Christmas Menu

[alysee]

I love hearing what people are doing and eating for Christmas so please share your menu.

Breakfast: Hashbrown Egg Casserole, fruit salad, cinnamon rolls

Lunch: Cheese, crackers, fruit & christmas cookies

Dinner: Chickpea Broccoli Pocket Pies Pizza Pocket Pies, roasted veg & salad

 

[HomeAgain]

We are all super lazy on Christmas day. 🙂 So far the menu is:

Breakfast: Either cinnamon rolls (made the day before to bake the morning of) OR biscuits and gravy (made the day before and heated in the morning)

Lunch: Whatever is in the fridge/stockings

Dinner: Ham and mashed potatoes, maybe a vegetable but I'm not counting on it.

 

New Year's eve is similar, except we spend the morning making a TON of meatballs and sauce, and then letting it all simmer in the crockpot for most of the day/next day with people eating them as they get hungry.  We get a bunch of hoagie rolls and sliced cheese so there are options for sandwiches or pasta.

[ScoutTN]

Brunch: breakfast casserole, cranberry orange bread, fruit, coffee, oj. And chocolate from stockings for kids! 
 

Dinner: beef tenderloin, roasted root veggies, mushroom casserole, green veg tbd, green salad. Chocolate pecan pie. 
 

Supper: leftovers, self-serve

Meals will be around 9 and 2. 

 

[Just Kate]

Brunch - bacon, eggs, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, hash brown casserole, fruit, and orange juice

I never prepare a Christmas dinner, I just usually have sandwich options on hand, with veggies and chips. We typically still have Christmas candy/cookies leftover, so we end up munching on those too. 

[Faith-manor]

Christmas Eve I am putting on a Danish Smorrebrod:

Pulled pork, roast chicken, prime rib, seafood spread, smoked salmon

Blue cheese spread, Danish Havarti, Danbo cheese, Smoked Gouda, baby swiss

Sourdough bread, pumpernickel rye, honey sandwich bread, GF crackers and GF pretzels

Huge fresh fruit bowl 

Rismalande (Rice pudding)

Ham and potato balls

Dill pickles, cherry tomatoes, deep fried thin onion rings, butter lettuce greens, thin sliced radishes, and alfalfa sprouts

Dill butter, plain Irish butter, honey butter

Vaniljekranse

Honinghjerter

Peppernodders

Finskbrod (thumbprint shortbread cookies with homemade raspberry-thyme jam for filling)

And new to this year, a GF chocolate two tier cake in a Nordic woodland theme if I can figure out how to make the trees, and also frost mini-moose and reindeer cookies properly.

Christmas morning, Mark will make Aebleskivver for everyone who is staying with us. I will make a pot of beef stew with the leftover prime rib, but all the rest of the food for the day will be leftovers. We will graze and play games after opening gifts. At some point, I will likely take a nap as the Smorrebrod preparations tend to really sap my energy. So much multi-tasking! But everyone loves and appreciates the efforts to move towards our Danish roots, and I am the one with the most time for pulling it off.

I also make a special meal (though not as elaborate, and usually only Mark and I, C and dil G, four people) on the winter solstice, and even if it is cold and snowing, we sit around the chiminia outside for a while burning a leftover log from the previous year. For fun, we toss a straw goat into the fire, and toast to Odin's success on the wild hunt. No one here of course believes any of this, we have become pretty set apart from religious adherence of any kind. It is just fun, and a nod back to our ancestry. 

So ya. From the 21st-25th, I am a crazy kitchen elf, and then collapse. This year youngest son, an excellent cook, is hosting New Year's and doing the cooking. 

 

[athena1277]

It’s only Dec 4!  We only just determined yesterday what family we will see when.  
Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls are our Christmas morning tradition because it’s easy and not cereal.  I bought a turkey breast before Thanksgiving before we were invited to mil’s house, so I’ll cook that in the crockpot.  The rest?  TBD at a much later date.

[Elizabeth86]

Super lazy on Christmas. My mom puts on a big spread for Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day it is just the people that in our house. The kids are more interested in presents than enjoying good food. I don’t enjoy cooking, so not a big deal on Christmas. We used to go to dinner with extended family for dinner, but we haven’t post pandemic. We shall see this year.

[mmasc]

We always have homemade waffles, bacon, and OJ late morning on Christmas Day. 
 

Snacks until dinner. 
 

