Spinoff: Christmas Eve Dinner

[RedAngie]

Yes, turkey or ham or roast beef for Christmas Day, but how about the day before?

I usually alternate between seafood (Feast of almost seven fishes) and Polish food.

This year I’m making Rhode Island style clam chowder. Clear broth, not red like Manhattan nor creamy like New England. Plus crab cakes, broiled scallops, and some kind of shrimp.

For Polish dinners it’s usually pierogi, kielbasa and kapusta (sauerkraut), Krupnik (mushroom barley soup) and stuffed cabbage.

What’s on your table 12/24?

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We are having baked ziti

 

[quandrea]

Mostly appetizers. Sushi, Italian rice balls, Indian appetizers, Asian appetizers, sausage rolls, chicken fingers, salad. We watch A Christmas Story and nibble.

 

[Micca]

Your dishes all sound terrific! Christmas Eve is a regular day as far as food is concerned. We are, however, having two major meals between the 22nd-25th. So if we want to call the meal on the 22nd our "Eve" meal, that'll be a turkey dinner with all the fixins. Christmas will be beef tenderloin with all the fixins. Tomorrow we need to stock-up on "fixins"

 

[TippyThomas]

I bring home something from a Chinese restaurant. No need for me to cook a bunch for just me, plus I'm in and out with a strange schedule on Christmas Eve and Christmas day so it works pretty well for me.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I've done lasagna and baked ziti for Christmas Eve.

But I really like the Polish feast idea. I'm going to steal that and make it Slovak.

I'm thinking mushroom soup, pirohy, klobasy, holubky.....

 

[tvguy]

Nothing out of the ordinary. I know some people have Christmas Eve traditions, but we never have.

 

[Kitty 34]

Sandwiches and lot of dips and beverages.

 

[rndmr2]

Growing up it was usually macaroni and cheese. Most of the time we didn't have a big gathering. If we did it would be a cheese and crackers type thing. The whole family usually came for Christmas Day so that was enough.

My Husbands family had always done a big thing on Christmas Eve and they would have a huge pot of shrimp and then pasta with red sauce and clam sauce. For a few years we have gotten away from that and had things like prime rib or an app spread.

I think this year we are going to go back to the shrimp and pasta

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

This year is spiral ham, sweet potato casserole and I don't know what else (dinner at my in-laws). Sometimes just me and DH go out to dinner by ourselves (depending on who the in-laws are visiting they are out of town on Christmas Eve, but we are already at their house LOL). Christmas Eve dinner is pretty flexible for us and we really have no expectations and aren't disappointed with however it works out.

 

[Babs Johnson]

My Italian in-laws always had the 7 fishes. I’d eat 3 or 4 but skip things like eel, scungilli, calamari, fried smelts, etc.

My Polish family usually had stuffed cabbage, pierogi, kielbasa, etc. There were a few horrible things I’d skip there too.

Now that generation Is gone, so we sometimes have seafood, or the Polish food, or Chinese takeout, or just an assortment of appetizers.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

Yes, turkey or ham or roast beef for Christmas Day, but how about the day before?

I usually alternate between seafood (Feast of almost seven fishes) and Polish food.

This year I’m making Rhode Island style clam chowder. Clear broth, not red like Manhattan nor creamy like New England. Plus crab cakes, broiled scallops, and some kind of shrimp.

For Polish dinners it’s usually pierogi, kielbasa and kapusta (sauerkraut), Krupnik (mushroom barley soup) and stuffed cabbage.

What’s on your table 12/24?

Do you make your own pierogi? Honestly, I have no idea what we're doing this Xmas eve. It's different every year. Sometimes we're running around and just grab Taco Bell, other years we have our Scheiß together and have something more elaborate, other years we say "chuck it" and go to the bar. It all depends on what happens that day and our mood.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Sautéed scallops with ginger lime butter and bok choy.
For dessert an ispahan from Ladurée cuz Santa said I’ve been a good grrl yeah but what does he know?

It‘s me, myself and I this year so I get exactly what I want slurpy yum yum.

 

[HeatherC]

We are actually doing our big family (30 plus) get together on the 23rd and will all be bringing potluck dishes and apps. Then for Christmas Eve it will just be six of us and we are having beef tenderloin (filet mignon) with mashed potatoes, vegetables and rolls etc. Christmas Day we will have New England Clam Chowder from Legal Seafood, lots of apps and leftovers from the night before. This way we will eat great and I won’t have to cook Christmas Day.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Heavy apps that we go through over the course of the night. My sister will also come up with some kind of "specialty cocktail"....and my husband and I always bring a bunch of nice wine. This is my family, my sister's in-laws, assorted friends of theirs....so it's a big group. A sit down meal doesn't work for this crowd. This year we're doing:

Crostini with beef tenderloin, horseradish aioli and caramelized onions
Cacio e pepe arancini
Crab cakes with a lemon aioli
Lobster bisque soup shooters
Sausage stuffed mushrooms
Goat cheese, bacon and caramelized onion tartlets
A big chopped salad with roasted veggies (for those who don't do dairy or meats)

And then on the table there will be a big cheese platter with nuts and chutney as well as some charcuterie.
Guests usually handle desserts.

My sister and I will prep all of this the day before and then we reheat and assemble in batches through the night. We switch out some of the apps each year, but tend to stick with the "hits". My husband does the wine shopping. My BIL gets the cheese/meat platters and bread from "up north" in NJ....because they have better bread. We have it down to a science at this point.

 

[fla4fun]

Well, it depends. If we are celebrating Christmas on Christmas, then I do a homemade Lasagna and garlic bread on Christmas Eve and we finish it off Christmas Day. Since my sister works at a hotel she sometimes has to work the holiday, and we get together at a later date to do the lasagna thing (this year will be a postponed Christmas due to her work). So when I am on my own due to a postponement, I usually have pizza Christmas Eve and the leftovers on Christmas Day.

 

[Meriweather]

Our tradition has been sandwiches and sides.
DS is hosted and he is still decided if it will be sandwiches or pizza. DGS doesn't like sandwiches, so we'll see. It could be both!

 

[HannaBelle]

All of this sounds fabulous!

We are spending Christmas Eve at my younger brother's house with 18ish people. We are having brunch with ham, breakfast casseroles, biscuits with sausage gravy, fruit and jello salads. I might get fancy and put the sausage gravy in my chocolate fountain. It is absolutely extra, but fun! (It works well, we did it at my daughter's wedding reception a few years back.)

 

[DisneyHardin]

On Christmas Eve we eat lunch at my aunt's house. We have turkey/ham sliced for sandwiches/veggie tray/chips/etc. Christmas Eve night, DH and I go out to dinner. This year we have a reservation at a nice steakhouse.

 

[nene0182]

We usually just do a variety of appetizers and always have a meat and cheese tray. We spend Christmas Eve playing games