What's your Christmas dinner tradition?

BlueBirdMB

Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?  What do you cook/eat?

BlueBirdMB

My husband is Hindu, so his family doesn't do Christmas, which is very convenient for my parents. Christmas Day we have a big dinner at my parent's.  My mother makes braised duck and latkes (my mom's Jewish and my dad is Catholic) for Christmas dinner.  Super yummy!  I usually bring side dishes and dessert.

chrisnjay05212010

Christmas Day has always been at my parents and my dad makes an AMAZING roast beef.  This year its getting all messed up, my youngest brother and his wife offered to host (simply because they fight every year on how to split the holiday) and my husband and i, and my other brother and SIL are not happy about it 

Christmas Eve- has always been up in the air.  If my husband is working then I go to my parents, where they host our family and my one SIL's family.  My parents always have lasagna on Christmas Eve.   If my husband is home, then we host Christmas eve at our own house with my in-laws. I don't have a tradition meal in our house.

bpphoto785

We celebrate with the ILs on Christmas Eve and have venus de milo soup. 

We usually do Christmas Day at my Grandpa's and have a roast, but this year my brother's girlfriend offered to host and she's making a turkey. I never realized people ate turkey on Christmas, didn't we just do that a month ago? 

GABride2010

We have a party on Christmas Eve where we read a book called Cosmic Christmas (and eat assorted foods!). I'm not sure if we will have the party this year because we are packing up our house to move.

Christmas Day we go to my parents' house and help my mom and dad cook (ham, smoked turkey, stuffing, mushroom and leek gratin, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, and crescent rolls). It is almost exactly the same menu as Thanksgiving (which I love).

Next year we will probably (hopefully) go to DH's grandmothers' houses in Michigan for Christmas. DH has never spent a Christmas with his grandparents, and I really want him to while he still can: both of his grandfathers have already died, and his grandmothers are in their mid-eighties.

HoneyBee973

On Christmas Eve we have dinner at my parents house.  We do not eat meat on Christmas Eve, so there's always fish of some sort, and bunch of sides.  Of course there's a lot of cake, cookies etc    And we usually try to make it to midnight mass.

After we eat, we exchange Christmas gifts. 

On Christmas Day we get to visit DH side of the family.

ChristyDM82

bpphoto785 said:

We celebrate with the ILs on Christmas Eve and have venus de milo soup. 

We usually do Christmas Day at my Grandpa's and have a roast, but this year my brother's girlfriend offered to host and she's making a turkey. I never realized people ate turkey on Christmas, didn't we just do that a month ago? 

I hate that. My MIL does Turkey for Christmas too. Once a year is plenty for me!

ChristyDM82

We do Christmas dinner at my parents house. My mom, for the past several years, has made pork tenderloins and chicken tenders (for the kids and non-pork eaters) with various sides. This year she's doing the tenderloins and ordering Chicken Marsala (from the restaurant that one of my dad's cousin's owns) and making mashed potatoes, stuffing and veggies to go with. 

chrisnjay05212010

ChristyDM82 said:

bpphoto785 said:

We celebrate with the ILs on Christmas Eve and have venus de milo soup. 

We usually do Christmas Day at my Grandpa's and have a roast, but this year my brother's girlfriend offered to host and she's making a turkey. I never realized people ate turkey on Christmas, didn't we just do that a month ago? 

I hate that. My MIL does Turkey for Christmas too. Once a year is plenty for me!

i agree turkey is good for me once a year!

bpphoto785

ChristyDM82chrisnjay05212010 THANK YOU! I'm glad I'm not alone in this! 

DZKathryn

Growing up, we always did Christmas at me Grandparents' house. (Dad's family) It was about a 5hr drive and we would pick up my uncle on the way. Christmas Eve would be pizza and presents. Christmas Day would be the formal dinner - always with spumoni ice cream and pistachio pudding served before the meal. Now I live in Los Angeles (about 10hrs from my Grandparents) and my brother recently moved to Tennessee...so we haven't really done Christmas that way for a few years. 

My MIL lives about 45 minutes from my parents so we have kinda traded around the last few years. Different people would host and be present. This year we're hosting in LA and my MIL, BIL, my parents and Grandfather IL are coming to dinner with us. DH and I just got back from a two week trip in Germany so we've decided to have a German theme with this year's meal. It will be roast pork and spatzle at our house this year!

2SarcasticGeeks

Growing up, Christmas Eve was always Italian- stuffed calamari, homemade sauce, stuffed shells... so that's what BF and I are doing this year. Christmas Day we're going more Latin, with Peach Chipotle glazed roast, yucca, arepas, and yellow rice. 

GABride2010

@2SarcasticGeeks‌ do you have a recipe for stuffed calamari? That sounds absolutely amazing!