This year dinner will be these delicious enchiladas. I’ve never frozen them before, but I made them yesterday and left the enchilada sauce and shredded cheese for the top in a separate container. I’ll pull it all out the day before and let it thaw, top with the sauce and cheese, and bake it Christmas evening. They are so delicious!

[WildflowerMom]

We’re doing our big family Christmas on Christmas Eve at lunch.   I’m doing a taco bar.   That’s what ds and his gf chose.     Dh and I will probably grill steak for our Christmas Day meal.  

[City Mouse]

We are having smoked brisket and ribs. Not sure about the side as no one but me even cares if we have sides at all. But there could be fist fights over the  ribs (just kidding)

Edited December 5, 2023 by City Mouse

[busymama7]

Our big dinner is Christmas Eve. Swedish meatballs, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, cheesy potatoes, rolls etc 

On Christmas Day for breakfast /brunch we have cinnamon rolls that I made and refrigerated when I made the rolls for Christmas Eve.  Set on the counter while we open presents to come to room temp.  Then bake. Also oven omelet with leftover ham that we dice the night before when putting away food. It's all designed to make it as easy as possible on Christmas day while also being a special/different. Then we have another meal of hoagie sandwiches and chips etc.  

[Kassia]

Christmas Eve will be corned beef sandwiches on buns/rolls, cranberry sauce, (fresh and in can), chips and then lots of cookies for dessert.

 

Christmas morning will be breakfast bagels (eggs, cheese, sausage on bagels)

Lunch will be cheese/crackers/pepperoni/salami/fruit

Dinner will be baked raviolis and boiled (some of my family only likes baked and some only like boiled so it's like making two dinners), garlic rolls, and salad.  Lots more cookies. 

 

Now I have to figure out dinners for the rest of the time my family is here.  They will be here over two weeks and I can't figure out enough dinners that will make everyone happy.  Ds1 doesn't like barbecue, Ds3 won't eat pork, dd won't eat potatoes, spicy food, or pizza...it's a nightmare figuring out what works for everyone.  Love my family, but hate feeding them for long periods of time.

 

[cjzimmer1]

We traditionally have ham at my mom's for Christmas day and then peel and eat shrimp for New Year's Day.  However this year my mom is having major surgery between the two holidays so we are condensing them and having shrimp for Christmas Day.  We will have wild rice casserole for a side, kale salad (from Costco), some kind of fresh bread and a fruit salad.  

Dessert is still up in the air.  I always bring cookies as that helps reduce my supply from Christmas baking, but our tradition is White Christmas Pie for Christmas and Plum Duff for New Year's but both are family favorites that we only have once a year.  I'm not sure how to pick between them but also not sure if we have enough cooks that are willing to tackle them both.  Normally my mom makes the majority of the meal but since she's out of it for this year, we are redistributing tasks and not sure who has time for what yet.

[bookbard]

It will just be the four of us so I think pretty casual. I have got the plum pudding and crackers already, they're essential. Otherwise we usually have some sort of roast dinner. It's traditional in Australia to have seafood, esp prawns, but no one else likes them apart from me so that's that. Last year I did a baked ham and we ate it for ages - it was good but I don't know if we'll do that again. 

[Storygirl]

Christmas Eve: homemade lasagna (already made and in the freezer), salad, garlic bread, Christmas cookies

Christmas day breakfast: quiche (already made and in the freezer), Trader Joe's almond Kringle (already bought and frozen), juice, etc.

Christmas dinner, which we will probably eat mid afternoon, so it covers lunch and supper: Beef tenderloin, au gratin potatoes, green veg, cookies.

Anyone who is hungry after that will have to eat leftovers or snacks.

We will have DH's extended family gathering on Dec. 26, and I will take things for that meal, too.

In general, we have special food that is either easy or can be made ahead, because I don't want to spend my whole holiday in the kitchen.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Storygirl

[Anne]

Breakfast:  cinnamon rolls, fruit, eggs & bacon or sausage.  All made and consumed in a very relaxed fashion.

Lunch: individual grazing

Dinner:  Prime rib and the usual fixings

Christmas Eve dinner is always clam chowder and Caesar salad.

 

[Laura Corin]

Christmas Eve: probably soup or something.

Breakfast: bought in pastries, cooked in the oven.

Late lunch: coq au vin, mashed potato, green beans in cheese sauce, broccoli.  Some kind of purchased dessert.

Supper: snacky things - cheese, olives, good bread/crackers, raw veg.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Laura Corin

[Eos]

What we usually have: Dutch babies with lemon and powdered sugar, random snacks for lunch, beef tenderloin, roasted veggies, balsamic onions, salad, twice-baked potatoes and Buche de Noël for dinner.  Christmas Eve is usually appetizers, charcuterie, or raclette.

