What do you eat for dinner Xmas eve?

[Limonatamum]

Husband and I are planning what we’ll eat for dinner on Christmas Eve once we’ve done hot chocs & Santa & popped our daughter for bed?
It’s just us so don’t need to go mad but trying to think of something festive but not too ‘much’ given xmas day will be so full on!
would love to hear what you all have! (Aside from a brandy, mince pie & carrot of course!)

We go somewhere cheap and cheerful, like Pizza Express on Christmas Eve. Nothing too stodgy and sufficiently different to the food we will be eating over the coming days.

Takeaway pizza and red wine

We celebrate Christmas starting at 4pm Christmas Eve relatives and friends arrive. Poems and songs around the tree before children open some gifts and then onto a full Latvian buffet table (pelēkie zirņi, pīrāgi, siļķe kažokā, rye bread, home made cheese, more salad, roast meat, smoked fish and fried potatoes) Christmas Day we open more presents in the morning with the children and do a traditional English Christmas lunch/dinner with the Brit side of the family. Uncle will bring šnabits from the homeland and a couple of aunts will help out with the baking prep beforehand.

We go out for early dinner with DC and a few other families. DH and I have port and a mince pie when it’s all set out before bed.

These suggestions are all amazing and have been very helpful! We’ve decided we’re going with steak, mash, greens and champagne!

Always a big roast ham, chips and peas and Mary berry's chocolate log

Macaroni cheese, garlic bread and salad.

We are having fish pie, this used to be regular until DC started getting up OHs then we had lasagne but only 3 of us this year

I normally do a buffet although one year we mixed it up and had a curry takeaway and that was nice.

Fish pie. Or, occasionally, fish & chips from a takeaway if travelling. But prefer fish pie at home with a nice big cold glass of sauvignon blanc. Then profiteroles or a chocolate torte.

Swedish meatballs (kotbullar) with potato bake and my own special gravy sauce
prinsesstarta

thats what we always have, it's the law, we also have thin Swedish waffles p for breakfast.
we have no Swedish relations, we had one dear Swedish friend who introduced me to the vafflor and other Swedish recipes, she was a wonderful cook and I really love scandi cuisine. We then had Swedish students who brought a wooden Swedish flag with them as a gift so this goes on the table for Christmas Eve too as the centrepiece. It's now become as much of our family tradition as Turkey is for most families.

Chinese. I suggested to the 17 & 15 yo that we could try something different this year and they looked at me like I had two heads.

Chinese takeaway has been our tradition for the last 18 years. Before that was any takeaway and when I was a kid it was McDonald’s. The only time we didn’t have it was 2020 as they closed as they had covid ( we know the family) had to settle for chip shop that year.

my mum prefers curry so I asked dd11 as she’s a massive curry fan if she wanted curry this year with my mum and she looked at me like I’d asked her to chop off her arm.

Same with us! Our tradition is serving the ham hot, with the honey/mustard/marmalade glaze reduced to a sauce, with baked potatoes and honey roast parsnips. And, as many PP have said, lots of champagne!

I actually enjoy Christmas Eve dinner more than Christmas dinner as it's more chilled out and more of my favourite things.

Cheese board with olives, figs, grapes, veggies and hummus.

Nothing in particular, just a meal for whoever is home.

Always fish, probably kedgeree this year.