Christmas Dinner

[Clarice]

So what's for dinner? Do you have a repeat of Thanksgiving or have a different menu?

We usually have a repeat of Thanksgiving but this year I keep thinking maybe tacos...

[Frosty]

We do a repeat.

[Nancj]

Traditional American turkey dinner to keep hubby happy on ThanksGiving and traditional Puerto Rican roast pig dinner on Christmas to keep Moi happy. ( "Who gave me the love handles?" asked nancj as she opened her gifts on Christmas morning).

[Brightside]

We do a repaet most years (except for the good years when we have Turducken for Thanksgiving)

[Nancj]

We do a repaet most years (except for the good years when we have Turducken for Thanksgiving)
Does that actually taste good? my husband has been dying to try a turducken for some time now but, I just don't understand it.:confused:

[HotchocolateDuo]

I think the question with my family is what's not for dinnner...lol

mmmm...food!!

And Turducken can be good, if done properly.

[Sickie Ickie]

That's a cross between turkey, duck and chicken, right?

[Mistress Muffy]

For us....we do the traditional repeat for Christmas but we add a Ham. New Years is when we do the appetizer/buffet meal. We do all kinds of ethnic foods & just nibble for the entire day! Homemade cheeseballs, dips, dumplings, 3 kinds of sausage, we do a meat & cheese platter cause everyone likes that, lots more on the table. Oh its good!

Mistress Muffy

[Sickie Ickie]

How much does it cost for that big spread? (those who know me know that I ask about costs a lot. heh)

[Brightside]

Does that actually taste good? my husband has been dying to try a turducken for some time now but, I just don't understand it.:confused:

Oh yes. very good.

SI - It is a chicken (deboned)stuffed inside of a duck (deboned) stuffed inside of a turkey. Then seasoned and cooked just like you would a turkey.
MMM MMM GOOD. But rather expensive.

[bethene]

We always do ham, potates & gravy, veggies, rolls, deviled eggs,and the tradition for every holiday on hubby's side, polish sausage. He gets it made fresh from a meat market in town, and we always have that. Yum.!!

[Sickie Ickie]

Some items for consideration:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/Sickie_Ickie/decker/stuffedcamel.jpg

There's also the following:

Roasted Camel , prepared occasionally for Bedouin wedding feasts. Cooked eggs are stuffed into fish, the fish stuffed into cooked chickens, the chickens stuffed into a roasted sheep, and the sheep stuffed into a camel.

Those real recipes, of course lead to a false recipe joke:

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/Sickie_Ickie/decker/elephantstew.jpg

[Mummy deer-est]

LOL -- tell me that is not a real ISBN number, is it? Ha!

We do a different meal -- beef of some kind, and different sides. But then the men say -- where is the stuffing/mashed potatoes/etc....and mom goes "That's thanksgivings! Every year!" And walks away while mummbling. :)

[Sickie Ickie]

yep. a real isbn number. (SI walks away mumbling) :)

[Ms. Parker]

What we make depends upon the size of our crowd.

If it's big, we do a turkey and a ham. If it's smaller, just a turkey.

The last few years it's been just us so we've done turkey. Since nine Christmases were spent in England, we've picked up some of those traditions. Thankfully, however, my husband does not like Christmas Pudding.

We always make little sausages wrapped in bacon to roast around the turkey. To make it even better, Mr. W makes his own sausages. (he bought me a Kitchen Aid last year and got the sausage making attachments.) I almost like these as much as the turkey!

We make roast potatoes (par boil the potatoes, then roast them in the oven to finish). It's alll sooooooo yummy. :)

[AngelEye]

I was talking to my husband about this very topic yesterday and I had wondered how many people do a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas. I think he did a repeat every year until he met me.

My family is Italian, so for Christmas Eve it is a seafood feast. Seafood pasta, stuffed squids, calamari.. And for Christmas day we gather around a massive Lasagna with side dishes like Cavatelli pasta, Meatballs, Sausages, Fried Raviolis, and Antipasto Salad.

I love being able to break up the repetitiveness of turkey and have something different. My husband isn't Italtian, but he likes this tradition so much that it is something we do now automatically! He has fully adopted it!

[Mummy deer-est]

I've never been involved in one of those seafood feasts, but it sound so yummy, I wish I had! :)

[Brightside]

My family is Italian, so for Christmas Eve it is a seafood feast. Seafood pasta, stuffed squids, calamari.. And for Christmas day we gather around a massive Lasagna with side dishes like Cavatelli pasta, Meatballs, Sausages, Fried Raviolis, and Antipasto Salad.



MMMMMMM, I'm coming to your place. :)

[Nancj]

Camel??!!!:eek:!!?!!

