Christmas Eve meal traditions!

[RaisingABabyBell]

Sorry to use the C word already, but thinking of starting a new tradition for Christmas Eve! My husband and I have always done a spread of party food - pizza, mozzarella sticks, spring rolls etc. What else do you guys do? All suggestions and ideas welcome 🥰

Same here!

Pork pie and pickled onions!

We have a raclette, which we try and have at the early end, so we can settle in to watch Elf at a decent time (don’t always succeed…). Usually some sliced chicken and/or beef and veg (courgette, mushroom..) on stone on top, and baguette, boiled baby potatoes, charcuterie, gherkins, cocktail onions, steamed broccoli (helps with cheese digestion! 😬) and Riesling on the table. And cheese of course! Kids liked playing chef when younger and doing the stone top cooking. Any leftover bits and pieces are fridged to join the Boxing Day frittata.

We always have fish (salmon) because the Christmas meal was meat (turkey or beef), or maybe it's a Catholic thing? Always with salad and light sides to prep for the foodfest the next day!

Chinese

We do a party food type thing, pizza, dips, snacks, sometimes pulled pork rolls with homemade biscuits and cakes.

I spend a lot of the day baking with the kids, and then after dinner we all vote as to what Father Christmas would most like left out for him. (Spoiler alert, it's always what the kids have made) the Christmas Eve bake off is my favourite part of Christmas.

We have our main event Christmas Eve. Open house for friends and neighbours and whoever they want to bring.

Always start with a proper retro snowball and some camp canapés. Think devilled eggs or mushroom vol au vents

We do a couple of hams. Love Nigellas in Coke. A big sea food platter. Then a range of fairly easy but popular sides. Warm potato salad. Salad caprese. Curried coleslaw. Sausage rolls. Bought in pork pies. Garlic breads, baked whole cheeses.

Last year I made this lush chicory salad with mustard and blue cheese dressing. It went down well. Also an orange and raw fennel I copied from Jamie Oliver I think.

My friends always bring a couple of desserts. Think cheesecake or trifle. And there's plenty of nuts. Crisps etc.

I can seat about 24 at a pinch and kids get to sit in the front room with mini pizzas and Christmas movies.

@Hobbesmanc that sounds utterly delicious can I come 😂

Growing up, we always had ham, with bread buns, homemade pease pudding, pickles, etc.

Now, the kids have a picnic tea after the Christingle service, with a hot chocolate for pudding and DH and I have party food once everything is sorted for the morning

We have lasagne because I like something that is all prepared that I can just pop
In the oven.

Christmas Eve is my favourite!
My mum, dad, brother (37!) and I (35!) get together and mum does an M&S buffet for the four of us and we watch a Christmas horror film.
Food is usually things like potato skins, mozzarella sticks, mini pizzas, spring rolls… basically a selection of all their buffet/party food. Mum also makes sticky sausages which are to die for… basically an equal mix of sesame oil, soy and honey, coat the sausages in this mix and then cook, they are unreal!

We have a beef casserole in the slow cooker ready for when we get back from the local panto.

Fish pie. So much meat over Christmas and fish pie is so easy and comforting.

It's DS1's birthday so we have a pie of some kind with his name and age on top! Easy to make in advance and serve with mash, carrots and peas. He likes chicken pie with a white sauce, fish pie, mince and onion with gravy.

Fish and chips after a walk around locally to see the lights.
Generally whilst watching the slow TV reindeer programme (which was on bbc yonks ago)

We do day drinking in bars from 1pm and then go for pizza. Home by 7 😅

We use I always get a takeaway but I got food poisoning one year and have been afraid to do that again, I was raging I was sick and missed everything. I usually do the party foods from the supermarket but tbh they're actually quite awful so am hoping to do something different this year, I might go down the route of beef wellington or steak.

Growing up, my parents always did (and still do) a buffet on Christmas Eve and it was definitely my favourite Christmas meal!!

Making Christmas dinner seems like a big hassle and a lot of stress so I do the buffet on Christmas Day for our tea 🤗 We go to Toby Carvery for Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve now 😊 It works really well as it’s never busy and it’s not triple the price like it is on Christmas Day!!

Ultimate cheesy chips. Chips, bread and baked camembert to dip in (shamembert for the vegans)

Usually always have Chinese food, but really tempted to have a huge seafood platter!

Shouldn't have opened this thread when hungry...

Hot pork, stuffing and apple sauce filled baguettes with coleslaw and wedges or sweet potato fries
Did it one year when we agreed to watch a film on Christmas Eve so I wanted something we could eat while watching. Has been requested every year since! The pork can roast whilst doing other things, and we use part baked baguettes, Paxo stuffing so different to the homemade stuffing we have on Christmas Day. Apple sauce from the freezer, but you could buy a jar.

Chinese takeaway, plated up then eaten on laps, whilst watching a Christmas movie

We usually have tapas but seriously tempted by raclette now!

We have Swedish Julbord. This consists of:

Homemade Gravadlax
pickled herring in sweet oniony vinegar
boiled eggs
shell on prawns
special Swedish sausages called Prinskorv
a dressed crab
Köttbullar creamy meatballs (homemade)
mashed potatoes
red cabbage
a Prinsesstårta - sponge cake filled with cream, pastry cream and strawberry topped with green marzipan and a little pink marzipan rose
Knäck, a special swedish soft caramel with almonds made for christmas

i make the same every year. It's a labour of love but it's an absolutely crucial part of our Christmas celebration. We aren't Swedish and have no Swedish relations but had elderly Swedish friends a few years ago who sadly have died and I loved hearing about her culinary traditions as she was an amazing cook. We also had some Swedish students when we hosted EFL students who brought us a Swedish flag for the table so this sits proudly in the middle