hosting Christmas dinner

pugznploons

who here is hosting dinner on Christmas?  What are you serving and what time?  We have a gift certificate for a free turkey so I think we are going to use it, and we are toying with the idea of doing a big meal at 1pm...but I'm unsure on that.  Would rather do later but my mom is able to get around better early in the day before her stiffness sets in so I want to keep that in mind.  

TarHeels&Rebels

We do essentially Thanksgiving part 2.  (I had never heard of anyone doing anything different until the nest - I really thought everyone in America served the same giant, traditional meal on Christmas like Thanksgiving.)

I think your 1 o'clock is fine.  We do anywhere from 2-5 as our meal time.

Catlawdy_____

We're not doing a turkey, will either do a ham or baked chicken (should just be four of us).  For sides, I'll have stuffing, potato casserole, spinach casserole, some type of cranberry sauce for FIL, probably a salad, and not sure what else.  It'll depend on what the inlaws are in the mood for.  We had a big Thanksgiving here with my parents, this will probably be smaller.

wldktz10

We usually do apps around 2-4 and then serve dinner around 5-6.

This is what my menu was for Thanksgiving this year (Christmas last year was similar, just a few different sides and a ham instead of a chicken):

Appetizers:
- An assortment of cheeses and crackers
- Blue cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon
- Caramelized onion puff pastries
- Baked Brie with Brown Sugar and Walnuts

Side Dishes:
- Asparagus with Hollandais sauce
- Cornbread Casserole
- Smoked Gouda and Bacon Mac and Cheese
- Dressing (that's stuffing just not in the bird)
- Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes
- Green bean casserole
- Roasted butternut squash with blue cheese and walnuts
- Orange Cranberry sauce

Main Course:
- Rosemary Chicken with Apple salad and pearl onions (I hate turkey)

Dessert:
- Pumpkin Pie
- Blackberry crumble

dieselsmomma

We're doing two large meals one on xmas eve and one on xmas day. We are having my parents, MIL, and a a person my parents take care of over for the holidays so it will be a full house!

On xmas eve we will serve dinner around 5-6pm and we are serving:

pierogies (homemade! 2 kinds: sauerkraut and bacon and cheddar, onion and potato).

cabbage rolls

spiral ham

sausage and onions (all chopped up for the pierogies)

a salad

On xmas day we'll be doing dinner a little bit later 6-7pm:

Roast beef (on the bbq)

mashed potatoes and gravy

green bean casserole

Yorkshire  pudding

Rutabaga

salad (still haven't decided what types of salads yet).

I haven't decided on any desserts yet. If I have time I'd like to make some apple pies from scratch.

1pm on xmas day could be nice (I like to eat early) but it depends on what your families do xmas morning. Will everyone be there in the evening? You could have a since assortment of desserts to choose from! Usually we're too full by the time we're finished eating to even think about dessert. 

pugznploons

thanks!  I think we've bumped it to 5, that gives us more time to cook.  Trying to finalize our menu tonight, hardest dish is dessert! I've baked so many sweets this season and really want to do something different.  Just trying to decide how much work I want to do