Christmas Dinner- ideas

[zarapipe]

Who is cooking? I'm cooking and not really feeling it this year. It just seems like a lot of work I'm not up to. I would rather be lounging all day. I'm not liking ham or turkey this year and everything else just seems like a lot of work. 

I know I am doing shrimp cocktail, buffalo chicken dip and deviled eggs for appetizers. Weird mix, but stuff we all like. 

What are you cooking?

[puppylove64]

We do a bunch of various breakfast foods and usually munch of them most of the day. Yogurt bar, cinnamon buns, eggs, bacon, biscuits. Then when we are sick of that, we do lots of appetizers to munch on for dinner. Buffalo chicken dip, spinach vegetable dip, jalapeño poppers, cheese sticks.

I like to stay in my jammies all day and spend time playing with the kids. We eat lots of junk

[jr009j]

The girls tend to eat their normal breakfast and lunch, because they do best with routine. I’ll make cinnamon rolls and fruit for DH and Me. Then we’ll do cheeses and meats and maybe shrimp cocktail in the afternoon. DD1 has requested homemade spaghetti and meatballs for the second Christmas running. I’ll make the sauce and meatballs Christmas Eve and DH and DD1 will make the past on Christmas.

[readyin07]

Are you cooking for just yourself or others? If I was just cooking for me I would just do apps or tacos which we all like lol. We normally will do a tenderloin. I brought my menu troubles here, but in the end we are doing shrimp cocktail, pigs in a blanket and spinach artichoke dip for appetizers. Dinner is Christmas pork tenderloin (you wrap it in bacon!), mashed potatoes,
. Baby peas and salad. Eclair cake for dessert.

[Ashley&Scott]

Christmas is a pajama day at our house - we play, watch movies & lounge around. I'll make cinnamon rolls or TJ's frozen pastries for breakfast. Lunch & dinner will be yummy appetizer foods & desserts.

[ktw]

For the second year in a row, I'm doing cinnamon rolls for breakfast, heavy apps throughout the afternoon, and dessert. It's just us, my parents, my grandma and my FIL, and they're all fine with it.

[zarapipe]

readyin07, cooking for my IL's. total of 9 adults.
ugh.
I'm now reconsidering ham. getting a honeybaked ham, pulling it out of the fridge before we eat. mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, rolls. that with my apps should be plenty.

[vtdiamond]

Christmas Eve we are doing filet mignon, lobster, twice baked potatoes and asparagus.

Christmas day I'm going to do appetizers for lunch then a Honey baked ham with pre-made augratin potatoes and green beans for dinner.

[mbcdefg]

I bought a prime rib roast for me, MH and DD. Because my family never does anything special and I wanted something special for my own family, so there.

No idea if I want to cook it Christmas Eve (and then eat it Eve or Day?) or Christmas Day, as I don't know WTF my family's plans are. We'll figure it out.

For New Year's Eve I like doing a bunch of apps all day - stuff like chicken wings, pigs in a blanket, stuffed grape leaves, chili/grape jelly meatballs, coconut shrimp, mini crab cakes, and a nice cheese board with burratta and charcuterie and fig jam and good bread/crackers. And a tasty dessert. If I didn't have the prime rib I'd probably stock up on this kind of stuff for Christmas as well.

[christy082]

I'm making two pans of spinach lasagna and ordering a catering pan of meatballs from my dad's cousin's restaurant to go with. I'm making the filling the day before. Getting rolls from Costco and my mom's bringing salad.

I'm thinking next year I will start doing brunch foods instead.

[madringal]

My sisters and I all contribute to our Christmas dinner. Doesn't really seem fair to make one of us do all the cooking. This year we are grilling beef tenderloin. We will have salad, mashed potatoes, and bread for sides. My DH does the grilling and then we each take a side and bring a dessert. Easy, peasy, delicious!

[melsbels]

I love Christmas and I love cooking and I’m SO EXCITED! Lol. We do all dinners with my family and we each contribute a dish.

Christmas Eve we are doing butternut squash soup, French bread, salad, and a cheese course. I’m doing chocolate covered strawberries for dessert

Christmas morning I’m making wifesaver (ham & egg casserole type thing) and my Dad is smoking a side of salmon to have with fresh Montreal bagels and cream cheese etc, and fruit salad

Christmas dinner is at my house and I’m doing a short rib lasagna and Caesar salad. Chocolate mousse cheesecake for dessert

Then Boxing Day we’re doing the full turkey dinner. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, carrots, and homemade Christmas pudding & ice cream for dessert

[ECB]

We do lasagna for Christmas Eve and beef tenderloin for CHristmas. Don't want to cook? Find a grocery store that will cook for you. DH is our main cook and as he's technically working this year, he COULD be called into work. As such, my parents are buying a cooked tenderloin from a local store. They'll cut it and put it on a platter for us.

