Question for the hosts/cooks - what meals do you make before Christmas?

[Nonplusultra]

I get so focused on prepping for the big meal that I lose the will to cook dinners, or even think about meals on the couple of days before Christmas. But strangely my family and guests are not content to starve!

It’s also a bit harder to predict what people will feel like eating if they’ve been snacking on sweet stuff or taste testing as we bake.

This year I’d like to get a lasagne or shepherds pie in the freezer.

What do you eat on Christmas Eve?

We normally have a big cheese or grazing board with crackers, grapes, figs, olives, pickles etc.

I think this year I might make a festive tray bake with carrots, parsnips, sprouts, potato, red onion roasted with veggie sausages and Stilton.

We have Eastern European heritage so have fish on Christmas Eve

Soup from the ham stock, and fab bread/butter.
Good breakfast, so no lunch and everyone out of the kitchen!

We treat our selves to a takeaway Christmas Eve. No stress, just have a chilled night before the stress the next day 😂

We host Christmas at our house as we have a big family, and our house is the most suitable for a large crowd. But it's not normal in my culture that one person is responsible for cooking for 30+ guests. Everyone brings something, helps out in the kitchen, and the cooking is in itself a very social event, and a fun part of Christmas. Because everyone takes part in the cooking, I never really have to prepare much in advance aside from desserts that need chilling overnight, or meats that need to marinate overnight.

Lunchtime Christmas Eve, we have a lentil soup from the ham stock. Takeaway in the evening. Boxing day, any leftover soup, sandwiches for lunch and a wee buffet dinner with cheese, charcuterie and some party food.

This is a great thread. I’m hosting for 10 days over Christmas so need inspiration.

So far I have:
feta, pistachio and cranberry wellington
crab linguine + some sort of veggie version
baked rice and vegetable gratin

Lunches will be ploughman’s most days. Sounds very tedious but whenever I get more varied stuff in, we always fall back to nice cheeses and salad etc because it means it’s flexible based on how much pannetone and chocolates everyone has eaten. It also means anyone who doesn’t live here can still rummage in the fridge and cupboards and have prepared lunch. So I only cook dinners then.

I buy ready meals from our local farm shop. I think it’s the Cook range. I also have some pasta bakes in from M&S. anything that meals I’m not doing more food prep. We get back to normal in the New Year but I want the week as easy as possible. I do make soup and that’s in the freezer.

My favourite Christmas Eve meal is a hot pork and stuffing baguette, with apple sauce and a side of coleslaw and sweet potato fries (we don't have pork on Christmas Day, I know many do). I did. do pulled pork one year but actually think I preferred the simplicity of the simple roast pork.

If entertaining on Christmas Eve, it's fish, usually salmon.

Following this, I'm also wondering what meals to have on the lead up to christmas.
*@OMGitsnotgood this sounds like a good diea

We have a beef casserole and baked potatoes for lunch. And for dinner we have meats, cheeses, bread, fruit, crackers, nuts. As much it as little as anyone wants.

Last year we did

spanish fish stew (made on the day - quick)

lasagne (pre made, in freezer)

ham (made on day but easy. Might have made cauli cheese in advance and frozen??)

Big sharing platter with meats and cheese and fruit etc - we always get lots of this in “to eat after meals” and are always faaar to full for a cheese course so made a proper meal of it this time.

Could also make and freeze a couple of curries? And we considered big trays of roast veg to have with wraps and leftover meat etc - could precook and freeze the roast veg as you need quite a lot for plenty of people.

Normally Christmas eve we go out to a nearby restaurant but the quality of food has dropped so much there that I think we will stay at home. Thinking of making some kind of Coq au Vin or similar. Make make a pasta bake or similar and portion up into smallish portions. Then if people not hungry they can have a small portion or two if they are more hungry. I normally cook a small joint of meat and have that in the fridge with some readymade salads and par baked rolls so people can make a cold plate etc.

Usually working until Christmas Eve but traditional meal that night is T bone steaks!!
Days running up we just have normal every day stuff.

We have extra family staying for 4 nights so been thinking about this.

I am planning on getting in lots of breakfast stuff that people can do themselves, as I don’t sadly have family that help out much and I don’t want to be a kitchen slave. So panettone, croissants, hot cross buns, toast and jams etc.

I plan on making one hot meal a day, probably in the evening. Thinking:
Cottage pie
Beef in red wine (may make this ahead)
Ham with cauliflower cheese and mash
Turkey etc on the Day

Lunchtime cold meats, cheeses, salads, focaccia, baguette, coleslaw, pickles. Plus some seafood Christmas Eve/Day.

We normally put a beef stew in the slow cooker on Christmas eve so that we can see friends, go for a big walk and play games, but last year the children requested Christmas sausage burgers (pretty sure it was just sausage meat and cranberry pattys) with brioche buns, wedges and coleslaw so I think we will do that again this year and put something in the slowcooker on the 23rd. I'll also make sure there is a lasagna in the freezer and soup in the fridge for if we get too busy and get caught out in the run up.

We do things like Chinese, Italian or Indian food to contrast. I tend to choose things that are easy recipe wise, I'm doing the slow cooker beef from the good food magazine this year Xmas Eve

I always have lasagna portions in the freezer for stand by meals though. I make a six portion one and there's 3 meat eaters

German here so we do Christmas on Christmas Eve but Christmas Day is a proper roast as well.

Lunch is pancakes and dinner after presents is a grazing board with fresh bread, cured meats and cheese.

Before DD we cooked fish (DH's family tradition) and exchanged our presents afterwards but I think even with 16 DD is not ready to wait until we leisurely ate a more fancy dinner first.

If I was staying with someone over Christmas and they were making the Christmas dinner I certainly wouldn't expect a big cooked meal the day before.

I'd do fish and chips or a buffet (or grazing platter as we're now calling it!).

I hope they all help you!

Beef casserole and mashed potato or fish pie.

Or I'd do slow cooked pulled pork and do stuffing and apple sauce etc and let people help themselves with bread rolls - maybe do some potatoes with it.

Home-made sausage rolls. They go in our pockets straight from the oven and we keep our hands warm while we go for a walk. Then lentil soup in the evening, which is tasty and comfortating and a nice contrast to the feast the following day, and is also easy and doesn't involve much effort or washing up.

A bit of a weird one but one of our favourites is “starters selection” - I get all our favourite (ready made) starters and a maybe some sides (pigs in blankets, devils on horseback) and we just have all of that with some salad leaves. Very easy (though not necessarily cheap, depending on your tastes!).

Fish on Christmas Eve. Usually fish pie but sometimes salmon