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Original poster

What a What are your Christmas food traditions?

54 replies

AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside · 19/09/2023 16:22

We have a ham that's cooked on Christmas eve, had for dinner that day and then here and there until its gone.

Christmas day isnt set, but is usually beef or lamb, and New year's day is beef.

Lamb at Easter too.

All followed on from my mum, and dh's family were the same too.

OP posts:

Diversion · 19/09/2023 19:00

Breakfast consists of crumpets, pain au chocolat or croissants. Christmas dinner a choice of 3 starters pate, Camembert or prawn cocktail then turkey and all of the trimmings. Choice of two desserts usually some kind of pavlova or roulade and profiteroles. Boxing Day is always a huge buffet it is our family tradition now and none of them would let me get away with not having it.

SoundTheSirens · 19/09/2023 19:05

Venison casserole on Christmas Eve.

Mulled wine and homemade canapés while opening presents.

Yorkshire puddings with Christmas lunch.

Two different kinds of stuffing with the turkey - sage & onion and A.N. Other (we compete to find something different / more exotic than the previous year each time 😄).

LlynTegid · 19/09/2023 19:33

We never eat Christmas pudding on Christmas Day.

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MrHopsPortal · 19/09/2023 19:38

Christmas Eve ham here as well - usually Nigella's in coke with egg and chips. What isn't eaten gets eaten cold over the next few days.

Christmas dinner is homecured salmon followed by beef wellington.

Ragwort · 19/09/2023 20:26

Very traditional here ..

Roast Ham Christmas Eve with jacket potatoes and peas.

Smoked salmon & cream cheese bagels for breakfast Christmas Day (Buck's Fizz for me).

Full Turkey Roast around 2pm (followed by King's speech).

Christmas pudding & cheese served later for those who want it.

Cold ham & Turkey with salads on Boxing Day.

Plenty of wine, port & chocolates available all day.

GigiAnnna · 19/09/2023 20:32

Eggs benedict and snowballs for breakfast and I buy a camembert wreath to eat on Christmas eve after we have laid out the kids' presents.

purplecorkheart · 19/09/2023 20:37

We really have no traditions for Christmas. We tend to eat out mid afternoon on Christmas eve. There is normally a small joint cooked the day before for sandwiches for Christmas eve night for those that want to.

We meet up with friends after Mass on Christmas day for canapes and processo so Christmas morning tends to be toast and posh jam that we get gifted by a neighbour. Then we tend to eat about 5pm. Tends to be beef/pork/duck breasts. We do not do too many sides. All bar one prefer a cheese board to dessert and the one person who does not want a cheese board is not a huge fan of dessert either so tends to nibble on some shortbread or digestive biscuit.

AtleastitsnotMonday · 19/09/2023 22:54

DaisyWaldron · 19/09/2023 18:25

We have quite a lot of food traditions.

Before Christmas we make gingerbread biscuits for the tree, mince pies, peppermint bark and a Christmas cake.

On Christmas Eve, we have lentil soup for dinner.

On Christmas day, we have stocking food for first breakfast. The stocking always includes a Chocolate orange, a chocolate Santa, a chocolate reindeer, chocolate coins, a clementine, and a salami.

For second breakfast, we have bagels with smoked salmon and freshly squeezed orange juice.

In the afternoon, we have a feast, doing things (opening gifts, calling family, going for a walk, watching TV etc) between courses:

First: blini with avruga, smoked salmon on Irish wheaten bread, croutons with paté, devils on horseback, mushroom vol-au-vents,

Next: roast chicken/capon with pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, swede and carrot mash, Brussels sprouts, roast parsnips and roast potatoes, with gravy, bread sauce and cranberry sauce.

Then: Green salad

Followed by: Christmas pudding and cake

And finally: cheese and biscuits. And a bit more salad.

We also decorate the table with food - grapes and Clementines and shiny chocolate coins. They get nibbled with the cheese and eaten properly on Boxing Day.

The next few days are about the leftovers. Mostly cheese, pigs in blankets, stuffing, crackers, veg and more salad. I try to go 3 days without actually cooking anything.

Is there a reason for the green salad after your Christmas dinner? I've never heard of that before!

Presil · 19/09/2023 22:58

We have a Xmas Eve ham too, OP! Cook it in different ways, but always have it and like you eat it cold with various bits and bobs over the days after Xmas. It's something my mum always did.

Also always have a couple of tins of celebrations/heroes on the go from October onwards, repeatedly replaced 😳

NonMiDispiace · 19/09/2023 23:09

A picnic on a beach on Boxing Day, hot soup, hotdogs and onions in crusty rolls, nothing nicer!
Christmas dinner is anything other than turkey, I prefer cold meats, jacket potatoes and salads with lots of nibble bits followed by trifle.
Christmas Eve is baked Camembert, pickled cabbage and toasted ciabatta or sourdough bread with lots of salted butter 😋, crunchy salads and champagne.

