Make ahead Christmas Eve dinner

[SMBC2020]

I'm looking for ideas for what we can have as an easy Christmas Eve dinner.
DD will be 2.5 and I don't want to miss any of the Christmas Eve magic by being in the kitchen all afternoon. The last 2 years we've had roast chicken with 6 different sides but it's a lot of work.
What could I make that's special and christmassy but not too time consuming on the day? There'll be plenty of room to store something in the freezer.

We have beef Wellington with all the Christmas vegetables. I don't really like turkey so we don't normally eat it at Christmas.

No, I cook Christmas Eve dinner and my mum cooks Christmas day dinner. Christmas day dinner is a traditional dinner but we have beef Wellington instead of turkey.

As your little one is still quite young, I'd do something easy, perhaps a hunter's chicken casserole served with rice, or a ham cooked in a slow cooker, or simmered on the hob. You could cook the ham ahead, and serve cold with potato salad, coleslaw etc, or hot with mashed potatoes/colcannon.

This isn't very special but I always do jacket potatoes on Christmas Eve. Nice and easy and everyone loves a spud.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was always at lunchtime
Triple cooked chips (easy to make ahead and do the final fry at the last minute)
Fish fingers for DD and DS
Vegetable grills for DH and me
Some fresh dips and salsa

DS has swapped the fish for chicken now and DD is vegetarian (like DH and me)

23rd is the day for the takeaway here
Boxing Day is homemade pizza . The dough goes in the breadmaker in the morning and proves quietly all day .

We go out for early dinner at a restaurant every Christmas Eve, then home to watch the Snowman.

🤣🤣🤣 my friend and her DH got their raclette out for dinner one night for us and I gave serious consideration to asking them if they had any interest in being a thruple (long term single here!)

I usually make a big fish pie.
But one year we had Aldi's salmon en croute, which was lovely...plus it's already frozen so easy to buy ahead and put in the freezer.

@HardLanding and @PorkPieAndAPickledOnion, I also have a portable mini raclette machine that uses tealights. Perfect for singletons, HardLanding!

Mine came free with a packet of Emmi sliced raclette but you can buy them on Amazon. It holds 2 slices exactly. It's great for buffets and barbecues or an easy relaxed week night supper for 2 when it's not worth firing up the big machine. We've also used it for cooking eggs at a help yourself brunch.

Actually, now the weather has turned chilly, I might do that this week. It's a great no effort evening meal. Actually, with rising electricity prices, maybe it will become more of a staple 😂

We often have Goulash on Christmas Eve

Crispy duck and pancakes from the Chinese take away

I haven't cooked on Christmas Eve since DS(14) was born because I couldn't be arsed with the clean up afterwards!

We used to have some form of takeaway but since we moved here 6 years we've gone to the fab little place across the road.

We went back to takeaway during covid but we're all booked up for Christmas Eve this year - I can't wait until the updated menu is released so I can study it forensically then have fajitas as usual

We normally have ribbe (pork ribs cooked in the oven) with Christmas cabbage on Christmas Eve as DH is Norwegian. It’s normally followed by pepperkaker (ginger biscuits with blue cheese) and fig jam later in the evening.

pepperkaker, blue cheese and fig jam is a totally genius combination, I will definitely be doing that!

We cook a ham and have it with wedges and salad, followed by yule log. Other than waiting for the ham to cook, it doesn't take long to throw together

We go out for Christmas Eve & have an early dinner at a restaurant. It's a tradition we've had in my family since I was a child as my mum didn't want to cook a massive meal/roast three days in a row.
We usually do Italian so it's different food to a traditional Christmas dinner.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is lots of party food whilst watching Home Alone 1 and 2! Glass of something nice for me and DH too. We also have Christmas themed paper plates so minimal washing up 👍🏻

Lasagne with bread and salad or veggie sticks. If many adults coming, an antipasti with cheese, olives, cured meats, etc. set out buffet style. Neapolitan ice cream slices afterward.

I admit to eating it a LOT at Christmas. The ginger biscuits (or sometimes I eat it with gingerbread), blue cheese and fig jam are my comfort food in winter. Ginger nuts work well with it but I would never tell DH that ha ha. It’s my guilty pleasure.

We usually do a wee buffet style or a take away. This year will be take away as I am working Christmas Eve and I'm just being lazy lol! Xx

Picky tea. Cheese, crackers, sandwiches, mini pork pies, scotch eggs, crisps etc.

Excited about the love of raclette on this thread. We often have for Christmas Eve too and I stocked my freezer up with cheese when I went to France in the summer.

The hotdogs and s'mores idea sounds tempting though although now I'm thinking of doing raclette and cooking smores on it after.