Christmas Dinner

[SuperRTL]

We don't do dinner, we do breakfast. Breakfast consists of caramel rolls, eggs, bacon, sausage and eggnog french toast.

[taxguykarl]

My mom makes a stollen.

This year we're doing an appetizer buffet: clementines, my wife's comically simple meatballs, dumplings, various pickled veggies, and whatever other goodies catch our fancy.

Next year, we'll be traveling. Surely the lodging or resort will be serving something special.

[42_42_42]

Every other year we drive up to my parents' home on Christmas day. The other year we drive home from my parents' either on the 23rd or 24th. Our Christmas dinner always varies. My mom usually does ham, but not always. We like to try new things, especially as it's often just the 2 of us when we're home on Christmas day. Our tradition has become Christmas breakfast of bagels with lox and cream cheese.

[Treasure]

In years past our feast looked something like this(not sure how it will go this year, it depends on how many we have):

mincemeat cookies
pumpkin pie(s)
pecan pie(s)
chocolate italian cream cake
fudge - sometimes it gets saved for new years
1 - 3 other candies / cookies

Fruit salad - apples, oranges, tangerines, pineapple chunks (in juice - saved) cherries (save juice) mini marshmellows, whipped cream, coconut

holiday punch - the pineapple and cherry juices, mixed with 7up (not sprite!)

ham - with pineapple rings, cherries and cloves
also a maple syrup/cherry juice glaze on the side

turkey

cornbread dressing
oyster dressing
greenbean casserole
broccoli -and-cheese
mashed potatoes (real)
baked sweet potatoes
gibblet gravy
2 kinds of cranberry sauce - canned, and fresh/whole
bread - usually homemade rolls


I feel like I'm forgetting something.... but can't figure out what...

[Food Lady]

You're forgetting to invite me.

[SongsOfDragons]

Since our Christmas is inevitably me, my mum and my dad, we get a bronze turkey crown and eat that, using the leftovers for the obligatory Boxing Day fry-up. Roast potatoes and Yorkshire puds always. Turkey is sometimes dry, and sometimes I wish for a different meat; I'd love to have a duck or a goose, or one of those four-bird roasts, yummy!!

Every year my mum threatens to make only turkey and chips next year. XD Being the dutiful daughter I offer to help (especially in recent years when I've been more mature than before) but will always get waved down.

We don't do Christmas pud, though my dad will have one of the individual ones.

Yeah our tradition is kind of boring. Oh well. Still edible and I'm with my parents. ^^

[thansal]

I have a few different traditions (like many here).

The one I grew up with was basically Thanksgiving Mark 2, possibly something else as the protein, depending on what mum decided to cook.

My current Christmas celebration has 3 distinct parts (and I'll toss in a 4th).

Christmas eve is spent with my dad and his wife's family. She is Ukrainian, so it's a traditional (sorta) Ukrainian xmass dinner of 13 (I think) courses.
Ushka (little mushroom dumplings) in Borsht
Varenyky, the Ukrainian version of Perogies (a cabbage one and a potato one)
Stuffed Cabage w/ mushroom gravy
Fried Fish (what type? It varies)
3+ types of herring (generally from Russ and Daughters), pickled, mustard, and cream are the ones I can think of.
Kutia, boiled wheat grains with poppy seeds, honey, raisins, and walnuts. (I love it)

Dessert is then all over the place. My step sister's birthday is the day before, so her cake often serves double duty as part of dessert. I supply some of our (my GF and my) cookies, and everything else.

The real important meal for us growing up was actually breakfast, which was generally something fancyish that my mum made, though as of late it has always been Crepes with whatever fillings we want (generally a nice fruit salad of some sort).

XMass dinner is at my GF's family, where we have
Kasseler Rippchen from Schaller & Weber (Excellent German butcher in NYC), which is a smoked and cooked pork loin. Really something fabulous.
Split Pea Stew, good Bavarian (of which her mum is) split pea stew, thick as a brick, 2 or 3 types of pork products in it, and wonderful, one of my favorite things of all time.
And a few other wonderful things, all varying around.