DinnaeFashYersel · 19/09/2023 23:09

Buffet party food on Xmas eve

Full Scottish breakfast and dinner is turkey - Xmas day.

Steak pie, neeps and tatties on Hogmanay

Roast beef and everything on New Years Day

XenoBitch · 19/09/2023 23:12

Steak and chips for xmas dinner. A big ham salad for Boxing day

SkaneTos · 19/09/2023 23:13

Very interesting to read about all the Christmas food traditions!

In my family
Homemade chrisp bread and kale on the day before Christmas Eve
Ham (and a smorgasbord) on Christmas Eve
Ham (and a smorgasbord) on Christmas Day
Lutfisk (dried whitefish) on Boxing Day
Pudding made out of leftover lutfisk on the Third Day of Christmas

Original poster

AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside · 19/09/2023 23:35

Presil · 19/09/2023 22:58

We have a Xmas Eve ham too, OP! Cook it in different ways, but always have it and like you eat it cold with various bits and bobs over the days after Xmas. It's something my mum always did.

Also always have a couple of tins of celebrations/heroes on the go from October onwards, repeatedly replaced 😳

I refuse to buy those tubs now.

OP posts:

Presil · 19/09/2023 23:42

It's a terrible thing really. One minute I'm congratulating myself for getting ahead of Xmas, the next I'm thinking "let's just have one", and then suddenly it's 9 o'clock, Strictly is finished and we're all chocolate faced on the sofa surrounded by wrappers and the Bounty bars no one wants.

Original poster

AlwaysPrettyOnTheInside · 20/09/2023 00:38

When tescos had their offer on for £4 a tub I'd get 2 of each, heroes, celebrations, roses and quality street.

One set to inevitably be eaten in the months before Christmas and a set for Christmas week onwards 😂

They were 15e a tub here last year though so I didn't buy any.

OP posts:

onwardandupwards · 20/09/2023 00:48

Our Christmas Eve chinese and boxing day knickerbocker glories topped with squirty cream and shortbread biscuits ( everyone creates their own)

FelicityFlops · 20/09/2023 04:17

Champagne, oysters and foie gras feature

CrazyBatIknow · 20/09/2023 04:26

Champagne, pork pie and bread and butter

Natsku · 20/09/2023 06:29

Breakfast is rice porridge with sugar and cinnamon or jam (I make a quick strawberry jam with the strawberries left whole)

Finnish Christmas dinner, eaten on Christmas Eve. Ham, potato casserole, swede casserole, sometimes carrot and rice casserole, plenty of salted, smoked, blazed salmon, plenty of pickled herrings, beetroot salad and dark sweet-ish bread.

We then eat the leftovers for days until they're gone.

Natsku · 20/09/2023 06:32

SkaneTos · 19/09/2023 23:13

Very interesting to read about all the Christmas food traditions!

I've always wondered with lutfisk is like. I see it in the shops around Christmas time and wonder should we try it this year but always end up deciding no

Loubelle70 · 20/09/2023 06:33

Xmas eve, food buffet , mulled wine, homemade eggnog.
Xmas day, croissants and orange juice, chicken (quorn roast for me), traditional Xmas dinner.
Boxing day, salad and black forest trifle

StoatofDisarray · 20/09/2023 06:50

My partner's a vegan and it's always just the two of us.

I always get a real tree and we have mince pies and mulled cider while we decorate it.

On Christmas Day, I have goose and he has a homemade nut roast (it was a homemade vegan beet and nut wellington last year). We have roast potatoes with garlic and rosemary, Brussels, red cabbage, carrots, mashed parsnip, peas and broccoli, sage and onion stuffing cooked in balls and I make apple sauce for the goose. He has beer (he's a CAMRA man) and I have a cider or a perry. We tend to eat at about 2ish.

Other things we have: dates, walnuts, and I love those tempura prawns that you can get in M&S: I can hoover up a pack of those in front of a film.

On Boxing Day he makes bubble and squeak for brunch and I have a fried egg on mine :-)

Bluejellybean23 · 20/09/2023 07:15

LongLiveGoblingKing · 19/09/2023 17:24

Fresh baked cinnamon roles with cream cheese frosting for breakfast on Xmas day.

Always mulled wine whilst decorating the tree.

Do you make these yourself? Looking to try for the first time this year in my new breadmaker but wondering if you freeze them to do them the day before?

DaisyWaldron · 20/09/2023 08:02

I think the salad is mostly because my family are french and I can't do a multi-course festive meal without salad.

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