Also, for christmas, I buy Bob Evans mashed potatoes. I'll cook from scratch for Thanksgiving, but I go more store bought for Christmas. There is jsut more going on so it makes our lives easier. And Bob Evans potatoes are really good.

[isabel]

Christmas Eve is going to be more low key for us in terms of food. I'm not making anything special for breakfast that morning, we'll watch movies and relax, have some pre-made apps mid afternoon (cheese and crackers, shrimp cocktail, spinach and artichoke dip), and then lasagna, salad, and garlic bread for dinner. I'm making the lasagnas a couple days in advance.

Christmas is cinnamon rolls, caramel rolls, breakfast casserole, and bacon. All stuff that can be made in advance and thrown in the oven that morning. Christmas dinner is definitely more involved (ham, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry sauce, and rolls), but a lot of it is being done in advance. The rolls are already made and in the freezer, I'm making the cranberry sauce on Thursday and frying the shallots for the green bean topping. There will be some work to do Christmas day, but I enjoy cooking and think it will be nice to do it while everyone is around and hanging out.

I spent a ton of time this year planning out the prep work, so I'm doing little things throughout this week, which will make next week less stressful and give me more time to relax.

[boiler717]

Normally I do beouf bourguignon for Christmas Day with crusty bread and a salad. My dad is now doing that Christmas Eve 🙄. I thought about lasagna but my son has a dinner allergy so I want something we can all eat.
I decided to go more causal, I am going to make a few different soups (baked potato, Italian sausage, maybe something else?) and mini sandwiches. The sandwiches will be the hot ones on Hawaiian rolls, both ham and Swiss and turkey pepper jack. All of this can be made ahead of time. Maybe a salad — I made a shaved Brussels sprouts with apples, pomegranate seeds, and Gouda for thanksgiving that was delicious.
Christmas morning will be an egg casserole and cinnamon rolls.

[pinkpeony08]

Honey baked hams are delicious and easy to prepare. Even tastier if you warm them in the oven. We also have twice baked potatoes, but my mom makes them ahead of time and freezes them. She just pops them in the oven for Christmas.

[HoneySpider]

We wanted to go easy this year so we're doing pulled pork in the crockpot with some easy sides. I'm making pierogies which are some work but I'll do most of it the day before and then just fry them up to finish.

I think we might get takeout on Christmas Eve.

[loira]

We're bucking tradition (turkey) this year and doing beef roast, sprouts, potatoes and Yorkshire pudding.

Sometimes I forget there are glaring cultural differences between Canadians and Americans but then I read about lasagna for Christmas dinner and remember how weird you guys are. 😉

[brooke77]

Christmas Eve is just us so my H cooks chicken biryani and we have wine.

Christmas morning we have cinnamon rolls. We may have some weak mimosas before heading to Christmas at my sisters.

My BIL is a fabulous cook. Not sure what he is making, but usually makes a ton of food. Too bad H and I are both working the next day so we won’t be able to stay around too late.

[gerberdaisy]

Dec 19, 2018 6:07:55 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

Normally I do beouf bourguignon for Christmas Day with crusty bread and a salad. My dad is now doing that Christmas Eve 🙄. I thought about lasagna but my son has a dinner allergy so I want something we can all eat.
I decided to go more causal, I am going to make a few different soups (baked potato, Italian sausage, maybe something else?) and mini sandwiches. The sandwiches will be the hot ones on Hawaiian rolls, both ham and Swiss and turkey pepper jack. All of this can be made ahead of time. Maybe a salad — I made a shaved Brussels sprouts with apples, pomegranate seeds, and Gouda for thanksgiving that was delicious.
Christmas morning will be an egg casserole and cinnamon rolls.

Could you post the recipe for the brussel sprouts? Sounds just like what I'm looking for.

[raangoli]

I have no idea - we will have my mom here with us and she is a vegetarian and eats a slow fat/low sodium diet bc of cardiac issues. Maybe we will have Mexican food. Or Indian takeout LOL

[boiler717]

Dec 19, 2018 11:43:13 GMT -5 gerberdaisy said:

Dec 19, 2018 6:07:55 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

Normally I do beouf bourguignon for Christmas Day with crusty bread and a salad. My dad is now doing that Christmas Eve 🙄. I thought about lasagna but my son has a dinner allergy so I want something we can all eat.
I decided to go more causal, I am going to make a few different soups (baked potato, Italian sausage, maybe something else?) and mini sandwiches. The sandwiches will be the hot ones on Hawaiian rolls, both ham and Swiss and turkey pepper jack. All of this can be made ahead of time. Maybe a salad — I made a shaved Brussels sprouts with apples, pomegranate seeds, and Gouda for thanksgiving that was delicious.
Christmas morning will be an egg casserole and cinnamon rolls.