[Blinky]

Sickie You are so Funny..Rofl

[SantaPaws]

Pork chops and apple Sauce

[Blinky]

SantaPaws is making me hungrey, Thats got my vote only stuffed pork chops with some of the applesause mixed the dressing and ground up walnuts and pecans .. if you haven't ever tried it this way it's good.

[Sickie Ickie]

Pork chops in any form is good! :p

[digbugsgirl]

Depending on where we are, we usually do a Thanksgiving repeat but add a ham. My SIL doesn't like to do the traditional thing. Two years ago we ate at their place on Christmas Eve (that's when we do Christmas with them) and she made linguine in clam sauce and baked ziti. It was a nice change, but I just love the traditional food. I can always count on my family for that, though.

[Sickie Ickie]

Or chinese chicken ala Christmas Story??

[Mummy deer-est]

And I forgot...
we always have an oyster casserole (yummy)
and a broccoli quiche thingy.

Both are traditional to our family and good, but mom says she wants to do something different this year. ???

[digbugsgirl]

My MIL always makes an oyster casserole for DH. He says it just isn't Christmas (or Thanksgiving for that matter) without it. I have to make it every once in awhile.

[peyote2004]

My sister has a party Christmas eve... and those who are there on Christmas day get leftovers. Our big family dinner is Boxingday. It's basically a repeat of Thanks Giving, but there's also usually a big pot of chilli and cornbread too.

Growing up, Christmas dinner was always Ham, but that changed after our father died; I was 15 and my sister was 32. He died a couple of weeks before Christmas, so that year there was no Christmas, and after that my sister started hosting the festivities, and everything changed to the way her husband's family did it. It's like our family's traditions never existed. Our mother passed away 2 years ago, so the I'm the only person there who's not a part of her husband's family. I think when I have a family of my own, I'm going to go back to some of the traditions we grew up with.

[Sickie Ickie]

That's the beauty of having your own family. You get to do your own traditions. :)

[lhallow]

We spend Christmas with my parents every year. She always does ham, green bean casserole, mashed potato's, sweet potato casserole, corn, cranberry sauce and of course celery with the cream cheese on it. Yum!

[Mummy deer-est]

Never had the celery/cream cheese dish on Thanksgiving. As an appetizer or part of the mail meal?

[Tatiana]

Well we'll be having a chicken (in lieu of the traditional turkey - I don't like turkey) and ham, with mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, stuffing, veg (cauliflower, turnip, carrots, peas and cabbage) and gravy. With either a trifle or a such for dessert.
I love Christmas dinner...no other dinner is so looked forward to!
After dinner we'll probably visit family and friends and have a few drinks. Or maybe just forgo the visitations and just veg on the sofa cos we're too full to do anything else lol

[lhallow]

Never had the celery/cream cheese dish on Thanksgiving. As an appetizer or part of the mail meal?

We put it our during the main meal, but I've also seen it put out as an appetizer. If you like olives or pickles, you can slice them and add them on top.....you can also use peanut butter instead of cream cheese. My mom puts out a wide variety so everyone is happy.:)

[Warrant2000]

We do the usual. The family loves my Deviled Eggs, that is if I remember to pull them out of the garage fridge.

I cook the turkey and ham, Wifeypoo does all the side dishes. Every year I always seem to forget to pull the turkey out of the freezer days ahead to allow for defrosting. Then it's me at the sink with running water trying to pry the bag of frozen turkey innards from it's center.

I love the smell of the house on Thanksgiving! The meats, broths, apples, cinnimon, spiced pumpkin...

[peyote2004]

For those of you in the US, I'm suprised there's not more difference between the Thanks Giving and Christmas meals .... Our thanks giving is early October, and I still find Christmas too soon to have the same meal all over again.:snowflake:

[navidadnm2010]

We will be having Traditional Turkey and Fixings Dinner from Boston Market.
Nowhere to go and nothing to really do on Christmas anyhow.

[kimba]

We have a big meal here on Thanksgiving. I cook for my family, my parents, my sister and her family, my niece's in-laws and this year my sister's mother-in-law will be joining us....yeah, I know. But it's alot of people and it's all traditional homemade fare. Thank goodness my DH and DDs like to help in the kitchen!!

So on Christmas we make stuffed shells and other Italian style things - my husband is Italian.

Christmas Eve we spend visiting relatives and mooching...er I mean enjoying food at all their houses:)

[madame leota]

Normally, we have our big meal on Christmas eve at my mother's house. However, this year she is in the process of moving into a retirement facility and will no longer have the room to host the dinner. So that leaves me! I'm thinking this year it might be nice to have a Mexican dinner in honor of my husband's heritage, as his family is in poor health and no longer gathers for holidays. I think we will have the traditional tamales, along with cheese enchiladas, tacos fixings, rice, beans, and homemade salsa.

