Christmas Food!!

[AuchAyeTheNo]

So for the first time in forever, me and DH have the 24th to the 27th off together! So I’m looking for ideas for food for Christmas Eve, Christmas breakfast ideas and maybe something fun for Boxing Day. Just the 4 of us as we have Christmas dinner elsewhere.

Hit me with all your goodies! [thismile]

Who are the other two? Your children? How old? We always have a Christmas Eve buffet as we're always at MIL's for Christmas dinner...my DC love Christmas Eve buffet as it's festive and junky!

I do a table of cold meats, pickles, cheese, bread and crackers with crisps and salad and prawns...plus cake and cream or pavlova and fruit.

Breakfast we've never made much of because none of us seem able to eat much due to excitement! I've seen others who love salmon and cream cheese bagels for Christmas breakfast though.

Boxing day...as a child we always had home made chips and cold meats plus pickles. It's plain after all the fancy food and we always looked forward to it.

Christmas Eve we normally have a Chinese takeaway.
Breakfast we usually have bacon sandwiches.
Boxing Day is a buffet at my aunts house we all take a pre arranged dish.

Christmas Eve is normally home made pizza, breakfast is salmon and cream cheese bagels and boxing days is leftovers and antipasto platters yum

On Christmas Eve we usually have a cheese fondue with a couple of different melted cheeses and lots of things to dip: chunks of bread, ham, potato wedges, cherry tomatoes, apple slices, red pepper etc...
Sometimes we have a chocolate fondue too, with two or three pots of melted chocolate and a selection of Christmassy things to dip such as brioche, Turkish delight, glacé cherries, crystallised ginger and marzipan.

Christmas Eve is something simple, my fave is hot roast pork and stuffing rolls with homemade coleslaw.
Boxing Day we have a pie made with all the Christmas Dinner leftovers mixed in a white sauce and topped with shop bought puff pastry

Christmas eev we uusally go out for a lunch (which fills dp and i up so no dinner needed), kids will probably have snack bits if they are hungry. We go out for christmas day lunch so no leftovers for boxing day, we haven't discussed boxing day food for this year but it might be a curry or something. I prefer party food as its easy to prepare and can be picked as and when wanted meaning i am not in the kitchen all day!

It's hard to imagine without the 5 days of hosting I do but it sounds like absolute bliss.

Xmas Eve: Small gammon joint, carrots, broad beans in parsley sauce, roasties; mince pies for pudding.

Xmas day breakfast: Little danish pastries, strawberries.

Boxing day: with no left overs have whatever you like (for 26/27 you might want to go to the supermarket for the eye watering reductions on all the Christmass treats)

We have started to go out for breakfast/lunch to a garden centre or pub on Christmas eve now the kids are older. Then its home to potter, watch a Christmas film, older one will go out with friends. So there is no need for a large meal do we’ll have a sandwich and cheese/pickles/crisps etc.

Morning is bucks fizz with a bagel and salmon for me and the kids will eat chocolate. Lunch at 1pm, then evening will be the same as Christmas eve.

Boxing Day is always turkey and chips. Then just nibbles.

Were not huge eaters, we don’t do starters and stuff. DH doesn’t drink really but ill have a glass of wine with a meal.

I have made plans to run a half marathon on boxing day so I’ll be off the booze!

Xmas eve is normally pizza either homemade/takeaway/shop bought depending on how many people are here.

Xmas day lbreakfast is various pastries - I get the frozen ones you put in the oven. Easy to pop in while opening presents

Boxing Day I put out a buffet at midday and leave it out for the rest of the day for people to pick at - cheeseboard, party bits, leftover cold meat, crisps, dips, nuts, salad, etc

Breakfast - bacon sandwiches.

We get all our Christmas meat from a local farm and they do this amazing black bacon. So we have that for our bacon sarnies every day over Christmas until the sad day that the Christmas bacon runs out

Christmas Eve I cook a big ham so we have some whilst it's hot (kids like it with maple syrup ) in baps

Then pub 5-8pm ish. Maybe a ham sandwich after we have staggered home

Christmas morning either toasted pannetone with butter or if I've been bothered the day before to make a fruited knotted loaf who's name escapes me.

Seafood nibbles mini sausages etc at midday

Christmas turkey etc at 5pm ish

Boxing Day - cold turkey and ham, cheeses, bread, crackers, chutneys, coleslaws, pickles. Mince pies, Christmas cake.

27/28 - usually a zingy light spicy thing like ramen or laksa, using leftover turkey.

Thank you so much for all the ideas!

Other two are the DC’s 4 and 9 and thankfully they eat anything really. Just so excited to have it all off together and want some amazing food

Christmas Day (late) breakfast is always smoked salmon, cream cheese and bagels here. Easy! (Any small Gdcs will have whatever earlier.). Though there will be cold gammon (below) as well if anybody wants it.

We don't have dinner till 5 ish, so usually M&S mostly fishy canapés around 2-3, no starter with dinner.

I always cook a big piece of gammon with spicy orange glaze on Chr. Eve, so with that + baguettes/salad/cheese/chutney etc. plus of course cold turkey, there's loads to pick at if anyone's peckish later (unlikely).

IMO although I'm always happy to cook it, the dinner is enough of a faff, so all other eats on the day should be as simple as possible.

Oh, and if I CBA, I do sometimes make a Christmas dried fruit compote, with figs, apricots etc, all soaked in something Christmassy (not booze though) - IIRC there's orange juice and cardamom among other things) which has gone down well for breakfast.

IIRC it's a Delia recipe and quite quick and easy to make in advance.