What do you have for Christmas Eve Supper/Dinner

[SuzieBishop]

Supper/Dinner whatever you call it!! I want to start a tradition where we have the same thing for our Christmas Eve Meal each year and get the kids all excited for going to bed and all that!! So what sort of thing do you all have?!!

We do breakfast for dinner - bacon, eggs, sausages, baked beans etc kids think it is a real treat

On Christmas morning we then have smoked salmon & bagels

Christmas Eve is also my birthday.
This year we're going to have duck with red cabbage, cauliflower cheese and mini roast potatoes. Followed by birthday cake.

Hot slow cooked ham and cauliflower cheese. That's the Xmas ham sorted and love cauliflower cheese but not on the same plate as gravy so it has no place on the Xmas dinner

Place marking to reply properly at my desk later... (when I can type properly)

We always have a takeaway .Used to be Chinese but our best local has closed so this year we're thinking maybe pizza.

We started, quite a few years ago now, doing "Platter" for Christmas Eve. It is adaptable, allows various favourites to come out, but can be changed according to changing tastes or availability of things. And it is also a very relaxed meal both for the chef and the diners.

My list below is generally what we have - but not everything every year. We put out enough of a choice and sufficient amounts of food that everyone is satisfied, but not so much that there's loads of work to tidy up the leftovers. And some of it we prep ourselves, but lots comes from M&S or local delis that we just need to plate up. And it is mostly cold, but sometimes there are a couple of hot elements.

There is always salad-y stuff:
carrot sticks
pepper sticks
olives (black and green)
cherry tomatoes
generally salad leaves as well
sometimes things like spring onions or radishes
sometimes sweetcorn (from a tin) for DD
If I get to the good deli locally, there will be "proper" coleslaw
Or I might make a salad - potato, pasta, etc

There is always a plate of meats - enough for at least 1 slice each of everything, and usually 2/3 different things:
Good cooked ham
Cured ham (parma or similar)
Spiced beef
"Proper" corned beef
Braseola
Salami (various types)
Lomo (a cured pork)
Cooked streaky rashers (M&S)

Also some fish on a separate plate - again a combination of some of:
Smoked salmon
Hot smoked salmon
Salmon pate
Crab claws
Prawns
Squid rings
Garlic mussels

Some years we have some paté, but not every year.

We always open the Christmas cheeses, and have nice crackers to go with them. So there will definitely be a blue, a hard and a soft cheese, likely a few more, things like:
Stilton/Shropshire blue/Cashel
Good cheddar/Compte/Mature Edam/local cheeses
Brie/Camembert/Caprice des Dieux/
Or things that our local cheesemonger recommends as being perfectly ready for eating

We have some good crackers for cheese, but also flatbreads/breadsticks to crunch on, and often a lovely crusty loaf if we've been able to get one.

Usually there are a couple of "dippy" things - HM salsa, guacamole (HM or M&S), hummus, sour cream and chive dip, tapenade ….

There might be a pack or 2 of M&S party food.

We will open a good bottle of wine and DD will get something which is a treat for her (J2O or maybe a can of something fizzy that's not coke).

I will often put the candles out and open the packet of Christmas napkins.

It's about sitting as a family and enjoying the food, rather than our normal mode of rushing it as we get in from school/work, face into homework/more work/housework etc, when food is more of a fuel. Everyone chooses what they would like from the middle of the table, their plates are empty when they sit down. As long as there are things on the table that you know your family WILL eat, it can be a good time to try things that you like but they generally don't - as when there is not pressure on, we've seen DD try all sorts and come to love lots of them this way.

We also have tea/coffee and some sweet nibbles available for afterwards, but generally don't really want them. We go light the Christmas candle and then open the Christmas Eve hamper after dinner, DD has her Lush bath bomb bath and gets into her new PJs, and we all have hot chocolate (or a Christmas beer) and a mince pie together before DD heads for bed.

We go out for a lovely lunch and have kir royales . Then a walk around the city looking at the lights / decorations. I have a ban on supermarket shopping on Christmas eve.

Home around teatime and I always cook the ham that evening. We eat it hot, with bread and pickles and mustard really late that evening, once it is cooked. It has been a tradition since I was a child and I have carried it on. We all love it.

We eat the rest of the ham cold on Christmas day and the following days. I cook the turkey on Christmas day

Ham here (usually cooked in coke or cider/apple juice). We have to serve with mash and macaroni cheese (DS won't eat macaroni cheese, DD won't eat ham or mash ), and then green veg for 3 of us, baked beans for 2 of us. And as above, we then have plenty of cold meat to go with the turkey for Christmas evening / Boxing Day etc.

When we were at my parents' for Christmas, my DM quite often made a massive game pie for Christmas Eve dinner, which always went down well. We're not hosting this year, but next time we do, I might well do a pie of some sort for C. Eve. BIL once made an amazing chicken and chorizo one which would be fab.

chippy tea

love it going out with the kids on eve with all the people out in the same mood.families arriving poppy out for last minute drinkies or chippy tea.everyone together and in the best mooods.
the kids love going out with the big written down order of what everyone wants.

Turkey fajitas

Growing up we always had ham, jacket potato and cauliflower cheese. My DP doesn't like cauliflower cheese so this year I'm just doing lasagne with salad and garlic bread

Chinese or dominos

My mum always did fish pie, so I might do that or maybe the glazed ham (which will otherwise be for Boxing Day). Christmas Eve was also the traditional day to crack out the Quality Street, Roses etc. Those are all gross nowadays but we’ll probably tuck into whatever nice chocs we end up with instead.

Sausages in red wine with shallots and mushrooms and lots of mash.

We usually have a lasagne which has a tomato sauce with any meatballs and mozzarella pearls.No white sauce. We usually ear late but this year we will have a 2 year old so I'm thinking of an earlier dinner so we can all eat together.

Tiny meatballs

We have Mexican now! Have done for the last few years.

Over Christmas you get fed up of all the roasts, potatoes, beef etc so we have nachos, enchiladas, rice.

It’s impossible to get a takeaway where we live on Christmas Eve!

We always did a buffet because the kids were too excited to eat a big meal. They could then pick at it all evening.

Seafood platter-lobster, crab, prawns, langoustine
with great bread and garlic butter and marie rose sauce
Champagne to drink.