Posted on 12/21/2006 7:29:07 AM PST by varina davis
I'd like to hear about the different Christmas Day and Eve traditions of freepers. We always vow not to repeat Thanksgiving Day, but usually end up with the whole roasted turkey and trimmings event -- plus some fresh Florida seafood, more desserts than usual, etc.
Christmas Eve we pop a ham into the oven before we head to church. When we get home, we glaze it up and get in our jammies and have sandwiches....home made bread and all.
This will be the first Christmas without my dad (passed away Nov 18th) so we have nowhere to go and no one to be with on Christmas Eve.
We've decided to see a movie and have snacks that evening.
Christmas Day it's off to the inlaws for brunch.
Rib Roast
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with red bell pepper strips and pine nuts
Cranberry-walnut cabbage coleslaw
Green Jello Salad
I would make a Boar's Head, but can't find one easily. Plus, it might gross out my guests' modern sensibilities.
Even though we're not Jewish we have the traditional Jewish Christmas dinner: restaurant Chinese food. Dim sum specifically, never been into the whole cook a giant feast for the holidays things, too much work holidays are supposed to be relaxing.
We usually have a spiral cut ham, with yams (rhyme intended! :-) hillbilly kugelis (yup, West Virginian/Lithuanian) green beans, deviled eggs and a big relish tray with lots of olives (at my insistance!).
We have seafood on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, usually a roast of some kind. This year, I think it's going to be a loin of pork with fennel.
Prime Rib in our family.
Christmas Eve-We usually do appetizer type items and take a walk aorund the neighborhood looking at the lights.
Christmas Day-I usually make prime rib but this year, my kids have requested a Greek dinner. Roasted leg of lamb with orzo, stuffed grape leaves, greek pastries. Might not sound like a lot but it is plenty filling. I have to marinate the lamb at least one day prior to cooking it and believe me, you get a big craving for it as the smell of the marinade is everywhere.
I want to know this, too!!
http://www.thetamaleplace.com/
Mail order Tamales, and darn good ones..
At my dad's, because my stepmom is a kiwi, we do a leg of lamb. I'm drooling at the prospect.
Maybe you could share your recipe sometime?
I'm one of the few in our family who loves lamb, but the Greek Christmas sounds fantastic. I'm going to do it next year!
Christmas Eve is always at my In-Laws. We have quite the HUGE family, so sometimes there are as many as fifty of us, if everyone can make it and the weather isn't too bad.
She bakes a ham or a turkey for sandwiches, then we "daughters" bring crockpots of soups and a few side dishes, veggie & dip trays, cookies, etc. We just do a buffet of food; there's no way to seat us all in one spot, LOL!
Mainly we changed it because it's just too much work for her and she deserves to have a more relaxing holiday, too!
Then we do our "Charity Challenge" where we share the charitable things we did throughout the year (FIL likes us to 'Spread the Love') then we exchange a few gifts (for the Grandkids and the Grandparents; we stopped giving to siblings ages ago; too expensive) and then we have a "White Elephant" swap. Everyone brings a goofy gift, either something new or used, and we draw cards, then high Card can swipe gifts from another and it goes around until we get tired of playing. It's a lot of fun.
For my son's first Christmas, we had LOTS of boxes and toys. We started with his stocking first, as our Christian tradition.
Inside were four Matchbox cars. That ended his enthusiasm for opening more gifts. He was so THRILLED with the Matchbox cars, it didn't matter if there were more toys.
So, the Matchbox cars idea caught on. EVERYONE knew he loved them and gave them to him as gifts at every opportunity. I still haven't been able to get them to stop. Nine years later, he has a box filled with about a hundred cars that have each been loved to death.
After my Father-in-law died, my mother-in-law decided to spend the next Christmas at the Ronald McDonald house working in the kitchen. The people at the House would have been there because of gravely ill children and she thought it was a worthy task. I think it really helped her deal with the holidays.
I'm visiting my parents for the week, and we always had standing rib for Christmas Day at home. Now that they're retired and living elsewhere, they (and I) are going to friends' for dinner. They're nice people, but I preferred it when it was just family. On Christmas Eve, my mother hosts dinner for some friends and then we all go off to church together for Midnight Mass.
we do not do a large dinner on Christmas Day since we usually eat leftover ham and other things.
Turkey with cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, homemade canned green beans,
sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad, hot home made rolls, gravy from chicken broth, spiral ham, tea, coffee, Russian tea, pumpkin pie, apple pie and, at least two types of cakes.
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