We have seafood on Christmas Eve - part of our Italian heritage.

Christmas Day we eat a nice breakfast and for dinner we have some type of roast.

We do homemade cinnamon rolls Christmas morning. Dinner is stuff the kids like a lot (since my DH is usually working). I do beef hot dogs wrapped in homemade pizza dough, roasted Brussels sprouts, smashed potatoes, homemade chocolate pudding with whipped cream.

Growing up it was a Honey Baked ham and the same sides as thanksgiving

Italian New Englander here. We did a huge seafood meal on Christmas Eve (and meatballs/pasta for the seafood averters) and then a large lunch/dinner on Christmas day (usually beef tenderloin & a ham, potatoes, green vegetable, yule log etc).

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who thinks this is a strange question?
If you celebrate Christmas, and most do, then wouldn't you have a special dinner on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Honestly, I've never met anyone who didn't do this. If they celebrate on Christmas Eve, then Xmas Day might be heavy apps, cookies,
Etc.

Not really. Easter is a much more Christian holiday than Christmas. And although I love our Christmas dinner, it’s not a foodie holiday.

Yes, East coast and we did a special dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
I do a more casual (but still holiday level) dinner on the 24th now because we go to church and our kids are young. Christmas Day is a special roast that I generally don’t make the rest of the year (duck, goose, beef Wellington, crown roast).

Am I the only one who thinks this is a strange question?
If you celebrate Christmas, and most do, then wouldn't you have a special dinner on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?
Honestly, I've never met anyone who didn't do this. If they celebrate on Christmas Eve, then Xmas Day might be heavy apps, cookies,
Etc.

All growing up we repeated our entire thanksgiving menu for Christmas. It was a revelation to me to realize this wasn’t the norm as an adult.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up with a Christmas dinner that was basically Thanksgiving all over again.

If I'm cooking, we have roast beef.

+1

I think our Christmas dinner varied by only one dish from our Thanksgiving dinner growing up. Now that I’m the one preparing, it’s prime rib all the way!

I also grew up with stuffed Cornish hens for Xmas Eve dinner, but DH has never been big on them. So this year, we are starting a seafood tradition instead, with crab cakes and some kind of shrimp. I’m actually super excited!

I grew up with a Christmas dinner that was basically Thanksgiving all over again.

If I'm cooking, we have roast beef.

I always do filet and seafood for Christmas Eve and a ham for Christmas Day.

A special Christmas dinner, or Christmas Eve dinner, or both, is very common and standard practice in all European countries and other countries with a Christian heritage. Including the United States.

Just because your family didn't do anything special for Christmas day doesn't mean most people don't, either. I doubt being from the midwest has anything to do with it as all the people I know from the Midwest, and I know plenty, all have special meals on Christmas day. For some of them it's rooted in the culinary heritage of their immigrant ancestors, for others it's Turkey aka Thanksgiving Phase II, or they have something special like roast beef, or they do something like festive hors d'oeuvre and grazing all day.

Growing up (in New England) my family had an open-house style Christmas celebration with family so we served heavy apps, etc - no sit down dinner.

When we were no longer able to host that, we typically visited family for a small dinner.

Now, we make prime rib, it's DH's gift to himself. But dinner overall is kind of casual. We hop around a lot on the holidays to see family when we can, so Xmas day itself is really quiet.

Most families have a big dinner either Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or both.

My family did a big Christmas Eve dinner, then we have some meal made from leftovers on Christmas Day so that the cook also gets a bit of a break. So I do that with my family now, too.