light meal, nothing special, but then we go out and look at Christmas lights. We usually have hot chocolate and a snack while doing that.  Christmas Day is stuffed shells that I’ll assemble on the 24th.  I’ll make a pie of some sort and I might splurge and make some focaccia.

[Drama Llama]

2 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Something easy and light for Christmas Eve. Shrimp or chicken. We'll have a nice dessert or fancy cocoa after we get home from church, around 9:30. 

Breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, and coffee Christmas morning. And chocolate! 😉

Beef tenderloin, roasted root veggies, Brussels sprout and artichoke casserole, and green salad for Christmas dinner. And cheesecake with a GF crust. 

Soup and homemade bread on the 26th.  

Do you have a recipe for Brussels sprout and artichoke casserole?  

[teachermom2834]

Not sure what we are doing this year. Last year on Christmas eve we got a big variety platter of chicken tenders from Publix and french bread from the bakery. We had other fixings and people made their own chicken tender subs however they liked them. It was easy for me because it was pretty much self serve and there wasn't alot of prep/cleanup. I also appreciated that if I overbought it would be something people would eat the next day or two. We had other odds and ends snacky things but that was easy and enjoyed. Christmas eve was always hard trying to figure out what to get on for dinner quickly after getting home from a 5:30 Mass but my young adults/teens really enjoyed this meal and it was EASY. This year we aren't going to mass (Covid) so we can do a bigger meal. Prime rib was the request. I'll have my adult boys home for the first time together since last Christmas so I'll make whatever they want 🙂 

 

[athena1277]

I have a child with a Christmas Eve birthday, so dinner will be what she picks.  Only my mom will be here for Christmas, so I’m not going to cook a ton.  Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I bought a turkey breast I can put in my crockpot and I’ll make a few favorite sides.  I hate being stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is enjoying new stuff, so I’m trying to keep it nice, but simple.

[Starr]

2 hours ago, Sherry in OH said:

Christmas Eve - I think soup sounds lovely but we'll probably have pizza since I have announced that even though Christmas is on a Friday and we usually have pizza for dinner on Fridays, I will not be making pizza for Christmas dinner.

Christmas - Stouffer's Mac and Cheese (children's request), brisket (dh's request), vegetarian roast, broccoli, and plum pudding 

I love the kids and the mac and cheese. That was my and my sister's favorite holiday meal when we were kids.

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, and coffee Christmas morning. And chocolate! 😉

Ooo, I forgot about breakfast!! This is where we should definitely win. Can't believe I forgot it. I need to see if I can pick up some cinnamon rolls and fun things.

For op, I was kind of liking the lasagna idea from the other thread, so I picked up the ingredients for no boil lasagna from Trader Joes. They had a recipe on the box using sausage and marscapone. I got that for one batch and ricotta for a 2nd, so we can compare. 

I do have a ham I picked up, but I don't know. I'm not inspired to go to great effort making sides. I may just heat it lightly and let it be sandwiches for a week after to keep it low key. Or maybe some honeybaked ham will appear, yum. 

Also, I picked up bags of frozen chinese from Trader Joes and that will be our New Years. So it's not swank, but it's done.

[PeterPan]

53 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

Last year on Christmas eve we got a big variety platter of chicken tenders from Publix and french bread from the bakery.

What a fun idea!! Maybe I'll convince my dh on this. We have a fast food chain that does carryout on boxes of chicken tenders, yum.

[wathe]

Eve: Takeout from our favourite independent burger place: burgers. poutine (the good kind), salads.

Day breakfast:  Bacon.  Apparently this is a "tradition", and non-negotiable

Day dinner:  Fancy food from a local caterer.  We heat and eat.  I work shift work over the holidays; fancy food from the caterer is my annual gift to myself.

ETA: fancy food = full turkey dinner with sides and trimmings, gourmet version.  Yum.

Edited December 16, 2020 by wathe

[Carol in Cal.]

Christmas Eve—the usual—Cracked crab, sourdough bread, green salad with Chez Panisse Roquefort dressing, French silk pie, Rombauer Zinfandel.

Christmas Day—wow.  Usually Big Family Dinner.  In which case, leg of lamb, etc.  Maybe we will try to get a rack of lamb since it’s just the two of us.

[Elizabeth86]

15 hours ago, athena1277 said:

I have a child with a Christmas Eve birthday, so dinner will be what she picks.  Only my mom will be here for Christmas, so I’m not going to cook a ton.  Pillsbury cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I bought a turkey breast I can put in my crockpot and I’ll make a few favorite sides.  I hate being stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is enjoying new stuff, so I’m trying to keep it nice, but simple.

