Christmas Dinner

We keep things pretty casual on Christmas Eve. We order pizza. Since we don't order in on a regular basis, it is kind of a treat. On Christmas day, I usually cook prime rib or beef tenderloin. My kids really like beef much better than ham!

My Mom used to trade-off doing Christmas dinner with my Aunt. When it was my Mom's turn to do Christmas dinner (turkey with all the trimmings) she wanted to do something simple, but fun, for Christmas Eve. So she would make us homemade pizza -- and let us help! She used a frozen dough that just needed to be rolled-out and then chopped all the veggies with the Cuisinart. We all had a blast putting the pizzas together! When it was not her year to cook Christmas, she made a fancy dinner for us on Christmas Eve. But I can tell you, to this day, my brother and I remember and preferred the years we had homemade pizza!!

L.
In the past for a change of pace I have tried prime rib for Christmas Dinner as well as one year we did an Italian dinner serving, chicken parm, meatballs with pasta, lasangne, garlic bread,salad etc... Both ideas were a nice change. Another year I also had a big brunch on Christmas afternoon and served many breakfast items. Good luck. Happy Holidays.

hi L.,
I'm Polish, and our tradition is not to eat meat at all christmas eve (only christmas day).
We only eat fish and meatless pierogi's - different kinds of fish with different toppings and prepared in different ways. If you're interested in some yammy fish recipes let me know....

We have a big family that includes some who like neither turkey nor ham. We always have either a roast pork or a roast beef to go with our usual ham and turkey. We have some who do not eat meat and lasagna is a good way to include a large dish for those.

Because our family had the huge turkey dinner at Thanksgiving and Christmas, then the huge ham dinner at New Year's Eve, we always had pizza on Christmas Eve when I was growing up. The holidays were stressful enough as it was on my mom, and everyone loved a break from the 'formal' dinner. Paper plates made an easy cleanup, and the kids got to opening the presents earlier.

My husband's family will cook eat a huge pasta meal with salad and pies. It is truly a feast to look forward to! We all fight over the left overs.

Hi L.,
I have never tried it but I have always thought a dessert night on Christmas Eve would be fun!

We have fish and/or lasagna.

We don't have an ounce of Italian in our blood, but my family has always had a tradition of having a big spaghetti dinner on Christmas or Christmas Eve. Someone spends the whole day before making a big pot of homemade sauce, we have salad, garlic bread, red wine!, etc. It always tastes so good after lots of turkey & ham at Thanksgiving & other holiday get togethers. It's pretty easy to do, since the sauce can be made ahead & reheated the day of. Then all that's left to do is boil the pasta & heat up the bread. That's what we do!