Could you post the recipe for the brussel sprouts? Sounds just like what I'm looking for.

I kinda mashed a few together. Shaved Brussels sprouts, diced apples, chunks of Gouda, and pomegranate seeds. For the dressing I did the juice of each a lemon and orange, diced shallot, olive oil, and a squirt of Dijon mustard.

[gastro]

Christmas Eve - Ham, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, roasted carrots, strawberry rhubarb pie and pumpkin pie (request from DS1) for dessert.

Christmas morning - DH will make pancakes

Christmas dinner - we will actually drive to my parents because they are taking us to the airport at the crack of dawn on the 26th. My mom asked what we wanted and I requested crab. So we will probably steam a few Dungeness crab and have it with garlic noodles.

[tacokick]

Dec 19, 2018 14:22:35 GMT -5 gastro said:

Christmas Eve - Ham, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, roasted carrots, strawberry rhubarb pie and pumpkin pie (request from DS1) for dessert.

Christmas morning - DH will make pancakes

Christmas dinner - we will actually drive to my parents because they are taking us to the airport at the crack of dawn on the 26th. My mom asked what we wanted and I requested crab. So we will probably steam a few Dungeness crab and have it with garlic noodles.

Where are you getting strawberries and rhubarb this time of year?! Or did you freeze last spring?

[zarapipe]

Dec 19, 2018 7:40:09 GMT -5 pinkpeony08 said:

Honey baked hams are delicious and easy to prepare. Even tastier if you warm them in the oven. We also have twice baked potatoes, but my mom makes them ahead of time and freezes them. She just pops them in the oven for Christmas.

Do you always heat them? Their website says to just let them reach room temp. What do you think?

[redheadk]

We are hosting Christmas Day. Luckily, my BIL wants to cook the ham and turkey on his grill so that's off my plate. My mom will make dressing. My youngest sister will bring rolls and fruit (coming from Christmas lunch with her fiancé's family).

I'm making Green Bean Casserole from Bon Appetit, gravy, whiskey glazed carrots, corn pudding, maple pumpkin pie, pumpkin cobbler, and pecan pie. We'll also have cranberry crostini for an appetizer and will probably have cranberry cake available (I make it and we snack on it for a few days). Hoping to get most of my chopping done on the 23rd and Christmas Eve.

DH hasn't asked what we are having for Christmas Eve with his family and I've already ordered groceries so we are contributing cranberry crostini and pumpkin cobbler to that.

I'm going to make a cinnamon sugar Christmas star for Christmas morning breakfast. Easier than cinnamon rolls, IMO. 

[redheadk]

Dec 19, 2018 15:26:16 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

Dec 19, 2018 7:40:09 GMT -5 pinkpeony08 said:

Honey baked hams are delicious and easy to prepare. Even tastier if you warm them in the oven. We also have twice baked potatoes, but my mom makes them ahead of time and freezes them. She just pops them in the oven for Christmas.

Do you always heat them? Their website says to just let them reach room temp. What do you think?

I prefer ham warm so we do always heat our ham in the oven. 

[pinkpeony08]

Dec 19, 2018 15:55:59 GMT -5 redheadk said:

Dec 19, 2018 15:26:16 GMT -5 zarapipe said:

Do you always heat them? Their website says to just let them reach room temp. What do you think?

I prefer ham warm so we do always heat our ham in the oven. 

We prefer it warm, maybe because it seems “fancier”? When we eat it as leftovers, we don’t reheat it.

[pugz]

we really need to figure this out! We always do a nice breakfast that morning but we are having friends over for dinner on Christmas so need to plan something for that too.

[gastro]

Dec 19, 2018 15:19:45 GMT -5 tacokick said:

Dec 19, 2018 14:22:35 GMT -5 gastro said:

Christmas Eve - Ham, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, roasted carrots, strawberry rhubarb pie and pumpkin pie (request from DS1) for dessert.

Christmas morning - DH will make pancakes

Christmas dinner - we will actually drive to my parents because they are taking us to the airport at the crack of dawn on the 26th. My mom asked what we wanted and I requested crab. So we will probably steam a few Dungeness crab and have it with garlic noodles.

Where are you getting strawberries and rhubarb this time of year?! Or did you freeze last spring?

I’m on the coast in central California - we have strawberries growing year round. There was forced rhubarb at our local farmers market last week and I was promised more this week.