What's your Christmas Eve dinner?

[wibblyjelly]

We have a tradition of fish and chips take away on Christmas Eve in my family. Dh, ds and I are doing Christmas at home, just us this year, so we will probably carry on the tradition, unless someone updates an awesome meal idea

Buffet and champagne after Carols from Kings. All the candles lit and everyone chilled. Perfect.

Pretty much what we do too! And I concur, perfect!

We have lasagne too cider. It's dps and DS1s favourite meal.

wibblyjelly You did ask :)

Barszcz and uszka (beetroot soup with tiny mushroom/cabbage filled dumplings)
Pierogi - (bigger dumplings some stuffed with wild mushrooms and cabbage and some stuffed with cheese, potato and onion)
Pickled herrings with salad
Carp is the equivalent to our Turkey (Shhh but nobody really likes it :) ) so we do a token traditional dish with it in some aspic with lemon, peas and carrots.
Bigos - cabbage stew minus he meat.
Krokiety - a savoury rolled pancake stuffed with onions mushrooms, cabbage or whatever you want. rolled in egg and breadcrumbs then pan fried.
Baked salmon with potatoes and vegetables.
Sauerkraut christmas salad - red cabbage, onions, carrot, pepper and lemon juice and called this because I only make it then :)
Kompot - traditional drink made with dried or fresh fruits, sugar and boiled water. I like plums, apricots and strawberry.
Makowiec - Poppy seed cake similar to our yule log.
Kluski - A sweet noodle, poppy seed and honey dessert served cold.
Faworki - or ribbons. They're a lighter kind of biscuit.
Almond soup - Almonds soaked in milk and served cold, it's delish.

Most of these are traditional to dh's family Christmas but a few I chose as they're yummy.
We start preparing it on the 22nd and I usually make a shitload of each dish and freeze it for later.

Sounds amazing!

We go out.
I refuse to cook any more than I have to.

I cook a ham. The whole family gets together (usually at our house) and we have ham, other cold deli stuff, salad, jacket potatoes, coleslaw, lots of wine and a choice of several enormous puddings (to counteract the salad). It's my favourite meal over the festive season because we are all together and it's easy to organise.

Every year we go for a walk (to feed the reindeer in the local park!) then into the local pub/restaurant early dinner.
Home to find the Christmas eve hamper, into new pj's, film on, hot choc and popcorn. Hummus, pitta, parma ham, chorizo and roasted peppers/tomatoes for supper with lots of vintage port.

Fish and chips from the chippy if it's just us at home. Fish pie if we have guests.

Last year I did a buffet (shove it in the oven straight from the freezer stuff) for 6 of us as well as Nigella's ham in coke.

Never, ever doing the buffet again. Took ages because I have a small oven so I can only fit three trays in at a time. This year I'm just going to stick with the ham and just have some sides (new potatoes, salad, that kind of thing) unless something else takes my fancy before then.

I did wonder about the 19 birthdays BreadforBrains
Even The Queen only manages 2

Nachos

Takeaway collected en route back from the panto matinee.

As a kid, our traditional Christmas Eve meal was ham salad with Heinz vegetable and potato tinned salads. Mum liked something quick and easy as she was a bit of a last minute person, God love her.

With a young family of my own, I used to do a more home made version of this, home made sausage rolls, potato salad, mince pies etc. Then I used to do the tree once everyone else was asleep.

In later years with teenagers, snacky things like pizza, quiche, with cheesy onion soup to fend off hangovers were popular.

I love the sound of the Polish meal, with the straw under the tablecloth and all the history behind the different dishes.

Usually various ILs are arriving throughout afternoon/evening, so we do snacks rather than a meal.

Last year I cooked stuffed peppers, quiche & potato wedges in the oven, did a couple of fancy loaves in the breadmaker, & then put out plates of sliced meat & cheese (all Aldi), various snacky biscuits & nuts, olives, salads etc.

Traditionally Xmas Eve is when we all showcase our homemade booze, so it's all about enough carbs to soak up an appalling combo of ropey scrumpy, nettle beer, blackberry rum, sloe gin etc.

Chinese takeaway.

I have got to find out what hot and cold Jesus is

We have langoustines and blackberry and apple crumble. Am seriously considering chinese after this thread.

Oooh! This has got me excited!!

Moving from our one bed London flat on Friday ... And into a 3 bed new build down the road from my parents in Oxfordshire.

Have 4 yo DS and 14 wk old DS. Lots of traditions to start ....

My Xmas eve will hopefully involve lots of fizz!

last year we just had party food( pizza, sausage rolls, crisps etc). we also tend to spend most of the day out, trying to get the kids tired. normally have a glass of wine while walking around looking at Christmas lights

Rudolphs pie which is shepherds pie made with minced venison and pork. Keeps us going until Midnight Mass. Children are NOT little.

Sounds amazing!
It is but very time consuming, it's even better when someone else cooks it all from scratch :)

I love the sound of the Polish meal, with the straw under the tablecloth and all the history behind the different dishes.
I have fake straw
Tradition calls for the food to come from the 4 corners of the earth - forest, sea, field and orchard.
There's also the belief that Christmas eve is a magical time for animals. It's the only time ever that they can talk and we humans can hear :)

I am watching this thead with interest. Last year i tried to start a tradition of pancakes with different fillings, but this wasnt too popular. Have tried takeaways and found that near us its a bad option as they are so busy the food is invariably late or cold (or both!). Loving some of the ideas on this thread though.

I will be cooking my Christmas ham on Christmas Eve morning (the festive Nigella one) and a huge pot of lentil soup. We will probably be out for lunch on Christmas Eve, so this will do just nicely when we come home, served with some lovely breads and pickles, just before the Christmas hamper comes out for my little one. It will be followed later in the evening by biscuits and cheese, and of course lots and lots of chocolates! Yum, yum, yum

Mince and potato pie with suet cobbles and some green veg (usually peas as have in freezer) beetroot and brown sauce.

Mince pies after.

Yeah I need to know what hot and cold Jesus is too.

We have roll-mops and baked red cabbage. Yum.

It's my DH's birthday so we go out for dinner with all our family and friends... Usually to our favourite Thai restaurant.