I know, right? I'm reading everyone's meal plans thinking, who is going to be putting toys together, playing new board games, helping find the crucial lost lego piece to the new set, finding just 2 more AA batteries, like Christmas is straight chaotic with 4 small kids.  lol I do NOT want to be cooking and cleaning.  

[Spryte]

Christmas Eve is chili, for us.  A charcuterie board, snacks, and a vat of chili.

Christmas morning ... I don’t know yet.  Our allergy situation keeps changing and our traditional breakfast foods are all a no-go now.  I might do baked French toast, and an egg casserole for those who can eat it.  We usually have little smokies and cheesecake.  🤣

I’m thinking of making Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and roasted Brussels sprouts and broccoli for our main meal.

[bensonduck]

It will be just our immediate family of 6.

Christmas Eve  - shrimp cocktail, meats and cheeses platter (is this charcuterie?), lasagna (the only time all year I make it from scratch, haha).  Christmas cookies for dessert. 
 

Christmas Day breakfast - scrambled eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls. I may have to rethink this since my egg allergic child doesn’t like cinnamon right now and I want him to have something special to eat like the rest of us. (Ie. not just bacon). 
 

Christmas Day dinner: our tradition for years has been Chinese food. Last year we went out to the most amazing restaurant. This year the restaurant is closed. I like the idea upthread of beef tenderloin. I’m going to go look at recipes for how to make that. What starch do you typically serve with that? I would probably make Swiss chard or spinach, too. 

[MoyaPechal]

Christmas Eve: no plans yet. Growing up we always went out to our fave restaurant in New York after the candlelight service. I'm Orthodox now and we don't eat meat during Advent so I might try a fancy pasta dish. I can't think of anything I want to order out that's gluten free and meatless.

Christmas: Breakfast is usually pancakes. I'm going to have to try to make gluten free pancakes this year so hopefully that turns out okay. Usually we're too full for lunch. For dinner I'm hoping to make a leg of lamb but I came down with a fever this week and am getting tested for covid on Friday. If I'm sick, I can't go to the grocery store and we'll have to make do with what we already have here if we can. 

[mlktwins]

It will just be the 4 of us for this Christmas.

Christmas Eve will be breakfast - Egg Soufflé with Hollandaise Sauce, Monkey Bread, and Fruit.  

Christmas will be prime rib (if we are able to get one), crab cakes, fancy escalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots, Christmas Jello, and rolls.  Not sure about dessert yet.   

[Drama Llama]

We're going to do our big meal on Christmas Eve here, and then pack up individual meals for various family members and people in our community who we know will be alone, or just with one other person, and deliver on Christmas Day. So, we're cooking for as many people as usual, we just won't actually eat with them.  

I'm just the sous chef, but I think the plan is that we're having 

Prime Rib

Baked mac and cheese

Roasted vegetables

Spinach salad

Sour cream apple pie

Chocolate Yule log

 

For Christmas Eve, and then vegetarian and seafood empanadas for Christmas lunch and the plates we drop off will have both meals with them.  

 

[Tina]

1 hour ago, Spryte said:

Christmas Eve is chili, for us.  A charcuterie board, snacks, and a vat of chili.

Christmas morning ... I don’t know yet.  Our allergy situation keeps changing and our traditional breakfast foods are all a no-go now.  I might do baked French toast, and an egg casserole for those who can eat it.  We usually have little smokies and cheesecake.  🤣

I’m thinking of making Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and roasted Brussels sprouts and broccoli for our main meal.

My dh has to have the Swedish meatball dinner on Christmas Eve, served for lunch for the work crew.  I'm ready for him to cater this one to save me time before and after the meal.  

 

 

[ScoutTN]

17 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Do you have a recipe for Brussels sprout and artichoke casserole?  

Yes! It's my MIL's recipe. Here you go:

2 pkgs frozen Brussels sprouts, lightly cooked 

2 cans quartered artichoke hearts, drained 

1 C. mayo

4 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp celery salt

parmesan

Sliced almonds

 

Mix veggies in a shallow casserole dish

Mix mayo, lemon juice, and celery salt, then dollop on veggies.

Sprinkle with parm and almonds, if you like.

Bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes, until hot through and golden on top. 

[ScoutTN]

1 hour ago, Elizabeth86 said:

I know, right? I'm reading everyone's meal plans thinking, who is going to be putting toys together, playing new board games, helping find the crucial lost lego piece to the new set, finding just 2 more AA batteries, like Christmas is straight chaotic with 4 small kids.  lol I do NOT want to be cooking and cleaning.  