The 4th meal, one that I never get to participate in, is Xmass eve at my GF's family, where they have:
Bread, Butter, and the best cold cuts from Schaller & Weber. IT's really somethign wonderful (I always get a bit to have at home, as they know how much I love them). Westphalian Ham, Bauernschinken, Kinder Wurst (properly Gelbwurst, it's what bologna SHOULD be), and probably one or 2 more that I can't think of.
And then cookies, about 5 or 6 different types that have been in her family for ages.


umm, yah....

Tis the season to be eating.

[Food Lady]

I do have a Christmas Eve tradition: sharp cheddar, crackers, summer sausage (now substituted with some kind of meat analog and a garlicky dip), red wine, and cookies. This year I'm out of cookies, but I have peppermint ice cream. I think I'll have antacids later.

[fireheart]

This was the Christmas day lunch this year:

-Ham
-Turkey
-Lamb
-Peas (when my eldest cousin dropped around, she kept commenting that the bowl that was being used for the peas used to be used for sago when we were kids. So henceforth it was known as the Sago Bowl)
-Beans
-Sweet potato.
-Roasted Potato.
-Cranberry Sauce and Gravy.

Apart from the cranberry sauce and gravy, all of this was either cooked or carved by the family. Given that my mum contributed the ham, we're having ham for the next few days. We also had the usual horde of sweets in the centre, with rum balls and choccie truffles made by my cousin. She also hand-made bonbons (which each had a wine glass identifier, a candy cane, a joke and some trivia)

My boyfriend's nan and pops last year did cold cuts a la supermarket platter, however she did a little game: whoever had a sticker on their bread plate won a prize. My boyfriend won and he received a MASSIVE nut basket.

[PhiSigGirl1988]

We have a couple of traditions. There's a candlelight service at our church that starts at 11pm on Christmas Eve and goes til midnight, so my grandma has people over before the service for snacks and social time. Then there's dinner on Christmas day, which is either at my grandma's or at my aunt and uncle's. There also used to be Christmas brunch at my grandma's house, but we stopped that a few years ago because it was getting to be too much.

Anyway, Christmas Eve:
-Meatballs cooked in cranberry jelly and chili sauce (normally grape jelly, but my grandma tried something new this year)
-Lil smokies cooked in barbeque sauce
-Vegetable pizza
-Spinach dip and Hawaiian sweet bread
-Chips and dip
-Assortment of cheeses and sausage and sweets from Swiss Colony
-Pumpkin roll (my aunt is amazing at making it)
-Pumpkin pie or pumpkin cheesecake

Christmas Day dinner:
-Ham
-Turkey
-Stuffing
-Relish tray (sweet pickles, dill pickles, black olives, green olives [ick])
-Vegetable tray (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes)
-Fruit tray (strawberries, grapes, pineapple)
-Sweet potatoes
-More pumpkin roll
-More pumpkin pie
-Weight Watcher dessert that my mom makes (there's a few that she goes between...this year it's Jell-O cheesecake pudding mixed with fat free cream cheese and combined with sugar free lemon pound cake and fresh berries [strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

There's probably more that I'm missing, but I guess I'll find out in a few hours.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

We did steaks and chicken breast on the grill this year. Mmmmmm.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

Our Christmas dinner this year was Roast Beef, Potatoes, Carrots, Green Beans and Rolls. There would have been pies, but Oldest was to bring them over and she ended up in the ER with Bug having a temperature over 104

[dragon_wings]

Our Christmas dinner this year was Roast Beef, Potatoes, Carrots, Green Beans and Rolls. There would have been pies, but Oldest was to bring them over and she ended up in the ER with Bug having a temperature over 104

Is Bug doing better?

[FormerCallingCardRep]

They found no elevated white cells and no sign of infection. They broke the temperature and he has been fine ever since. No idea why he spiked it though.

Oldest said he will not go to bed without taking his train that I got him for Christmas with him.

[dragon_wings]

Aww. So cute. Glad he's doing better.