Christmas Eve food

[poshme]

What do you all eat on Christmas Eve?
We've got the in laws coming, so needs to be a nice meal. They're staying till Boxing Day.
We'll be having Christmas dinner in the evening on Christmas Day, so lunch will be naice ham, crusty bread etc to leave space for dinner. But I'm stumped about Christmas Eve.
Needs to be easy (I'm not a great cook) and not take too much prep. 4 adults & 3 kids- no allergies.

My daughter suggested chicken nuggets...

We always have Nigella's ham in coke with mash and red cabbage - then we have cold ham left over for sandwiches etc to go with cold turkey on Boxing Day. Christmas lunch is a late lunch and then evening cheese course if anyone is still hungry. We don't have a starter, but have a few nibbles to go with the aperitif interspersed with present opening while we are waiting for lunch to cook. I found over the years that this is the best way to avoid over-eating as you essentially just have one meal spread out through the day.

Indian for us, sometimes take away and sometimes home/supermarket made.

For Xmas eve I do pulled pork.

Put in in slow cooker. Make some stuffing.

Apple sauce, rolls, veg sticks and dip.
Then get the small pudding bites from Iceland or similar.

I also have cheeses and crackers.

Then people can help themselves to as little or as much as they want and anything left over can be put in fridge for following day or Boxing Day.

Takeaway here too.

We have coca-cola ham and macaroni cheese, its amazing and makes me feel christmassy! I am usually at work Christmas eve but DH is always home and he gets it all done.

We have party style food or takeaway on a picnic rug in the living room whilst we watch a movie. But then we don't have Christmas Eve guests! If we had guests, I think I would stick with a buffet just on a table and fancier.

We have steak and then a lovely pudding. Easy to cook - steak, chips in the oven, mushrooms, bernaise sauce etc

I usually do a nice big fish pie, with smoked haddock, white fish and prawns, and cheese, parsley and a good splash of white wine in the sauce. Loads of mash with more cheese on top.
I don't add capers or hard boiled eggs or any of that IMO quite unnecessary stuff. No salmon, either. Prefer it without.

Always a takeaway on Christmas Eve.

I'd do a chicken salad or something but I'm biased as I absolutely hate english buffet food. Cold quiche and cold pasta gives me the chills.

Christmas Eve equals fish here. Everyone gets there favourites and we serve with salad. Chips too for the children.

Chippy tea!

This will be year 6 for this new tradition and we all love it. Works well with guests.

It’s a tradition in our family to have hot pork sandwiches on Christmas Eve. I’ll make some homemade sausage rolls and we will have an M&S Christmas celebration cake too... then it will be off to the 7.30pm carol service at church and across the road to our cricket club after. I love Christmas Eve!

We always have glazed ham on Xmas Eve.

I have a family meal that can’t be a Xmas dinner so doing:
Lobster mac and cheese
Feta salad
Nigella ham in coke
Roast potatoes

Will probably to Delias cheats chocolate trifle for pud

We go to an Indian restaurant about 5 minutes walk from our house with whichever set of parents we are not seeing on Christmas day. No cooking, no washing up, no driving.

Kedgeree, with added prawns for a luxury touch. It's quick, easy and a good contrast to the Christmas dinner the next day,

Individual beef wellingtons with a sirloin or ribeye inside!

@unicornsandmermaids your kids will be ecstatic!

We always have a Chinese takeaway .

Jacket potatoes with selection of toppings and salad with a calorie laiden pudding

We always have this...

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/baby-yorkshire-puds-creamy-smoked-trout-horseradish-pate/

Nice buffet for Christmas Eve is the tradition here. With champagne and Carols from Kings.

We always used to have gammon with jacket potato and cauliflower cheese growing up but my OH isn't a fan of cauliflower cheese or jacket potatoes so I tend to do different things now. It will be lasagne and garlic bread this year, cooked on the 23rd and reheated because its a busy day

Just the four of us here, and with a big meal to follow on Christmas Day we don't want a huge feast on Christmas Eve. Usually do salmon baked in foil, with new potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli, or similar, followed by mince pies (baked during the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols). Plenty of fruit around at Christmas too.