Christmas time already??

[LibraryLady]

With just Mom, Dad and me we never had a turkey. We'd have a capon or a roasting chicken.

Now, my Husband and I prefer to make a Mongolian Hotpot for Christmas. It's terribly festive without massive leftovers and the noodle soup makes a great breakfast.

[AdminAssistant]

Thanksgiving in my wonderfully redneck family is deep-fried turkey. Yes, you may scoff and laugh - but it's oh so delicious. Some of the older men really argue over the drumsticks - Dad included.

Christmas tends to be a variety of family recipes - Mom's chicken & dressing, aunt's dumplings, honey baked ham....along with homemade pies and cakes and candy....

And now I'm really hungry

I'm sure Mom would secretly love it if we were to go somewhere on a holiday and save her a lot of cooking - but that home family time is so nice (IMO), especially on Christmas.

If the SC in the OP is that big of a douche about dinner reservations, can you imagine how he is about presents??

[Tutorgal]

Thanksgiving in my wonderfully redneck family is deep-fried turkey. Yes, you may scoff and laugh - but it's oh so delicious.

I won't. There's a place in NYC that basically just sells deep fried turkeys. I had a few and boy are they good. So moist. And yummy crispy skin (which is the best part).

I refuse to go to the standard family gathering on Christmas Eve. So I treat myself to a nice dinner out, and savor a meal that doesn't involve getting harassed for going to college and grad school and not being married. In NYC, everything is open and many people don't celebrate the holiday anyway, so it's not quite the same as in other places. But I do make sure to tip at least 50%, if not more.

[Pagan]

Come to think of it, this last Christmas was the first time I've been able to go "home" (Las Cruces) in years. What with my step-grandmother and step-aunt moving back to Cruces, my uncle being in Cruces because of that (all on my da's side), and my grandmother (mum's side) being there, we had a big to-do!

But, usually, it's been my parents coming up here. I've made posole, usually for Christmas dinner and one year I think I made green chile stew. Ooh, and one year we made braciole!

Aw, hell, Christmas dinner's whatever the hell you want!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Christmas in my family is generally at my aunt's house. She does the main meal (turkey, mashed taters, vegetables, gravy), and everyone else brings some sort of appetizer, salad or dessert.

Thanksgiving is usually at a different aunt's, with the same setup, or sometimes my mom cooks. My family's contribution to the big dinner is usually a vegetable/dip tray. As a kid, most Thanksgiving mornings would find us watching the parade while we cut up vegetables.

Though one year (a few years ago) my brother and I were both sick on Christmas. So we opened presents, then spent the day in the living room - he got the couch, I got the loveseat - and we alternated between the Trading Spaces marathon on TLC and the 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS.

[gaspode]

OM this thread has reminded of Christmas day in my pub.
We opened christmas day morning for 2 hours just to say thanks to our customers,but as usual it was probably the busiest two hours of the year,they came from everywhere but great atmosphere.we closed the bar 1.30 and then somebody had to ruin it,she came up demanding service and of course i said we were closed,OMG you would think i had killed her dog
" but its christmas day"
my reply "yes its christmas day for us aswell"

[Bramblerose]

Heh. this is the time of year I curl up with my big cookbook and pick a canned good to make *everybody* for Xmas.