Well, the trade off is that when you have teens it is less busy and chaotic, so it's easier to cook. My teens will even help! But some of the excitement and wonder, the magic, is gone too. 

Edited December 16, 2020 by ScoutTN

[Elizabeth86]

11 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Well, the trade off is that when you have teens it is less busy and chaotic, so it's easier to cook. My teens will even help! But some of the excitement and wonder, the magic, is gone too. 

Oh no I'm not complaining. I love the magic, I'm just stuck on what to feed them. Y'all are no help. 🤣

[medawyn]

We always have spaghetti and meatballs on Christmas Day.  I make the sauce and meatballs earlier in the month, freeze, and there’s nothing to do on Christmas except defrost, boil the pasta, heat up some garlic bread, and toss a salad.

[ScoutTN]

My stepmother always kept Christmas Day food simple. Ham and bean soup, cornbread, green salad. Pies from the bakery, with ice cream.  She still used nice dishes and set a pretty table, so it seemed plenty festive. 

[math teacher]

Christmas morning tradition is Shrimp with Grits and Glazed Bacon. 

It will just be the three of us here, but I will be taking food to inlaws. Sometime during Christmas week we will have:

chicken and dressing

mashed potatoes and giblet gravy

homemade cranberry sauce

ham

brussels sprout side dish with butternut squash, cranberries, and pecans

broccoli casserole

rolls

english pea salad

deviled eggs

wassail

jalapeno poppers

cheese crisps

brownies-giving most away

orange slice candy-giving most away

carrot cake

pecan pie

[Drama Llama]

1 minute ago, math teacher said:

Christmas morning tradition is Shrimp with Grits and Glazed Bacon. 

It will just be the three of us here, but I will be taking food to inlaws. Sometime during Christmas week we will have:

chicken and dressing

mashed potatoes and giblet gravy

homemade cranberry sauce

ham

brussels sprout side dish with butternut squash, cranberries, and pecans

broccoli casserole

rolls

english pea salad

deviled eggs

wassail

jalapeno poppers

cheese crisps

brownies-giving most away

orange slice candy-giving most away

carrot cake

pecan pie

Can I have the shrimp and grits recipe? 

[saraha]

Christmas Eve we usually spend with my mom, but we aren’t so she just gave us the ham. So we are having ham, scalloped potatoes, something green, and homemade bread. For breakfast we are having Quivers cinnamon rolls, sausage and eggs. For Christmas lunch we are having tacos, then that evening getting together with dhs family for an appetizer spread

[gardenmom5]

1dd asked if we were inviting 1sil to dinner.  No - because 1dd tends to get very stressed out when other people come (she has ASD.).  Apparently she ran into her in the grocery store and they got to chatting.  She's ok with her being invited.  I told dh it's his job to invite her - seeing as she's his sister.

1dd's dogs annoy sil's old and (has always been) crotchety dog. - now the kitten will too.  (dogs are learning not to wag their fluffy tails near the cat . . . . .)

[marbel]

On Christmas Eve we always have huge piles of unhealthy snacks, like mozzarella sticks, mini quiches, shrimp cocktail... almost all of it bought frozen and just heated up.  

Christmas Day breakfast is usually scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese. For dinner we have a "formal" meal of prime rib or similar, scalloped/au gratin potatoes, green beans, another green vegetable of my choice, and at least one dessert.

[mlktwins]

18 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Well, the trade off is that when you have teens it is less busy and chaotic, so it's easier to cook. My teens will even help! But some of the excitement and wonder, the magic, is gone too. 

YES!!!!

[mlktwins]

There used to be a huge thread from a few years back with all kinds of great recipes for holiday meals.  I can't it now.  Someone posted a recipe for fancy escalloped potatoes in that thread.  We love it.  It uses the boxed potatoes that we add stuff to.  So yummy...

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

I discovered last year how much I enjoyed having a relaxed Christmas in terms of meal-prep.  

So, Christmas will be fondue, traditional Swiss style.  That means there is fondue, bread, and hot tea or white wine on the table, and that's the whole meal! Even better, DH is the official fondue maker in the family.  It is literally the one thing he can cook.  We'll also have the traditional Swiss dessert, which is meringues with double cream.  I'll make some kind of pastry in the morning, nothing complicated.

Christmas Eve I'll do a bit more elaborate- the kids want sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and I'll also make a glazed ham.  

We're having one family member over on the 27th, so that will be my "big" meal- pork filet mignon with a balsamic sauce, mashed potatoes, bacon wrapped green brans, sweet potato scones, and the dessert is still in debate between me and the kids.  😂