Christmas eve meal

[Sausagema]

Looking for ideas, this will be me and dh's first Christmas married so we want to have a special Christmas eve meal, as it will be our chance to celebrate together due to family commitments/my work over the next few days.

We will spend Christmas day with family and are going to my parents for Xmas dinner, so no worries about Xmas dinner prep. We have a 1 year old so planning on having Christmas eve dinner once she's in bed and Santa has been! Cant decide whether to do a lovely steak dinner or something more relaxed like nibbles and cheeses watching some Christmas telly? Ideas grwatdully received!

We have a tradition of a cheese fondue for tea on Christmas Eve with 3 different cheeses and a selection of breadsticks, dough balls, crackers, mini rice cakes and veg to dip.

We do a sort of smorgasbord of really nice things to pick and nibble at.

Cured meats (parma ham, salamis, braseola etc), smoked salmon, prawns, squid rings.
Cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, pepper sticks, olives.
Flatbreads or breadsticks or nice crackers or nice sourdough bread.
Cheese (maybe 3/4 types - but we'll continue eating those over the season!).
Hummus or something "dippy". Sometimes some pate too.

I sometimes dream of doing something like a lobster thermidor - but neither of us has ever had lobster and we are slightly afraid to try that for the first time on Christmas Eve.

This year I am doing prawns and spaghetti with lots of garlic and chilli. I can't wait 😁

I live in Spain where the main event is Christmas Eve (not in my house though!) But my husband is Spanish, here we have traditional clams in garlic and white wine (super easy) maybe big prawns, a bit of jamon and a salad. Once we had crab! Like Newtothis too.

Seafood basically, not too filling for the next day either!

For the last few years we have spent Christmas Eve at DS and dil's withe the DGC. We sleep in our camper van and we have a Chinese take out from the v good restaurant in the village. Lovely and relaxed, no need for Christmas to turn into Bake off x master chef unless you want to

averylongtimeago you win for best Christmas Eve. This would be my dream! Sounds so cosy, snug and festive.

Exciting too!

As in Spain, in France too the main event is on Christmas Eve when the presents are opened. DH is French and we live in Switzerland, so we have a compromise with stockings opened on Xmas Eve and a special dinner in the evening. The French also like eating seafood at Xmas, so we are indeed having lobster thermidor @BiddyPop and some snails.

We eat fondue quite a lot in winter (like everyone in Switzerland), so it's not such of a special meal anymore unfortunately, but it is great to share and something a bit different. Officially, Swiss fondue is made with two cheeses (moitié-moitié = half & half); Gruyère and Vacherin Fribourgeois plus white wine and kirsch. I think Gruyère is easy enough to get in UK supermarkets but I imagine Vacherin would be more difficult. Compté or Emmental would work OK though.

Hell, I've provoked a cheese craving typing though out now....

I'm making Nigella's fish pie with porcini which feels luxurious and so comforting at the same time.

Along with the idea of nibbles and as others have suggested, a fondue is a lovely idea. Even just a baked brie/camembert with potatoes and bread to dip in is a great and easy dish. We often have raclette at some point around Christmas, but you might need a bit more kit for that.

We do lots of lovely Christmas nibbles after taking the DDs to the pantomime. We have all sorts mini Christmas pizzas as well as cheese and dips and crackers ect. I always prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas Day.

We have a Chinese take away Christmas eve, it our tradition. I bath the kids and put them in their new Pj's while DH collects it, we all eat together then the kids go to bed.

Definitely do a posh couch picnic - lovely cheese, bread, wine etc.

My kids go to their dad's on Christmas Eve and, since he's not the most organised person in the world, they can get here at any time from about 3pm to 10pm. So Christmas Eve food is snacky, nibbly bits that can be picked up at any time. OH and I will spend the evening picking at it, but there's still plenty for whenever the kids turn up - and it's all cold, so I don't need to worry about heating up/drying out.

Love the phrase 'couch picnic'!

Ohh I want a couch picnic too!
hey DeltaG, we are in Switzerland too, well on the border Italy - Swiss, our Xmas eve will be raclette with Gruyere and stocking opening for the kids... plenty of prosecco for moi and Migros do Kids prosecco which is always a treat for the young uns!

Love the idea of a posh picnic.

Our usual Christmas Eve meal when the DCs were small was a posh sausage & mash made with proper butcher's sausages and red wine gravy. Then as DCs got older and stayed up later we switched to having our main Christmas meal on Christmas Eve (we are a Dutch/English family). Now they are much older, we go out for supper which is lovely (mostly because there is nothing for me to do except sit and be waited upon!)

Borscht & Uzka
Soup & Kutia
Pierogi & gołąbki
Piernik

@LadyFlangeWidget - Migros do kids Prosecco??! Off to consult LeShop tout de suite (I'm 8 months pregnant so can only really have 1 glass of fizz myself)....

We are on the Franco-Swiss border here; have you had loads of snow? We have and all the resorts are nicely covered - shame I can't take advantage of it in my current state!

Eastern European feast Dipping?

Mum tries to stick to a traditional Polish Christmas Eve!

Do you also have those plum chocolates (sorry I can't remember their name)? I love those and a Polish friend often brought some back after a home visit.

I’m not a fan of them family are though, they sell them/similar in Tesco!

We do a ham for Christmas Eve, something like Nigella's Ham in Cola, which has the added advantage of then providing cold leftovers for the rest of Christmas!

I'd say to go with a simple meal which you both enjoy. You could make it a bit more special with candles, wine, maybe a cracker.

As for us, my DH would always want a cooked meal. Working until god knows what time Xmas Eve, so suggested a meal deal/ready meals. Don't think anyone likes the sound of this, so I've turned it around to them to cook something from fresh. In that event, a glass of wine would be great!

Christmas Eve is takeaway night here but there is no compromising so everyone gets what they want even if it means ordering/collecting from several different places. It usually works that we order Indian for DH, Chinese for me and DH goes out to buy chicken from KFC and chips from McDonald's for the kids.

I usually get some party food from m&s and we have a little buffet.