Christmas menu traditions?

[Anonymous]

I enjoy making family traditions for the holidays. We do turkey for Thanksgiving, like most people do; ham for dinner on Christmas Day; and roasted chicken on New Year’s Day. But I always seem to be at a loss for a special meal for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. We’ve done just appetizers before, and Italian another time. Neither have seemed worthy of repeating as a tradition.

What do you all do?


It’s just my husband and me and we have a three year old. He is a decent eater, so the meals don’t have to be 100% child friendly as we can always whip up a grilled cheese if need be. Would love to hear your traditions and what we might adopt

[Anonymous]

For Christmas Eve my family has done fondue since I was a kid. We do cheese with bread and veggie dippers and then meat cooked in oil. My kids are now 10 and 13 and really enjoy it as a special tradition. The meal takes awhile and it's nice for conversation.

[Anonymous]

When I'm cooking, it's always beef Wellington for the 25th, and either foie gras, caviar or a really good smoked salmon for the 24th.

This year we're invited elsewhere and will have turkey, which is SO not my favorite. But I'm happy to be invited and socialize!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
When I'm cooking, it's always beef Wellington for the 25th, and either foie gras, caviar or a really good smoked salmon for the 24th.

This year we're invited elsewhere and will have turkey, which is SO not my favorite. But I'm happy to be invited and socialize!

And for New Year, we always do sushi. For New Year's Eve, we eat whatever we didn't pick on Christmas Eve.

[Anonymous]

We do fondue for Christmas Eve, beef tenderloin for Christmas day, and king crab and champagne for New Year's.

[Anonymous]

The fondue tradition is super cute.

We do tamales entirely from scratch on Christmas Eve. It takes days and is a lot of work, but everyone loves it.

[Anonymous]

Christmas Eve is 7 fishes for us!

We have pared it down to just the favorites in COVID times when there are fewer of us around the table: Cod cakes, fried calamari, homemade gnocchi, salad, some other rotating vegetable, and homemade focaccia. I make a Yule log for dessert.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Christmas Eve is 7 fishes for us!

We have pared it down to just the favorites in COVID times when there are fewer of us around the table: Cod cakes, fried calamari, homemade gnocchi, salad, some other rotating vegetable, and homemade focaccia. I make a Yule log for dessert.

Sounds delicious. I've always wanted to try this or experience it, but I'm not sure I know 7 different ways to prepare fish - lol.

[Anonymous]

We also do fondue - just cheese. It’s super easy and great for going to a 5pm Christmas Eve service. Just grate the cheese before church ans when we get home, throw it in the pot (with kirsch, garlic and nutmeg, of course) and it’s done in less than 20 mins.

[Anonymous]

We always have prime rib with Yorkshire pudding for new year’s dinner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do fondue for Christmas Eve, beef tenderloin for Christmas day, and king crab and champagne for New Year's.

We do this too--except for the king crab. Fondue tradition came from my MIL and we love it!

[Anonymous]

filipino food

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it needs to be fabulous, just repeatable for a good tradition. My family has a particular homemade soup every Christmas Eve, along with shrimp cocktail. My grandmother used to make it and bring it along when she came to our house on Christmas Eve day. It was so exciting to help her unpack her cooler of soup— it was an important step en route to Santa!
Now my mom makes the soup, and I so look forward to it. It’s also a quick and easy dinner before Christmas Eve church. I sometimes make good homemade bread to go with it.

[Anonymous]

When it’s just us we do filet mignon for Xmas dinner as a splurge. You could do a fancy cheesy potato gratin as a side. I did homemade spaetzle with butter and mushrooms one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think it needs to be fabulous, just repeatable for a good tradition. My family has a particular homemade soup every Christmas Eve, along with shrimp cocktail. My grandmother used to make it and bring it along when she came to our house on Christmas Eve day. It was so exciting to help her unpack her cooler of soup— it was an important step en route to Santa!
Now my mom makes the soup, and I so look forward to it. It’s also a quick and easy dinner before Christmas Eve church. I sometimes make good homemade bread to go with it.

This is really sweet.