This year - I am spending Christmas with my family of origin and not my dh or children as it is likely our last all together.  And this group has some interesting dietary restrictions - one sister's family won't eat beef or pork and is mostly gf, one is vegan-adjacent with no processed food, and the last is veganish with lots of processed food (fake meat, milks, etc.). Two sisters are lactose-intolerant.  My oldest sister is kinda high maintenance and usually asks me to make her food.

My 95-year old mother is hosting us all and I think we should plan our shared meals now so we don't have to waste time pondering and polling.

Non-beef and pork sister's husband makes 7 fishes for Christmas Eve, so maybe that?  Plus a vegan squash soup and green salad. Bread, gf crackers.

Breakfast? I can't even think of one thing that everyone will agree on aside from coffee and chocolate.  Maybe some open-faced rye toasts with toppings: lemon-dill sour cream and smoked salmon, blue cheese and pear, pickled mushrooms and frisee.

Lunch: maybe a wild rice salad with feta on the side.  Leftover squash soup.

Supper: nut roast if my UK sister makes it, maybe the roasted chicken with tangerines and arak recipe from the Jerusalem cookbook, salad,  Buche de Noël.  Christmas pudding.

 

 

 

 

[Tenaj]

We have a Christmas Eve tradition of having ravioli and egg nog which sounds like a terrible combination.  Not sure how it's going to work this year because one of my dil's is gluten and dairy free and my son just discovered that he's better off without dairy so that tradition may be changing.  I'll have to put on my thinking cap.  At the very least I need to add something to the menu that they can eat.  Oh, and my dc also expect The Pioneer Woman's seven layer Christmas finger jello.  I made it one year and accidently started a tradition.

Christmas morning is homemade cinnamon rolls and probably an egg/sausage or ham casserole to get some protein into people.

Christmas noon:  My dear fil expects turkey or ham with all the fixings but I am so tired of working so hard on Christmas for that meal with everything else I need to do that he may just have to get over himself.  I don't mind ham - that's easy but I'm thinking ham in my roaster and then just finger food for the rest.  Veggie Tray, Fruit Tray, Cheese Ball, crackers, sausages, Stuff I can just pull out of the fridge and be done.  I hate to disappoint him but I don't enjoy cooking that much and really hate having to fuss when presents are being opened and missing time with the family.  Plus all the cleanup!  He also always wants pie for dessert which is just so time consuming - we may just change all our traditions this year 🙂

[DawnM]

DH always wants a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey

Mashed potatoes

green bean casserole

sweet potato casserole

corn

pies

[marbel]

Christmas breakfast is usually scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and some sort of pastry, like cinnamon rolls or a king arthur recipe, Almond Puff Loaf.  This year I'm going to try something involving frozen puff pastry.  Dinner is prime rib, scalloped potatoes, some green vegetable, a chocolate cake or other special dessert. 

Christmas Eve is my favorite: shrimp cocktail, various cheeses and "little meats" (ya know, different types of salamis, prosciutto, etc), mini quiches from Costco, crackers/baguette slices, Christmas cookies. Since my daughter moved out she usually brings something fun from Trader Joe's. Leftovers from this is Christmas day lunch. 

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by marbel

[Clemsondana]

Christmas Eve we usually do a meal with my parents - often a bunch of finger foods that Mom fixes, or something on the grill.  We usually have church in the early evening and then come home, but since Christmas Eve is on Sunday I think the service that my kid usually plays music at will be at 11 am, with no 5 pm service, so we may come home or go with my parents to their church, I'm not sure.  We usually put on PJs and I make something like chili or goulash. 

Christmas Day breakfast my parents and sibling come over.  Mom brings hash brown casserole.  My family always had 'green ham' so I usually put some sort of pork in the crock pot to cook overnight and in the morning I slice or shred and fry until crisp.  I usually make biscuits, but one kiddo might want to make scones this year.  I either make fried apples or applesauce to go with it.

We eat a late breakfast and then anybody who is hungry can have sweets, stocking treats, or leftover chili or breakfast food.  

My inlaws used to come for dinner but can no longer travel.  But, we have grilled or baked salmon, homemade Sally Lunn bread, a cherry-banana gelatin, 7-layer salad, and then whatever other sides the kids want - peas, corn, roasted broccoli or asparagus, or whatever they ask for.  We like this meal because everybody has favorites on the table and much of it can be done ahead of time or is quick, so I'm not in the kitchen all day.  