Christmas day is just for our immediate family. We start with a breakfast of sausage cheese balls, hashbrown casserole, and cinnamon rolls. Plus I make a big pot of mulled wine, just to make the day that much merrier. ;) Later in the day, we'll usually have a spread of snack foods and appetizers to graze on. We always go to a movie that night and then come back home to have desert. And that's our Christmas!

[Rybcon]

If it's just the 3 of us we'll repeat our Thanksgiving dinner of prime rib. If we have people over it's my wife's family and we make lasagna.

[emeraldkitty]

Thanksgiving in Canada is in October so we have a longer break between the two, but we usually do a different meal for Christmas. We always have some appys to snack on, like deviled eggs, veggies and dip, etc throughout the day.

Thanksgiving is usually turkey and gravy, sausage stuffing, some sort of veggie (this year was a Cauliflower Gratin, beans, and corn), potatoes (usually mashed), and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Christmas is usually turkey and gravy, sausage stuffing, a small ham, veggies (last year was Brussel Sprouts with Carmelized Shallots and Ranch Potato Casserole), biscuits, pumpkin pie and another dessert choice.

So the meals are similar but with enough difference to not think "again??" :) I am new to planning our major holiday meals as we used to get together with extended family and my mom was the main cook. I'm still trying to put together this year's menu with the familiarity everyone's used to but also introduce some new dishes each time to spice things up.

[theway]

it just all makes me more and more huuungrrryyyyy:deer:

[Spats]

We roast a goose or a duck, or we bake a sweet ham.

Turkey is for Thanksgiving - there are way too many holiday foods to have turkey twice in as many months.

[Just Whisper]

We usually do turkey at T-giving, and then for Christmas try to add a little something different. Mostly because I am not a big fan of turkey. And the rest of my family mostly does not eat ham. We always try to serve different veggies of side dishes so it is not all the same. So for Christmas this year I am making 3 roasting chickens. My favorite!! Of course, we will have the usual type of side dishes...mashed potatoes, rolls, baked squash, cranberry gelatin, deviled eggs, etc.

Rybcon, Prime rib sounds really nice for Thanksgiving or Christmas. I may try that one year just for something different. My boys do not like roasts or prime rib much so I will probably still have to make a chicken or whatever.

One year we did an entirely different meal with lasagna and such. It didn't go over real big.

We will also do a Christmas brunch the Sunday after Christmas at my mother's. For years we have had a tradition of doing a different type of get-together at each of our houses (mine, mom's and sister's). But my sister seems to have managed to put a stop to that like she does most anything that involves her, cooking, having family over, giving up any weekends, not being with men with money.

[greentimes]

Christmas time is perfect for buying fresh organic fruit. And following the same strategy, swapping complicated Christmas recipes (http://www.greentimes.com.au/food-drink/be-organic-.follow-the-season.html) that require out of season produce, for fresh organic is better for you.
idea:

[cristmi]

I have a lot of vegetables for Christmas Dinner. Too much meat is dangerous

[Sickie Ickie]

No meat at all can be deadly...to my cook! LOL

[Clarice]

I've decided this year we are having roast beef for Christmas dinner. We usually have turkey,ham and all the fixings and I spend all day in the kitchen. This year I am going to enjoy the day.:D

[Sickie Ickie]

Wise decision, my friend. :)

[digbugsgirl]

Well, our Christmas dinner this year was leftovers! We had breakfast at my mom's and lunch at my in-laws'. Hubby and I just had some leftover ham for dinner. We had leftovers Christmas Eve, too. This year was different because we had celebrated Christmas with the inlaws on Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve.

[chrisssteeven]

Hi guys

Santa Paws is making me hungry, Thats got my vote only stuffed pork chops with some of the applesauce mixed the dressing and ground up walnuts and pecans .. if you haven't ever tried it this way it's good.

Have a good day.

[chris]

I like stuffed pork chops, they are so good.

[Emma]

We don't have thanks giving in the UK so have a big christmas dinner to look forward to. We usually have chicken since none of us likes Turkey lol. My parents usually take it turn to do the cooking so its my dads turn this year.

He/mum usually cooks;

Chicken, home made roast potatoes, stuffing, sprouts, carrots, mini sausages (wrapped in bacon) and odd occasions he has included yorkshire puddings but not often and cranberry sauce.

And for desert, we usually have choices of gateau, vianetta (ice cream) or Pavlova

[chris]

Your making me hungry Emma sounds like one great Christmas dinner!

[Emma]

Your making me hungry Emma sounds like one great Christmas dinner!

Yeah it does, we are always stuffed afterwards and we always make sure the dogs gets some as well :)

[bluexmas]

Thanksgiving is the turkey with mash pototes and gravy, rolls, bake beans and stuffing sweet pototes with cole slaw and deviled eggs and pumpkin pie and peacon pie.

Christmas I was told we are doing ham.... with i am assuming mash pototes and gravy and Lord knows what else.