Christmas Eve Meal- something special but what?

[Mummabear82]

Hello!
We’ve had a bit of a change around to our usual Christmas arrangements this year and I’ll be cooking a ham on boxing day. I usually do ham on Christmas Eve and it’s a lovely special meal. So I’m a bit stumped for what to do this year. Nothing heavy bearing in mind the roast the next day. So my question is, what special meals do you have on Christmas Eve? I need some inspiration!

Thanks in advance! Xx

Dressed salmon or salmon en croute or fish pie

We do cheese fondue with lots of bread and veg to dip in. It's no-cook and easy to prepare but still really nice, and great if we have extra people popping round, it's a very sociable meal!

@Ruth2009 many thanks for that, I’ll give it a go! I’ve done lots of roast chicken, pork and lamb in the slow cooker and lots of beef casserole but never roast beef so need to put that right!

I'm making butternut soup and having it with baguette and baked camembert.

Another vote for Fondue with pickles and bread - soooo good!

Always party food bits from M&S or another supermarket! Going to pop into M&S on Sunday to see what they have this year...

We're having tacos this year - we do meat ones and veggie ones, all baked in the oven with salsa, sour cream and loads of cheese. We have nachos too, with tons of jalapenos on, and a big salad.

Tasty but not heavy. I couldn't be arsed to do a full meal on xmas eve.

Can anyone point me to a cheese fondue recipe that kids would like (not too boozy!)?

chippie tea on our laps in front of the tv

Hot roast pork sandwiches on the freshest bread collected from the bakery that morning, accompanied with mini sausages and sausage rolls. M&S celebration cake for dessert.

CANNOT WAIT! Hot pork sandwiches is a tradition from my childhood and I love it

AppleBlossom+, If you google ‘Cheese Fondue recipe without alcohol’ you will find several, this one for example but no idea what they taste like.

We have a raclette (similar in principal to a fondue I guess but very different in execution). Kids love it as you basically cook your own meal at the table.

Bockwurst and potato salad - German tradition.

Yes, confuzzled42 , our carnivores like to have something beyond the fondue, which is all I need, so we too have a raclette whereby you toast your little shovel of potato, ham, cheese etc under the grill and cook raw meat on the stone on top, (the pierrade part) , and yes the grandkids love cooking their own food.

With the raw meat on the table , we have to keep a close eye on the kids to make sure implements for lifting it are kept separate from those used with the cooked meat..

We have a pub lunch on Christmas Eve then DH makes prawn and greyere pancakes for supper while DD and I go to church. We used to have them as a starter on Christmas Day but we have a hot Christmas now (Aus) so although we still do the full turkey and ham thing a hot starter on top was just too much, we love them as a light meal on Christmas Eve with a salad and mince pies after.

Thanks @trickyd

Another one doing a party food buffet here. It's really handy as I do loads so there's usually plenty of bits left over for times like Christmas day evening when people want something to nibble on but nothing too heavy. x

We do a buffet style meal referred to as "Platter" in our house - kinda like a Smorgasbord type meal. All out on the table for everyone to serve themselves.

Things like slices of cooked and cured meats (regular ham, parma or iberico ham, salamis, braseola etc) and fish (smoked salmon, hot smoked salmon, squid rings, prawns, crab claws).

Things to dip and things to dip them in - breaksticks or flat breads, carrot sticks, pepper sticks, hummus, tapenade, nice pesto etc.
Also olives and cherry tomatoes in bowls. And sometimes the nice coleslaw from a local deli.

Sometimes we might have a few hot things like prawns in pastry or sausage rolls or garlic mussels - mostly though it's just cold things from the fridge.

The Christmas cheeses are opened up and laid out with crackers.

A nice drink for everyone.

It's a meal of treat type food, but relatively light and picky so everyone can choose how much or how little they eat. And it's also a slow, relaxed meal, where people are trying different things and generally just chatting and getting into the Christmas spirit.

We always have ham, egg and chips with warm crusty baguette for Christmas Eve dinner. I actually prefer that to the turkey dinner on Christmas Day.

We’re using our raclette again ( that is if everyone is feeling better tomorrow!) we used it for the first time last Friday and it went down very well.