I want to eat @toledo 's meal! Yum!
Our at home Christmas Eve tradition is shrimp scampi. Not sure how that started.
On Christmas Day we go to my brother’s and the meal is a full appetizer spread. Everyone brings a couple things. It’s very casual and lots of fun. The variety is incredible! My favorite meal of the year. 
After we eat we do our Secret Santa gift exchange - of which the theme is and always has been “something food related” - yep, we’re foodies.
We do the 7 fishes dinner. Christmas Eve is our long meal. Christmas Day is home made ravioli and meatballs, salad and bread.
christmas eve: soups. Christmas morning: brunch. Often times christmas dinner at relatives: ham.
we might switch it up this year.
considering buying a meat thermometer and a prime rib or tenderloin; but havent made it before. scared to ruin something so pricey!
We’ve been getting the beef tenderloin from Costco for the last few years for Christmas dinner… Serving it with a horseradish cream, baked potatoes with butter, sour cream and chives. . Some kind of green vegetable (asparagus or sometimes green beans with almonds). Relish tray (scallions, radishes, cornichons,etc.)
Beef tenderloin, homemade rolls, wild mushroom bread pudding, red and green salad. For dessert, fudge and Christmas cookies. Everyone in my family hates turkey, so we have it only at Thanksgiving, and only if we have guests.
@sevmom, how does the Costco tenderloin stack up to the pricier ones at butcher shops or Whole Foods, gourmet grocery stores, etc.?
@Massmomm,what the heck is wild mushroom bread pudding?! Sounds fabulous! Would you be willing to share the recipe?
@Nrdsb4 The Costco ones have been delicious but I’m not sure I can compare as I haven’t gotten anything like a large tenderloin from a butcher shop or local grocery for years. The Costco ones are large and have always been very good. Even at Costco, they run about $95-110. . There are only 5 of us for dinner and we have great leftovers for the next day , for dinner or good sandwiches. Their ribeyes (we get a pack of 4) from Costco have always been good too, as good as anything I’ve gotten from my local grocery stores.
Christmas dinner will be a standing rib roast…but that is at someone else’s house!
We will be having a very traditional turkey dinner with our kids on December 27. Neither of them was here for Thanksgiving…and neither would,cook a turkey!
I used to do an appetizer dinner every year when we decorated our Christmas tree. The girls are very sentimentally attached to it, so we usually do it sometime during the season, but not on Christmas Eve or Day.
But for future reference, would love it if you guys share your appetizers!
Things we have done:
Smoked salmon from a local restaurant that is amazing. ( Not the cold raw kind, it’s warm and more “solid” if that makes sense.)
Shrimp cocktail.
Crab cakes
Swedish or BBQ Meatballs
Crockpot barbecue little smokies
stuffed mushrooms
Bacon wrapped brown sugar chicken bites (sooooo good, and easy)
Jalepeno poppers
Fruit Tray
Crudites
Mini pizzas
Egg rolls
Mini quiches
Baked brie with strawberry jam on the side (OMG)
Spinach dip/pita chips
Desserts on the side: cookies, brownie bits, pies, etc.
I always have a huge green salad with lots of fixins’ in it as a balance to some of the richness.
Jeweled rice, a complicated but delicious Persian dish with chicken that friends taught us to cook years ago. (We aren’t Persian.)
Morning is coffee cake while opening stockings and presents.
I did Ina Garten’s slow-roasted beef tenderloin for a staff lunch yesterday – easiest recipe ever (no searing, so no mess). Costco had the untrimmed tenderloins for $10.99/lb (most were ~4 pounds) and the trimmed ones for $19.99/lb. They had untrimmed prime tenderloins for $13.99/lb. Didn’t pony up for the prime and can’t remember if what I bought was choice or select, but it was excellent. If you have a boning knife and a little time, trimming is not difficult (watch a few YouTube videos first). Still pricey, but a treat for special occasions. Would do another one for Christmas dinner if DD ate beef!
Christmas breakfast is a tray of cookies (this was the break-the-rules tradition from my family growing up) followed by brunch with country ham, homemade biscuits, ambrosia, grits souffle. My husband’s family is originally from Georgia and mine from Tennessee, so we eat Deep South at the holidays even though we consider ourselves Texans
When our kids are here, we do an appetizer dinner for Christmas Eve. Everyone makes one appetizer…so we have four. It’s plenty! We listen to holiday music, watch a holiday movie…and eat appetizers!
Not sure if we will do that this year with one kid here and the other NOT here!
We are having a butternut squash soup (vegan recipe), prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, green beans, and a root vegetable gratin. I have two pescatarians (eat fish–no meat) so I will make a seafood (lobster and bay scallop) rissoto.
@sevmom, do you buy or make your horseradish cream?
@intparent , I make it. Very simple, essentially sour cream, horseradish, chives . I can’t find the actual recipe I use but this one I see from Tyler Florence from Food Network is pretty close- 1 cup sour cream, 2 tabespoons prepared horseradish (could add a little more potentially if you like things tangy), drizzle of olive oil . Little bit of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Combine. Garnish with chives. There are lots of variations online. Some use creme fraiche, or mayonnaise or heavy cream , some include some dijon mustard , or lemon, etc. so there are lots of possibilities depending on taste. But all would be easy.
@Bromfield2 - that risotto sounds delicious. Do you have a recipe you can share?
@Massmom, OMG I am SO having that wild mushroom bread pudding!
Everyone’s large family Christmases sound so lovely. I’m envious.
My son is going to be with his GF’s family this year–The official “meet the father” event, I gather! He has met her mother.–so it will just be me and the Grinch (aka H). S’s godfather, who is normally with us, may not be. Depressing.
For the last few years I’ve been making shrimp etouffee for Christmas dinner, or a bouillabaise-like fish soup. I used to often make ham braised in Madeira with duxelles, which is really delicious. The wild mushroom bread pudding would rock with it, although it might be such an excess of rich deliciousness that people would pass out, LOL.
Our large Irish/Japanese family’s traditional Christmas meal is Mexican food: tamales, tortilla soup, rice, beans, salad, and sangria, plus appetizers. There is also always rum cake. I can’t wait!!