Christmas Eve food

[MariahsBaubles]

What do you do for dinner on Christmas Eve? We don't normally make it a thing, but this year will have family arriving on Christmas Eve to stay for the festive season, so I need to feed the tired hungry people and start the celebrations but without upending the kitchen as we are hosting on Christmas Day.

What would you do?

We have pizza, usually domino’s but moneys a bit tight this year so we are making our own.

We eat out

Buffet food - light and easy to cook and prepare as have family that pop in to visit.
Also, I do a lot of prepping for xmas lunch on xmas eve so don’t really have the time or space to be cooking ‘meals’.

Chinese takeaway. We always have one

This year I plan on making a fancy mushroom soup using dried porcini, some various varieties of fresh mushrooms and loads of garlic and cream!

I like doing some form of cooking on Christmas Eve - something that is a bit of a treat and not something I'd make every day, but that is simple with minimal mess.

Since me and my husband moved in together, ever Christmas Eve we have cheese and potato pie.
You can do all the hard work either the night before or in the morning and then pop it in the over and turn the oven on when ready to reheat and make the top go amazing.
I mean it is pretty heavy but for when our little boy has gone to bed, and we are sitting on the sofa watching by die hard, it's perfect!
Whatever you do, enjoy every second with family!

Macaroni cheese, or an Indian takeaway...
Chicken rogan josh, rice and a large naan bread.

Growing up we had a buffet on Christmas eve this year we're having a buffet on Christmas Day and going to the cavery on Christmas eve 😄

Same if we're not going out for a meal on Christmas eve it's tradition to have a Chinese on Christmas eve

Nigella’s Ham in coca-cola, salad, coleslaw, new potatoes and crusty bread.
Easy for everyone - 6 adults, 2 children.

Cheese and biscuits for grazing once kids are in bed.

We are going to the pub for a 3 course slap up meal .

Back in the day when my cousins used to descend from Scotland I always made a fish pie. Delia’s luxury one.

We do a meat and cheese board with baguettes, coleslaw, potato salad pickles etc. Washed down with a nice bottle of rose' wine.

I usually cook a side of salmon a couple of days beforehand and we have that with salad. Sometimes I get a side of smoked salmon instead and have it with french bread. Plus a nice pudding like a tarte au citron

Lasagne usually although this year doing chilli with lots of bits to go with it (guac, sour cream etc). Doing a veggie one & a meat one.

We do a Provencal tradition (featured in BBC Good Food magazine many years ago) called treize desserts (imagine the accents on two of those es). Three fresh fruits, three nuts, three dried fruits, three sweetmeats and a centrepiece.

Ours are grapes, tangerines, pomegranate; hazelnuts, walnuts, brazils (except the year we couldn't get brazils so had pistachios instead which several people preferred); figs, dates, apricots; shortbread, Finnish spice biscuits, Viennese truffles; and the Christmas pudding, because for several years both of us felt we couldn't do it justice after a massive dinner.

Served with a bowl of whipped cream (largely for the pomegranate seeds, but goes well with everything else too ) and custard for the pudding. Some sort of nice drink - S1 likes interesting cordials, S2 is happy with coke, or they might have hot chocolate; we get a dessert wine or use the parsnip sherry.

Partly because of this we have a fry-up for early lunch, though I imagine guests "arriving on Christmas Eve" won't be around for lunch?

A big pulled ham in the slow cooker so we have leftovers for Christmas Day, baked Camembert, fruit platter, crusty bread, new potatoes, chutney. Off to Harry Potter studios this year so will leave the ham on it'll all be fairly quick when we get home full of butter beer ice cream 😊

Smoked salmon pasta: finely chopped shallots, sweet wine, cream and dill served with tagliatelle.

The dill makes it really digestible.

We avoid takeaway on Christmas eve after DD1 got food poisoning!

Likely to be beef casserole and mash as it will transport to MIL house ok (the less cooking I actually have to do there, the better....)

Nice cold stuff, smoked salmon, maybe even caviar type canapes, potato salad, sometimes a russian salad, green salad, brown bread. Other nibbly things if time.

Nice white wine.
Fruit and dates for pud.
light but filling, enough, special without being too tricky.
.

I either make a really hearty soup with stock from the turkey trimmings/wings with brown soda bread I'm making anyway to serve with the smoked salmon/prawn starter we're having the next day, or I make a seafood lasagna with salad and garlic bread. This year I'm doing the lasagna and the soup on St Stephen's (Boxing) Day.

Personally I'm judgy on takeaways on Christmas eve, not sure how I ended up with that particular prejudice !

We’ve always had fish pie - but we’re going veggie this year, so am not actually sure. Youngest DD is in charge of that meal.

We do a buffet, cheese, bread, crisps, hot nibbly bits, dips.

We started a takeaway tradition last year - best decision ever!!! Now to decide which one..,,