Christmas Eve Dinner

[ChristmasCrumpet]

Just looking for some ideas really.

We don't want to to the "Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve" thing, which does sound lovely, but we'll have the whole family here Christmas Day, and they'll want a Christmas Dinner, and so will the kids.

Christmas Day evening, we put out a late buffet for the adults when the DC have gone to bed, charcuterie, cheeseboard, canapes etc...so don't want that Christmas Eve either.

We don't really want a heavy meal like a Chinese or Indian takeaway either.

I know this is a lot of "don'ts"...

What we do want, is something special, just the two of us, as DC will have a pizza, yet as low maintenance as possible, as we'll be doing the last minute house prep/wrapping and would like to not be faffing with fancy cooking.

Any ideas?

Our Christmas eve meal is always ham, egg and chips. Can either cook a gammon joint which gets brought out again for the Boxing day buffet or just go to the supermarket deli and get a few thick slices of ham from there.

DH & I have just had a mixture of party food past 3 yrs, whatever nice bits we see in M&S/waitrose. Easy to pop in oven & enjoy with a glass wine while doing last minute Xmas tasks

Ooh some lovely seafood always goes down well on Christmas eve with plenty of French bread and wine.

French bread, salad, a nice cooked ham and some cheese….perfect

Some type of casserole that can cook itself while you are busy with jobs?

We have had fish and chips the last few years but something like a steak sandwich on garlic ciabatta with pepper sauce with onion rings and/or chips sounds nice. With red wine. 😍

This is exactly what we do. I did spaghetti alle vongole last year and I think we’ll do the same this year.

We quite often have seafood, feels fancy/special but light

I do the ham in cherry coke thing, then use the rest for Xmas Day evening buffet.

My mum used to do a huge shepherd's pie and we'd all eat it and prepare the veg for the next day.

My PILs do the ham on XEve and then have half for dinner and the rest cold with their Xmas lunch.

Seafood or a fish pie in our house.

glosses over all suggestions that are what we specifically don't want

Seafood sounds nice. Light is good, we definitely don't want a big heavy meal.

DH has suggested lobster, are there any pre done ones you can recommend, as I can't be arsed with prepping two lobsters when I'm trying to set a marble run up and prep the table for the morning..

We have prawns and smoked salmon for a starter, followed by cauliflower and chestnut soup (which I prepare in advance).

I never really understand the Xmas eve meal efforts. We just have something light and normal to enjoy the food on Xmas day.

We go to the village pub at lunchtime usually
Last year I had a turkey and stuffing homemade pasty with cranberry sauce it was epic

We have ham egg and chips. The ham is a jerk rum ham Jamie Oliver recipe which is a massive faff but DH does it earlier in the day. Then egg and chips is easy. It's nice because you can have the cold cuts as part of your picky bits for the next couple of nights.

Breakfast for dinner? If you don't do a big Christmas day breakfast that is

We go for crusty bread, pate, cheese etc

Easy tea

We often have smoked salmon sandwiches or blinis and Champagne- a few crisps nuts and olives to nibble and maybe a Scotch egg or two for OH. I look forward to it!

We have baked cheese and bread.

Kids have crackers, cheese and fruit.

@ChristmasCrumpet M&S do some different varieties of lobster including dressed or platters but Lidl had a decent Lobster on last year as well.

I always cook a large boiled gammon, carrots, mashed potatoes and peas. I do extra mashed potatoes and chop up some pieces of gammon and dry fry (as it already has butter in) and serve with sausages and scrambled eggs for breakfast Xmas morning. They need a good cooked breakfast because I don't serve Xmas lunch late until 4pm. Then about 8pm they eat the selection of desserts they didn't manage after their Xmas lunch with a cheese board and after eights. Then I carve cold gammon for anyone who doesn't want to eat turkey (1 DS) on Xmas day and offer it on Boxing Day in a sandwich when I do a Boxing day buffet. If refrigerated it lasts for 5 days after cooking. DH always makes homemade pizza in pizza oven on Boxing day as part of big buffet. I do this every year and it works well for us.

We always do steak, a sauce of some kind (often peppercorn), beer battered onion rings, some kind of crispy potato / chips, mushrooms
And onions and a bit of salad. Champagne whilst it's cooking and delicious / more special than usual wine with it. Eaten by candle night. It's our most special meal of the year.

Christmas Eve for us is quick,simple and delicious and tastes so luxurious.

Smoked Mackerel, mixed with Horseradish, Mayo or Creme Fraiche and spring onions with a squeeze of lemon juice and loads of cracked black pepper, placed on top of some toasted sourdough /baguette or focaccia Topped with a really good strong cheese and grilled until all bubbling and oozy. Served with watercress, rocket and balsamic glaze

Perfect!!

@ChristmasCrumpet I’ve used [[https://berwickshellfish.com/products/lobster-dressed-medium-size#delivery-return before and the dressed lobsters are lovely.