 

[historically accurate]

I am thinking we'll have 7 or 9 people here on Christmas for lunch/presents/games.

We usually do cinnamon rolls or coffee cake for breakfast. I'm leaning towards cinnamon rolls this year, but I am not truly decided.

Lunch I'm keeping it easy with make-ahead things; I've already started on some items. We'll do the Thanksgiving turkey that I didn't do on Thanksgiving and is sitting in my freezer. For sides: cornbread casserole (in freezer already), mashed potatoes (in freezer already), broccoli salad, carrots and green beans, side salad, "funk" (a jello salad thing from DH's side of the family), and oreo pie (to be made & frozen this weekend). We'll also have some birthday cake for my brother who is a Christmas baby.

Dinner is frozen pizza or leftovers - your choice.

[Ditto]

On 12/4/2023 at 1:07 PM, Faith-manor said:

Christmas Eve I am putting on a Danish Smorrebrod:

Pulled pork, roast chicken, prime rib, seafood spread, smoked salmon

Blue cheese spread, Danish Havarti, Danbo cheese, Smoked Gouda, baby swiss

Sourdough bread, pumpernickel rye, honey sandwich bread, GF crackers and GF pretzels

Huge fresh fruit bowl 

Rismalande (Rice pudding)

Ham and potato balls

Dill pickles, cherry tomatoes, deep fried thin onion rings, butter lettuce greens, thin sliced radishes, and alfalfa sprouts

Dill butter, plain Irish butter, honey butter

Vaniljekranse

Honinghjerter

Peppernodders

Finskbrod (thumbprint shortbread cookies with homemade raspberry-thyme jam for filling)

And new to this year, a GF chocolate two tier cake in a Nordic woodland theme if I can figure out how to make the trees, and also frost mini-moose and reindeer cookies properly.

Christmas morning, Mark will make Aebleskivver for everyone who is staying with us. I will make a pot of beef stew with the leftover prime rib, but all the rest of the food for the day will be leftovers. We will graze and play games after opening gifts. At some point, I will likely take a nap as the Smorrebrod preparations tend to really sap my energy. So much multi-tasking! But everyone loves and appreciates the efforts to move towards our Danish roots, and I am the one with the most time for pulling it off.

I also make a special meal (though not as elaborate, and usually only Mark and I, C and dil G, four people) on the winter solstice, and even if it is cold and snowing, we sit around the chiminia outside for a while burning a leftover log from the previous year. For fun, we toss a straw goat into the fire, and toast to Odin's success on the wild hunt. No one here of course believes any of this, we have become pretty set apart from religious adherence of any kind. It is just fun, and a nod back to our ancestry. 

So ya. From the 21st-25th, I am a crazy kitchen elf, and then collapse. This year youngest son, an excellent cook, is hosting New Year's and doing the cooking. 

 

You are amazing!  I am thoroughly exhausted and need nap after just reading this!   It sounds so lovely and special (not to mention delicious!).   

[Faith-manor]

25 minutes ago, Ditto said:

You are amazing!  I am thoroughly exhausted and need nap after just reading this!   It sounds so lovely and special (not to mention delicious!).   

Thank you!

[LifeLovePassion]

I'm not sure yet. We usually cook a nicer meal Christmas Eve. On Christmas, we usually do cinnamon rolls and easy breakfast food (oranges, scrambled eggs, sausage, etc) and then finger foods the rest of the day. 

[alisoncooks]

We spend Christmas with family, so we have an “early Christmas” at home the weekend before we leave. (We started this when they were little, so we wouldn’t have to pack Santa presents. Santa just came early!) For early-Christmas Eve we will do tons of appetizers (we also do apps for NYE). Early-Christmas Day we will do brunch: hash brown casserole, sausage cheese balls, something sweet (cinnamon rolls or something). Lunch is leftover appetizers. Dinner that night: I’m thinking lasagna…maybe. Or maybe I’ll do a turkey breast in the crock pot. 

Actual Christmas Eve, we are driving from my MIL’s to my parents’ house, and it’s usually during dinner time. For years, we ate at the only thing open: 7Eleven. Yuck. So I finally had a fit and started planning special travel meals for me and the kids (DH still eats gas station food). This year I’m thinking travel charcuterie and sparkling grape juice in travel cups. And something sweet. Whatever it is, it has to spend 3 days in a cooler or hotel fridge beforehand…and no heating up available.